“You don’t need to worry about getting in any trouble with anyone at all,” said Byron. “We are only trying to get to the bottom of what happened to Miss Seward. We shan’t pursue any action about you, madam.”
“Action? What do you mean by that?” said Mrs. Blethens.
“Well, we are simply trying to discover the whereabouts of Mr. Hardy on the night Miss Seward died. He says he was here,” said Byron.
“Ah,” said Mrs. Blethens.
“Was Mr. Hardy here?” said Jane.
“Yes,” said Mrs. Blethens. “Yes, he came to see me.”
“He did?” Jane was honestly surprised. All signs seemed to have pointed to Mr. Hardy having lied about that.
“But I am not a midwife, and I do not supply seeds for women, and he was not here on some errand for his mistress,” said Mrs. Blethens.
“Ah,” said Byron. “I am beginning to see.”
Mrs. Blethens turned to him. “Are you?”
“Were you a courtesan, Mrs. Blethens?” said Byron.
“Nothing quite so French or fancy,” said Mrs. Blethens. “The man who bought me this house died some years ago, and I keep to myself. Everyone in town knows about me, and I daresay I’m bordering on respectable these days. When they sent you here, to me, was there a whiff of any impropriety to the way they spoke of me?”
“There was not,” said Byron.
“You see?” said Mrs. Blethens.
“But Mr. Hardy is not the sort of man a woman like you would associate with,” said Byron.
“Is he not?” said Mrs. Blethens. “I feel a woman such as myself can associate with anyone she likes.”
“Why Mr. Hardy, though?” said Byron. “How did you even meet him?”
“Why anything?” said Mrs. Blethens, sighing. “The heart has its own strange desires, and they make no sense to the head, I think. I had been quite happy alone, I must say, and then James…” She shrugged.
“Yes, but where would you even have seen him?” said Byron.
“Why, at the tavern, of course,” said Mrs. Blethens. “I didn’t go on my own, but went in the company of a friend. He was an old companion of the man who bought this house for me. I do not associate much with people from that part of my life, so it was all very strange that it came together the way it did, but I was pleased by the way it all turned out, I have to say. For I got James out of it. Anyway, that man, do you need his name, because he might be cross if I give it out?”
“I don’t know if I do or not,” said Byron. “Continue the explanation.”
“There’s little to explain. He and I went to the tavern, and there I met James.”
“Mr. Hardy,” said Jane.
“Yes,” said Mrs. Blethens. “He and I were drawn to each other instantly. It was like being struck by lightning, in a way. I saw him once, and then I could not look away. Truthfully, I can’t rightly explain it.”
“Really?” said Byron, shaking his head.
“Well, he’s not entirely unattractive, I suppose,” said Jane, tilting her head to one side and considering the figure that Mr. Hardy cut.
“Truly?” said Byron.
“Truly,” confirmed Mrs. Blethens. “We both tried to resist, but we could not. He sought me out. He came all the way here to find me, and then it became something we… well, he could not get away often, I suppose, but when he could, he did.”
“And so that’s what he was doing here with you the night that Miss Seward died,” said Jane.
“Why lie about that?” said Byron. “Why say he was doing an errand for his mistress, especially one that casts her in a bad light?”
