Island of Bones by Imogen Robertson

Author:Imogen Robertson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Mystery, Historical, C429, Extratorrents, Kat, David_James Mobilism.org
ISBN: 9780755372034
Publisher: Hachette UK
Published: 2011-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Jocasta Bligh

Written by Thomas Ripley as Mrs Bligh spoke it on this day 9 July 1783 and despatched with his best wishes the same day.

Crowther had not moved at all, and still looking into the distance said in a dull and tired voice, ‘It is just as she described it to myself, Mrs Westerman. I am at a loss to understand why you find the narrative so significant, though it reminds us we must write and tell her of what has befallen her brother today. If Mr Sturgess captures Casper and takes him to Carlisle, he will have need of friends.’

‘That will be a pleasant letter to write. “Dear Jocasta, your brother is considered a madman and hunted through the fells for murder by the local magistrate”.’ Harriet bit her lip and said more gently, ‘There is one thing here though, Crowther, that you have not spoken of to me before. Who are these “burly footmen” your father had lately hired?’

Crowther looked round at her, abandoning for the first time the view over the fields. ‘I cannot say. Mrs Tyers did mention when I arrived that some of the casual servants had been given a month’s wages in lieu of notice. My father became somewhat eccentric after my mother’s death, withdrew from local society, and his former friends tell me they were turned away at the door.’

‘Crowther, do you see yet what I am trying to suggest? A man refuses company and hires new servants notable for their size. Do you think that after your mother’s death, Lord Keswick might have become aware of some threat on his life, and this withdrawal from society, the presence of these men, might have been an attempt to protect himself? Do you think he feared Adair?’

Crowther shook his head. ‘No. Adair he loved. He was angry with him over his debts, over his debauchery with his friends, but I never saw him go in fear of him.’

‘It seems to me he feared something in those months before his death, Crowther. You thought that Adair was responsible for the skeleton on the island. Now the point that came from your father’s swordstick and the letter of Mrs Tyers about the stranger with the snuffbox seem to suggest that your father might have been guilty of that murder. What if Adair were innocent of patricide? What if your father were killed by someone who knew he was responsible for the death of the Jacobite on the island?’

‘And the betrayal of Rupert de Beaufoy.’

Harriet remained very still. Crowther had told her he had attended his brother’s trial and execution. She knew he had always considered his guilt beyond doubt, but wondered if that faith in his brother’s venality had begun to be questioned. To give up a certainty, even when it is a cruel one, is painful. We do not know how firmly we have bound our truths into our lives till we try and rip one free.

‘You are a remarkable woman, Mrs Westerman, to talk to a man of such things as you stand on his mother’s grave.

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