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something, but shut it, as if suppressing an opinion she thought best not uttered. Even as she did so, it occurred to me that she would have made a better companion in our foray than old Davies, her bright eyes, in my experience, missing nothing and certainly more efficient than poor Davies’ rheumy orbs. But her place, of course, was here, advising the cook on the changes that would necessarily be made to the arrangements for dinner for what was still a houseful of guests. There was also the matter of mourning for all the staff – would she have a supply of ready-made clothes set aside in some distant attic or would she be sending post haste to a warehouse supplying such garb?
    I would have caught her eye to smile my sympathy, but Dr Hansard was already speaking to her in a low tone, issuing last-minute instructions about her ladyship’s well-being, no doubt.
     
    ‘What are you looking for?’ I asked my mentor, as we stood five or six yards from the stream that had ended his lordship’s existence. Davies, his job done, retired to the lee of a tree and watched our activities in silence. Of the lad there had been no sign, and Edmund wanted to waste none of the remaining light while they hunted for him.
    ‘Anything and everything and nothing.’ He drove his hands more deeply into the pockets of his riding coat.
    ‘What could have possessed them to come a-walking on such a cold and dank day as this?’ Everything was now being soaked by a thin mizzle.
    ‘Silence, man! Your pardon, Tobias, but I must needs concentrate.’
    ‘Of course.’ Much as I would have liked to argue my point, I accepted the snub. He, after all, was the justice, I merely a clergyman. Eager to learn, I followed his eyes, trying to perceive whatever he might be noting.
    A rustic bridge about ten yards away; one of the handrails hung loose. He must have fallen from there. There were footprints aplenty in the sticky mud, and the branches of many of the bushes leaning over the stream had been smashed down. From this evidence, even I could imagine the frantic activity that would have followed Elham’s plunge into the stream.
    I moved towards it, doing my best to avoid the area Hansard was studying. But as I did so, his head jerked up. When he saw what I was doing, he smiled broadly.
    ‘You make an apt pupil,’ he said. ‘Let us look at that woodwork a little more closely, shall we? See? It is quite old, and the nail quite rusty. Let us see what the rail the other side is like. Hmm, equally old, but pretty sound.’ He pointed, as Davies scuttled up.
    For all that, Davies scribbled a note. I felt for him. If her ladyship so much as suspected he might have been negligent, his future would be bleak indeed. Several times, Hansard pushed the sound joint with all his might, but it would not stir.
    ‘So why did its counterpart give way?’ he wondered aloud, moving back to investigate. ‘Perhaps it would repay a further look in better light. In fact, I think we should all adjourn to the Priory again. By now her ladyship may have decided she needs the services of one or both of us, Tobias, and we would not wish to fail her. Mr Davies here will find every waking moment occupied for the next week, I should imagine.’
    ‘A well-attended funeral?’
    ‘All the gentry from miles around, family, acquaintances.’
    ‘Poor Mrs Beckles,’ I ventured.
    ‘I can’t imagine that there is any task to which she would be unequal,’ he said. ‘Were I Prinny, I would seek her out when the time comes to organise the poor king’s funeral and subsequently his own coronation. But before any burial can take place – and you will need to discover her ladyship’s preference for the family vault at St Jude’s or the mausoleum in the grounds – the coroner has to determine the cause of death.’
    I stopped short. ‘Are you implying that—?’
    ‘I am implying nothing. But he will need all the evidence that you and I can provide. As a matter of fact,’ he