He might have another plan in mind.
Miss Burgess appears to be biding her time as well, which makes more sense to me, as she must be quite unsettled by the throng in her parlor. It is all well and good to receive us with sweet-natured patience, but she must realize our appearance bodes ill.
First the note requesting the shawl, then the horde.
As far as puzzles go, this one is not particularly complex, and Miss Burgess is clever. She recognizes the significance of the shawl, as I shared my theory during my visit earlier, and if I did not identify the dubious garment in terms of modiste and color, she has enough information to arrive at the logical conclusion.
That is why she denied receiving the shawl as a gift: She is too astute to blithely allow herself to be associated with the murder weapon.
Or she never received the shawl as a gift.
It is one of these two options.
If the former is true, then she is the murderer hoping to evade apprehension through an audacious lie. If it is the latter that is correct, then Mr. Nutting is just another reprobate hoping to place the blame for his sins on an unsuspecting woman.
Actually, he is a reprobate either way.
Only a scoundrel would seduce the vicar’s spinster sister.
And while we are thinking about the vicar’s spinster sister…
What motive would she have for killing Mr. Keast?
My first thought is love: thwarted love, rejected love, consummated love, consummated then rejected love, thwarted then cruelly rejected love.
An unmarried woman of a certain age, she would have limited prospects and lowered expectations, as she readily admitted, and an unattached young man like Mr. Keast would hold an irrefutable appeal. A steward, he was not above her touch, and in contemplating his strong features, she may have allowed herself to imagine a shared future.
Spinsters are known to be rackety.
Yes, but we all thought Bea was rackety and now she is a duchess.
And there are motives for murder other than love.
Womendoon occasion have other things on their mind.
Miss Burgess does charitable work in the community and would be intimately acquainted with the immiseration caused by Mr. Keast’s agricultural advances. Maybe she is bitter on their behalf, or perhaps the reduced circumstances of the village threatened the security of her own situation.
It is something to think about.
When the last chair has been placed to the left of the settee, Miss Burgess smiles sweetly at the gloomy man with his shoulders against the wall and encourages him to join the merry group. “Come, please, Mr. Nutting, you look like a gargoyle standing there.”
The description is fitting in terms of his rigidity.
But his features are too well formed to be described as grotesque.
Resisting her efforts, he permits no answering smile and announces with dark hostility that he has come for the scarf.
“I expect you have,” Miss Burgess replies calmly as she lowers into a plush armchair. “Although I did not anticipate an immediate response to my offer, I did take the liberty of gathering my shawls and selecting an assortment that might suit your needs. Their quality is not as fine as anything Mrs. Holcroft and her daughters might own, but they are in excellent condition—neither torn nor frayed nor stained.”
A bold opening gambit!
I am beyond impressed.
“My footman is fetching them,” she adds with the same blithe assurance.
Mr. Nutting bares his teeth.
It is not a smile.
