The Path of the Wicked by Caro Peacock

Author:Caro Peacock [Caro Peacock]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2013-01-24T16:00:00+00:00

TWELVE

Tabby joined me as I walked up the drive.

‘What was that thing between them?’

I had to think about it for a moment. ‘Tendresse. Meaning Rodney Kemble liked the governess. Probably more than liked.’

I watched her face. She was the one who’d been suspicious of Rodney Kemble from the start.

‘And she liked him, too. Then they quarrelled. What about?’ she said.

‘I’d like to know.’

‘He still wants her, but she won’t have him, so he knocks her on the head?’

‘Is that how it happened, do you think?’ I said.

We were through the gates and back on the road before she answered. ‘Nah.’

‘No, I don’t think so either. But why not?’

‘She said him and the governess had their row months ago. If he was going to kill her, he’d have done it then.’

The answer might be simmering resentment and hurt, coming to a head over long months. I remembered Rodney Kemble’s face when we met in the place where Mary Marsh had died. A murderer returning or a man grieving? It could be both, of course. In spite of my instincts, I couldn’t rule out Rodney Kemble.

‘The puzzle is, why she wouldn’t have him,’ I said.

Over the past few days, Mary Marsh had become real to me: a tall, good-looking woman, in her late twenties, well educated, dutiful and serious-minded. Not dull, though. Her painting class friend had credited her with humour and incisive opinions. She was kind, too; at least kind to Barbara when she’d needed it. Rodney Kemble probably lived a secluded life, with the estate to run. It wasn’t surprising, or unprecedented, that the son of the house should fall in love with the governess. If his intentions were honourable – and it sounded as if Rodney Kemble’s had been – what a piece of luck for the governess. From being a servant of the house, she becomes its mistress. For a woman in Mary Marsh’s position, the luck would be even greater. With Barbara almost launched on the world, she wouldn’t be needed any more. With no more than a quarter’s wages in her pocket, she’d soon have to pack up her trunk and move to a new position – perhaps one less pleasant than the Kembles’ home. All she’d have to look forward to for the rest of her life would be a succession of other people’s children, solitary meals and lonely walks. Rodney Kemble was a presentable man, probably reasonably handsome when he wasn’t miserable. His father’s objections might have been overcome in time. After all, the Kembles were simply wealthy landowners, not aristocrats. So why not jump at his offer?

‘I wonder what it was that she wanted him to do and he wouldn’t,’ I said.

‘Run off with her and never mind his father,’ Tabby suggested.

‘Somehow I can’t see her wanting that.’

Tabby gave me a look, as if to ask how I knew. Simply, it wasn’t how the Mary Marsh in my mind would have behaved. We got no further on the walk back. I found Mr Godwit in the garden and broke to him the news that I was going to Cheltenham again next day.

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