Mr. Fairbanks tilted it toward the light. “It says… Come to the attic at midnight.”
Violet shuddered. “How dreadful. Then whoever brought him up here…”
“Tried to kill him. And they almost succeeded. Let’s not speak of this yet to anyone. Not until we’re sure. We know it wasn’t either of us, as we were together most of the time.”
“Which means it could have been one of the others. But who, and why? Who would want to hurt my uncle?”
At that moment the servants arrived, with candles and lanterns. The men carefully brought Uncle Edwin downstairs,followed by Mrs. Hemlock, who sat up and coughed at all the dust. Helped by Mr. Fairbanks and trailed by Miss Eagle, Violet followed them all downstairs.
Violet supervised the footmen, who took Edwin to his room, and she watched as the maids prepared his bed in the master bedroom and tried to make him comfortable. She stood by, wringing her hands and fretting, as he looked extremely pale. One servant dabbed his forehead with a damp cloth whilst another propped him up on a series of pillows, trying to gently wake him up. He lay unconscious, barely breathing. He looked dead.
Mr. Fairbanks came in and closed the door behind him. “A servant has gone to call for a doctor. As soon as the rain stops and you can get through, they’ll bring one here.”
Once it was just them alone in the room, he surveyed Uncle Edwin, checking his pulse again. “He’s not woken up yet?”
“No.” Violet shook her head. “Will he die?”
“I don’t think so. But he came close. If we hadn’t found him, I would not want to guess what could have happened.” He swallowed and stood back. “Miss Thorn, a word.”
Violet took the damp cloth from the servant wiping her uncle’s brow and said, “I’ll keep watch over him. Thank you.” She waited for the servants to leave. Doing so would leave her and Mr. Fairbanks alone in a room with her uncle, and she should think about the propriety of it all. But she was too concerned to worry about that. Besides, she was for all intents and purposes a spinster. Maybe her parents were right and she shouldn’t care about meeting eligible men.
Once the servants had left, Mr. Fairbanks said, “We need to think very carefully about what we tell the others.”
“I agree. Who would have wanted to hurt him? Could it have been an accident?”
“I don’t think so.” He held out the note to her. “Whoever did this meant to draw him up to the attic then. The question is why he came alone when he could have brought us as backup. Why not tell you he was leaving? Why go himself when he knew there was trouble afoot?”
“He thought someone here was going to try to kill him. He just didn’t know who.”
“So he decided to have a party? What a funny idea.” Mr. Fairbanks rubbed the side of his face. “I’m all for a bit of eccentricity, but that’s a bit much. Let me guess. He thought everyone invited here might be a potential suspect.”
Violet nodded.
“Well, I think we can rule us out,” he said.
She raised an eyebrow.
“Think about it. We were together in the moments before midnight. And we were together before that too.”
“But before then, you could have lured my uncle away. He did leave me in the library.”
“Remember the note, though. It instructs him to go up at the stroke of midnight. And when we discovered him, he was still warm. If I’d gone up to hurt him, I wouldn’t have been with you all that time.” He looked at her. “And you’re overlooking something.”
“What’s that?”
“I know we barely know each other, but I’m not one for theatrics. If I’m going to hurt a man, I’ll do it face to face. I’m not going to issue an invitation to murder. And I certainly wouldn’t club a man half to death in the dark.” He shook his head. “It seems like the sort of thing Mr. Ludlow would do.”
“What makes you say that?”
He scratched his chin. “Something about him. He’s far too jolly and keen to know about what happens to the prize money if something were to happen to the rest of us. It rather makes methink that he would have pulled that trick on you with the suit of armor. Maybe he thought he could scare you into leaving.”
“But I didn’t see anyone. And if what you say is true, he had more reason to want to scare us away, rather than hurt my uncle. Besides, he was with us when we opened the door at midnight. My uncle was already injured at that time.”
“Fair point. Shall we explore the secret passages?”
“Yes. But I don’t want to leave my uncle.”
“I know. I’ll ask a maidservant to stand by and keep watch over him.”
