Cecilia laughed. “Yes.” She looked about the hall. “There are no staff about to see, come in my room with me and we’ll look over that ledger Liddy hid.” She opened the door to her room.
“Yes!” Julia agreed as she quickly followed her into the room.
Cecilia locked the door behind her, not wanting anyone to barge into the room like Matron had done the other day in Julia’s room, while they studied the book.
Cecilia pulled the ledger out from beneath the bed mattress and laid it on top of the mattress. She opened the cover. “It’s from the beginning of this year.”
“A current ledger? I’m surprised there hasn’t been a hue and cry!”
“Unless it’s a duplicate,” Cecilia offered.
“What do you mean? Why would there be a duplicate?”
“There can be the real books, then there can be the books for show.”
“Books for show?”
“Yes, depending on the purpose for the duplicate books. My husband told me about such practices. His cousin was nearly beggared by a thieving estate steward who kept two sets of books, one showing the actual financial condition of his inheritance and one showing a fairytale of profit. His cousin has worked hard to recover the family fortunes, selling what he could and living frugally. James bought one of his unentailed properties from him because he had good memories of it as a child, and I’m glad he did. I love Summerworth Park, our home in Kent.”
“But back to this book, there must be something suspicious in its pages for him to instruct Liddy to hide it. I don’t think he would have put her in position to do so unless it was important.”
Julia agreed. “He truly delighted in the child.”
They flipped the page.
“It is a supplies and merchandise purchase ledger, the money out ledger,” Cecilia said.
“What’s the most recent entry?” Julia asked.
Cecilia turned several pages until she found a blank page. “Hmm, it appears to stop in March.”
“Turn some more pages. Maybe they just skipped a few pages and then resumed.”
Cecilia turned several more pages. “No-o—Oh, wait. There is writing further in. How odd.” She looked at the entries. These were not like the earlier entries.
“Here is a recording of money coming in.” She read the flowing lines of script. “I see names and then what looks like abbreviations. Can you make them out?” She pushed the book toward Julia.
“A few are repeating, like this one from Enoch Vance that repeats on the first of the month.”
“Mrs. Vance’s nephew?”
“Yes. It’s not much, only three pounds per month. Others don’t seem to have a pattern or are only once. How odd.” She turned a few more pages to see if there was anything else. She found an open letter. Cecilia pulled it out of the book to read.
“It’s from a Mr. Yellin.”
“Mrs. Yellin is in the other ladies wing,” Julia said. “I don’t know her well. I believe she suffers from depression following the birth of her son.”
“Mr. Yellin is complaining about a rate increase of three pounds per month and demanding to know how much longer his wife will be at Camden House and questioning if anything is being done to make her better.”
“A rate increase? I have not heard of a rate increase,” Julia said. “Let’s page back to see if there is any indication of a payment from my husband.” She quickly scanned previous pages. “Ah—Here is one with Stackpoole next to it for five pounds!”
“Is the code next to the entry the same as the code next to the entry from Enoch Vance and Mr. Yellin?” Cecilia asked.
“Let’s see…” Julia compared the pages. “Identical. Why would there be separate entries for rate increase amounts?”
“I’d wager my best earrings that Dr. Worcham did not authorize an increase or know anything about these additional monies coming in.”
“You think Mr. Turnbull-Minchin has been embezzling this way?”
