Byron shrugged. “I don’t rightly recall seeing anyone on the bed, but…”
“Well, that matches my friend’s story,” said the gardener quietly. “He said that you did exactly that. That the gentleman couldn’t get back down the ladder and that he declared loudly, in a slurred voice, he was going to sleep up there.”
“Wait,” said Jane. “This friend of yours knew that Miss Seward was dead?”
“No, he thought she was. He said she was lying there in a way that unnerved him. But when the gentleman said he was going to sleep in the bed, my friend thought perhaps he’d been mistaken, that she was only sleeping. But he didn’t want to go up and find out, and the next morning, the truth came out.”
“All right,” said Byron. “Well, I remember his face now. Not his name, but if I see him, I shall recognize him, and therefore, you should tell me his name and where to find him and spare me the trouble of seeking him out.”
“I can’t. I promised I would not betray his confidence,” said the gardener. “Besides, he had nothing to do with whatever happened to Miss Seward.”
“We need to speak to him,” said Byron. “He saw the body.”
The gardener shook his head. “I can’t. I promised him.”
“Please,” said Byron.
The gardener still refused.
So, then, they went round and round for a bit. Byron started attempting to bribe the man, but nothing worked, not even ridiculous sums of money that made the gardener shake.
Finally, Byron gave up. “Fine. Let’s go, Miss Jane.”
“SO, THE LADDERhad nothing to do with the murder,” said Jane.
“Well, we don’t know that,” said Byron. “It was handily left there for someone to climb, and even if it wasn’t me and thisfriend of the gardener who killed Miss Seward, that doesn’t mean that someone else didn’t climb the ladder and do it.”
“I suppose,” said Jane. “But it sounds like it was there for unrelated reasons.”
“What I don’t understand is who this friend of the gardener’s is,” said Byron. “He borrows the ladder to fix Miss Seward’s window shutter? And the shutter itself, it doesn’t seem as if it needs repair now, does it?”
“I don’t know. I suppose we could go and examine it,” said Jane.
“Yes,” said Byron, “let’s do that.”
“But to do that, we would need to enter the tavern,” said Jane, “and we should quite likely see Mr. Hardy, and no matter what it is you say, I am not capable of protecting you from that man.”
“No, of course not, but with you there, he will not do anything to endanger me,” said Byron.
“It really seems to me that if he is worried about offending someone, it is you who are more important than me,” said Jane. “You’re a baron.”
“Yes, but he knows you,” said Byron. “So, I think that carries more weight in the end.”
“And you think we shall be perfectly safe marching in there and demanding to go up and lean out of the window to examine Miss Seward’s window shutter.”
“I do,” said Byron.
She eyed him. “If I end up trapped in a storage room, forced to drink too much, I shall never forgive you, my lord.”
He smiled. “Noted.”
She sighed. “Oh, fine. Let’s go, then.”
They walked to the tavern’s main entrance and went inside. The main room was empty, no customers, no one working, for it was still morning, and rather early for anyone to go to the tavern.So, they walked directly through there and found their way to the stairs. They got to Miss Seward’s window without anyone seeing them.
There they discovered that the window shutter was, indeed, quite sturdy and not in any need of repair.
“What does that mean?” said Jane.
