07 - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Die by Woolley C S

Author:Woolley, C S [Woolley, C S]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780995147003
Google: 4ZwpzgEACAAJ
Publisher: Mightier Than the Sword UK
Published: 2021-01-10T16:26:13+00:00

Chapter 11

When Mr Hunter returned to Stickleback that evening, Edryd and Derwyn were waiting with Doctor Hales to dine with him. The dinner was a silent, and stilted affair shrouded in the foul mood that seeing Sarah in prison had sunk Alex into.

The moment that he was finished eating, he rose from the table and went to lock himself in his father’s study.

Nothing about the situation made any sense to him. There was no one that wanted to see Lady Sarah dead, not even Lady de Mandeville, and yet someone had made it his business to frame her for murder.

He spent the whole night sat in the brigadier’s study, his mind picking over everything that Arwyn had told him, everything the coroner had told him and everything that Lady Sarah had said.

He had spent so long lost in his thoughts that he didn’t realise that the night had ended. He didn’t hear Mrs Bosworth knock at the study door and he didn’t hear her unlock the door from the outside.

“Mr Hunter, Constable Evans and Miss Wessex are here. You best come," Mrs Bosworth gently told him as she roused him from his musings and Pattison padded into the room and placed his head in Alex’s lap.

Alex sighed, roughly stroked his Japanese hunting dog, and then stood to follow Mrs Bosworth to the drawing room where Miss Wessex and Arwyn were waiting.

The rest of the household had yet to rise, save for the servants, so it was an odd hour for anyone to be calling, yet the time of day didn’t enter into Mr Hunter’s thinking until he saw the bloodshot eyes of Elizabeth Wessex that told of desperate weeping.

“What’s happened?” Alex frowned as he looked between the pair.

"Lord Cooper is missing," Arwyn said quietly.

“Mrs Bosworth, please take care of Miss Wessex. The constable and I are going to find our wayward neighbour," Alex sighed.

Miss Wessex made to open her mouth to thank the hunter, but instead of thanks, another flood of tears burst forth.

Alex saddled Black Guy and Harald for Arwyn and him to ride, and the pair set off for Duffleton Hall with Pattison trotting along beside them.

The Akita had spent far too long cooped up inside the house, and now that he was out, he raced off in all directions before he came back to try and tangle himself in the legs of Harald.

Both the constable and hunter were relieved when they reached Duffleton Hall and could leave the dog outside to race around the grounds.

The butler at Duffleton informed the two men that Lord Daniel Cooper hadn’t been seen at the house for several days, but that he had been going to see his mother at Tatton Park.

The road between Stickleback Hollow and Tatton Park was a good road, though it was still the afternoon by the time Arwyn and Alex arrived at the great house belonging to the Egerton family.

Mrs Ruth Cooper was hardly pleased to see the two men and sent them away saying,

“I haven’t seen my son since he took up with the Wessex harlot.

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