“Lady Forsythe?”
There were times when a small stretch of the truth was necessary in the scheme of things.
“The solarium is magnificent, Sir Knollys. My compliments to the gardener and his staff,” I told him. “We decided to take a stroll about the gardens in the last light. Magnificent. However, we took a wrong turn. Yet here we are.”
“In consideration of recent events, Lady Forsythe, it might have been wiser to remain in the solarium where there are those who might provide assistance if you should need it.”
That stern gaze took in my somewhat disheveled appearance from trekking about the grounds and forest.
“I appreciate your concern,” I replied as the steward we had first encountered stood at attention with a somewhat startled expression at the sight of us. “However, as you can see, we have arrived quite safely.” And before he could comment further, “Is Mr. Brodie still with His Highness?”
“They have just concluded. Allow me to escort you to the library,” he stiffly replied.
The expression on Brodie’s face as we arrived was most entertaining. There was a comment that he chose not to make at our somewhat disheveled appearances. Instead, he nodded to Sir Knollys.
“Thank ye, sir,” he said instead and escorted us to the main entrance to the palace.
Our driver had waited at the edge of the courtyard and promptly swung the coach about. Brodie assisted Lily, then myself, into the coach and climbed in after.
“I am almost afraid to ask where the two of ye have been.” He handed his handkerchief to me.
“There is mud on yer right cheek.”
That might also explain the look from Sir Knollys, I thought.
“We went on a walk,” Lily explained.
“A bit of an adventure?” he replied with an amused expression.
She looked over at me as the driver traversed the courtyard and then out onto the driveway and stopped at the gatehouse at the front entrance of the stone wall that surrounded the estate.
“You might have the driver turn to the north,” I suggested.
“And that would be for wot reason?” Brodie replied. “Although I am certain there is a very good reason the both of ye look as if ye’ve just crawled through a hedgerow.”
Not far off.
“It is in the matter of the other evening and the possible means by which the murderer managed to escape,” I explained.
“Show him the scarf we found,” Lily added.
I removed the folded scarf from my bag. While there was only the light from the lantern inside the coach and the streetlamps at both sides of the gatehouse, it was enough for him to discern what it was.
“Where did you find this?”
“Lily found it beyond the hedgerow behind the stables. It had not been there long and might possibly be important.”
“Show him the sketches ye made,” she added excitedly. “There were footprints in the mud at the far wall just beyond the tree cover behind the stables.”
I handed him my notebook. “It does seem as if perhaps another man was present that night who met the attacker there. The man with the limp might have had some difficulty escaping over the wall.”
Brodie studied the sketch I’d made, somewhat crude I admit, then leaned out the window of the coach and directed the driver to take the roadway the direction I had suggested.
It was not difficult to find the section of the wall that ran behind the stables and that thick line of trees with branches that hung over the top of the wall that would have no doubt hidden the two men as they fled.
Brodie had the driver stop and stepped down from the coach. Lily and I followed.
She looked at me with a grin, dark eyes gleaming with excitement, as we made our own search of the wall, the sidewalk that ran below it, and the ground with that line of trees, beyond to the roadway.
