A Woman of Consequence by Anna Dean

Author:Anna Dean [Anna Dean]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780749040451
Publisher: Allison & Busby
Published: 2011-10-25T20:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Four

…And so you see, Eliza, my two mysteries, Penelope’s accident and the skeleton in the pool, are now joined together!

I knew all along that they must somehow be connected!

But the discovery has thrown all my ideas into a great muddle and, if you are not so indulgent as to allow me to share my perplexities with you, I believe I shall run mad!

You see, I have made the necessary calculations and – unless my arithmetic deceives me – it can certainly be made to fit. I mean it is possible that Penelope is Miss Fenn’s child. There was gratification in this discovery for a mind such as mine which delights in patterns and connections and the complete absence of coincidences.

But I soon began to see that there is little cause for rejoicing.

For, supposing Penelope is indeed Miss Fenn’s daughter – what kind of sense does this make of recent events? What force has brought her back to the very place at which her mother met her death – and at the very time at which that death is discovered? And what am I – as a determinedly rational woman – to make of the ghost which Penelope saw? Was it somehow conjured into being by the discovery – or rather the proximity – of her mother’s remains?

Now, you see, I am got into a morass of coincidence and supernatural happenings which does not suit me at all!

But I intend to confine myself entirely to reason. I shall not allow my fancy to get the better of me. The only sensible course of action is to make some quiet enquiries into Miss Lambe’s background with a view to determining whether she is indeed the child that Miss Fenn placed in Mrs Pinker’s care.

You would laugh if you could see me just now, Eliza, for I am writing this from the kitchen. My writing desk stands upon the table here between the knife box and a great dish of curds, and I am in perpetual danger of mistaking the salt pot for my sand shaker. Rebecca is abed, suffering from a sudden and rather surprising attack of the asthma, and her assistant is gone out upon errands. So I am deputed to keep the spit wound up and to watch over the rising of the bread. I only hope I may acquit myself well. At least I have a warm and quiet place in which to think.

And my thoughts are rioting!

I have spent a great deal of time wondering about the mysterious ‘young gentleman’ who lately visited Mrs Pinker. I do wish that I had had an opportunity to ask the maid about his looks. For I am sure his identity is of the utmost importance.

Who is he? Why is he making the same enquiries that I am making? And is he the person who has stolen the letters and the ring? His being described as a young man, makes it almost impossible he can be Miss Fenn’s ‘Beloved’.

Maybe he is Captain Laurence.

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