“Is he?” said Jane. “What do you mean?”
“He threatened me,” said Mr. Seward. “But here it is, if you’d like to know. The day that Anne died, do you know who came to my house to speak to me? Why, Mr. Hardy himself. And he took it all back, claiming he wouldn’t do any of the things he said he’d do.”
“What did he say he would do?”
“Why, ruin me, of course,” said Seward.
“Ruin you how?”
“I’m not going into that,” said Seward. “I don’t know why he changed his mind, but it didn’t last anyway. The minute I get into town upon hearing about poor Anne’s death, that Hardy man is right here, telling me that I must sign over the deed to the place to him. Well, it was one thing to sign it over to Anne. She was my blood, even if she was a woman, but to that upstart, that wretched Hardy, definitely not. No. Never. However, I would like to be done with this business and away. I shall go on a boat to India, let Hardy tell anyone anything he wants. By the time I come back, it will all have blown over.”
“So,” said Byron, “Hardy blackmailed you before, threatened you with revealing a secret?”
“Oh, no,” said Seward. “That’s as much as you’re getting out of me, I tell you. But I didn’t kill Anne. For one thing, I thought I had Hardy’s blessing to come and take the place from her. He indicated she could not handle it. So, I didn’t think I needed her to be dead. The only thing keeping me from claiming ownership was Hardy himself. And for another thing, I liked my cousin. I liked her rather a great deal.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
“WELL, WE’VE GOTsomeone else contradicting Mr. Hardy’s story,” said Byron, as they led their horses up the path from town to Jane’s house. They were not going to ride, but instead walk together.
“Yes, it does seem tidy to think that Mr. Hardy is the one lying,” said Jane. “Otherwise, it’s both Mr. Eves and Mr. Seward lying.”
“But it doesn’t quite make sense,” said Byron.
“I suppose we don’t need to know why Mr. Seward was being blackmailed,” said Jane. “Just that he was.”
“Well, we do need to know,” said Byron. “So, I think, tomorrow, we go back to see Mr. Hardy and ask him.”
“Didn’t we just get done saying he was a liar?” said Jane.
“We did, and he may lie, but he may not have anything to lose now and may tell us everything,” said Byron. “Of course, I don’t know when we’ll have time to speak to him, not when we’re going to Farnham to find that midwife, or see if she is some fiction.”
“We should do that first, before speaking to him, because if we do find out he was lying, we can confront him with evidence of his falsehood, see if he changes his tune.”
“Ah, that is brilliant,” said Byron. “Good thinking, Miss Jane.”
She found herself smiling at him.
“All right, how hard must we work to convince your sister to come along?” said Byron. “She will do it, will she not? It will please your mother, since she didn’t like the two of us alone.”
“I don’t know if it will please my mother,” said Jane.
“Should we invite her along, too?” said Byron.
Jane chuckled. “I don’t know. Perhaps. Though I think she would be horribly scandalized when she found out we were searching for a midwife who doles out wild carrot seed.”
“Yes,” said Byron. “Perhaps it’s not wise to tell your mother everything.”
“Perhaps not,” said Jane.
“I THINK IT’Sentirely clear,” Cassandra was saying.
It was the following day, and they were all in a carriage bound for Farnham. Cassandra had acquiesced to coming along readily enough the evening before, saying it sounded like a bit of a lark, traversing all over to try to get their questions answered.
Then, she had kept Jane up late asking question after question, trying to get straight whatever it was that Jane and Byron had discovered with their inquiries. Jane had told her all of it except for whatever the implications were between Byron and Beaumont. She had been a bit hazy about the wild carrot business, she supposed, mostly out of embarrassment, but she had recounted that as best as she could. Cassandra had listened to everything and she had said very little.
“You think what is entirely clear?” said Jane.
“All of it,” said Cassandra.
