“Mrs. Blethens says her supply of wild carrot seed is low. You did say you went to her to get it,” said Byron. “Is Mrs. Blethens a means to an end for you? Did you seduce her for the purpose of helping Anne? Was it simply to get the wild carrot seed? And if so, why did Anne come to you for it?”
Mr. Hardy was silent, staring up at the window. “Well, then. You do have a way of getting right to the center of things, don’t you?”
“Are you going to answer any of our questions?” said Jane.
“Perhaps it started that way with Amelia,” said Mr. Hardy. He still wasn’t looking at them. “Perhaps I wished to use her. But it isn’t that way anymore. I’m ashamed that I stole from her one last time. I was really planning on coming back here and telling Anne that I was done with whatever was between us. I was going to tell her that I’d fallen in love and that I wouldn’t be her… whatever I was to her.”
“What were you to her?”
“Her lapdog,” muttered Mr. Hardy, looking down at his feet.
“Even so,” said Jane, “a woman who has a man at her beck and call doesn’t ask him to procure things like that for her, doesn’t ask him to get womanly articles.”
“No, she didn’t ask,” said Mr. Hardy. “I went looking for it myself for her, so that she would have a supply of it. I did not want her to be with child, for I thought it would be calamity for the tavern. I told her she should drink the tea after a night with a man as a preventative.”
“I see,” said Jane. “Yes, it’s one thing to be a female tavern owner. It would be quite another to be a female tavern owner carrying a babe out of wedlock, it’s true. So, I suppose that makes sense.”
“You conceived the scheme to go after the supply from Mrs. Blethens on your own, then?”
“I knew what sort of woman she was,” said Mr. Hardy. “I assumed she’d have some on hand, and it turned out that I was right. I pursued her. I did not think it would work, but to my surprise, she seemed quite flattered at my attentions. She was very lonely. Even the man who was her benefactor, the one who purchased her house, he didn’t seem to have been much for companionship when he was alive, leaving her for long stretches of time, only coming by whenever he wanted… well, you know what he wanted. That’s why a man goes to that kind of expense, after all, puts up a woman in a house and keeps her there. He wants exactly one thing.”
“True enough,” agreed Byron.
“Perhaps I’m no different. I thought I was using her for love, for something noble.”
“Love?” said Jane. “You mean, you were in love with Anne.”
“I think Anne only used me,” said Mr. Hardy. “Right up to the end, I think I was only some useful servant who followedher around, like, as I said, a dog. With my tongue hanging out, begging for scraps. What a fool I was.”
Jane said nothing.
Byron said nothing.
Mr. Hardy shot them both a dark look. “Oho! Nothing more to add, after you’ve dug right down into everything there is to know about me, hmm? Just stand there, staring at me with nothing to say, pitiful looks on both your faces. Spare me your pity.”
“There are a few more things, I suppose,” said Byron. “We know that you blackmailed Mr. Seward into allowing Anne to have the tavern, because you knew he and Mr. Beaumont were, well, close. And we know that he thinks you fully intend to do it now, and this is why he wishes to sell the tavern as quickly as possible and run off to India to wait out the scandal. Before, you said that you thought he might have killed Anne to get his hands on this place.”
“There a question in there?” said Mr. Hardy darkly.
“It’s only that I wonder if you were jealous?” said Byron. “She apparently liked for you to watch her with Beaumont, and then you discovered she brought her cousin into it. That was your one special thing with her, was it not? Then it wasn’t special, and it wasn’t yours. That must have made you angry.”
“Look, it wasn’t my idea to blackmail Reginald Seward,” said Mr. Hardy. “Anne wanted to stay here, and I wanted to stay here, too. Neither of us thought it fair that simply because her father was dead that we must be sent packing. Perhaps I didn’t like the idea of her being sent off under her cousin’s roof either. He didn’t think well of her, you know, not after all of that.”
“Oh, it’s her he didn’t think well of!” exclaimed Jane. “And all along, this was Beaumont’s doing.”
“Just so, ma’am,” said Hardy, nodding at Jane. “Anne was manipulated by that man, who never even wanted her, anyway.Beaumont saw her as a means to an end, to get to the bodies he really wanted to debauch, which were male. It was his idea and his villainy. But Seward didn’t see it that way. He thought Anne far too corrupt to marry, and he would have prevented any marriage for her, since he knew she was not what he considered pure. I didn’t like it. Anne didn’t like it. We came up with the scheme together, I suppose, and I don’t regret it. But if you’re asking if I intend to ruin Reginald Seward now?” He shrugged. “What is the point of it all now? Maybe I want to get away from this place. Maybe I want to leave it all far behind.”
It was quiet again.
The silence stretched on a long time.
Finally, Byron said, “What about Mr. Eves? You just made that up, because you were angry that he wants to get rid of the tavern, did you not? He and Miss Seward were not lovers.”
“Yes, spur of the moment thing,” said Hardy. “The minute I said it, I regretted it. I only wanted him to suffer. I wanted you two to think he was the murderer. The truth is, I don’t know who the man was who was Anne’s lover, only that there was one and that she sneaked out to see him sometimes.”
“What about Mr. Wellings?” said Byron.
“I suppose it’s possible,” said Hardy.
