“Is there no one to claim the unearthed dead?” she asked.
“Most are older, since they are from the section of the churchyard nearest to the river, and there are no relations still living to reinter them. The parish shall take on the expense to rebury them in the next day or two, along with the last flood victims who could not be taken home.”
“Do many bodies remain in the deadhouse?” asked Mr Utterson.
Darcy seemed to think, but Elizabeth suspected he knew exactly how many, as well as their names. “Oh, maybe four or five disinterred bodies, and only two left from the storm.” He looked round at everyone. “Ought I to send a man to make sure no one takes their trinkets or shoes?”
“Oh my,” Hester said, paling.
“No,” Mr Balfour said firmly, with a worried look at his sister. “I cannot imagine anyone stealthily picking their way along the lined-up corpses. Now, some music? Hester, I think we all wish for an early night after our long ride, but perhaps you could give us one song?”
Hester all but ran to the instrument, and Mr Balfour and Mr Utterson decided to play cribbage before going to bed.
“Miss Bennet, a turn around the room?” Darcy said pointedly. “It seems it shall be an early night.”
She rose and took his arm, and he asked quietly, “I need you to retire early and convince Mrs Lanyon to do the same. Then we can see if this will work.”
In conversation, Darcy looked a person full in the face; he was deliberate in action and in words. She realised all of that was said with a purpose.“You are encouraging him to steal,” she whispered, “to catch him in the act.”
He nodded. “Like you said earlier, maybe I will catch the murderer stealing again in Lambton.”
“When I saidyou, I meant a constable in the village, and I never considered anyone stealing from the dead.”
“The clothes, the jewellery on the bodies, all of it would earn a few guineas from a pawnbroker.”
“But your cousin might return from Buxton or Matlock late tonight with evidence.”
“And he might return with nothing,” Darcy muttered. “If someone is caught stealing from the dead, and we go to Mr Birch with the belief that Carew’s ring was stolen from her body, it will strengthen the cause to hold an inquest and connect the theft to the death.”
“Finding her stolen ring in a pawnshop would be better,” she said when they were farther away.
“Both would help us, do you not think?”
Elizabeth sighed. “Yes, it would. What shall we do?”
“You and Mrs Lanyon retire, and I shall claim to do the same,” he whispered. “Balfour and Utterson will finish their game. Before that, I shall wait in the deadhouse to catch him in the act.”
“Why not just follow him from Pemberley?”
“There is nothing against the law in leaving a house at night. And if he notices me following and gives up? I need to see him commit a crime.”
“You are certain one of them will go forth in the shadows of the night to plunder the dead?” She shuddered. “That is heinous.”
“So is stealing from people who have lost their homes. So is striking a woman with a candlestick.”
When their turn around the room brought them farther from the others, she asked, “You still feel that it is Mr Utterson?”
“My feelings do not matter,” he said, “but yes, I think he did it, and I intend to catch him.”
“Shall you bring a few men with you?”
“How could I without alerting everyone? If there is a hint of a group coming from Pemberley, he will know it, and it might put him off from trying.” He dropped his voice. “The villagers would know it too. Remember what nearly happened at the Pemberley Arms. What will a crowd do if they discover a man looting their dead?”
“They will drag him before the magistrate, which is what you want.”
“And I want him to be alive when he gets there. A resentful crowd may be tempted to carry out their own justice. I will go alone and wait for him.” Elizabeth gave him a worried look. “He is not going to murder me, my dear.”
“Carew undoubtedly thought the same,” she muttered.
