“Where did he go, this friend-of-the-gardener?” said Jane.
“Oh, right, I got quite off topic there, did I not?” said Byron. “So, this is the most mad part of it all. He went to Mr. Eves.”
“Mr. Eves?” said Jane.
“Mr. Eves?” said Cassandra. “He took a letter from Mrs. Beaumont to Mr. Eves?”
Byron raised his eyebrows. “Indeed he did.”
“Well,” said Cassandra, setting down her fork. “I may have lost my appetite for breakfast. How appalling.”
“Now, it can’t be that sort of letter,” said Jane. “Because if so, she would have concealed it better. She sent someone down the stairs and announced it to everyone—”
“No, it wasn’t quite like that,” said Byron. “The servant with the letter came down, looking all over, and the scullery went over to her and she whispered, but I heard, for I was close, waiting for my bread to be sliced. She whispered, ‘Is that the letter from Mrs. Beaumont? Give it to me if so.’”
“Oh, goodness,” said Jane. “So, then… then… what do we think?”
“I suppose you didn’t tell Mr. Beaumont any of this,” said Cassandra quietly.
“I did not,” said Byron. “I can’t imagine he’d welcome such news, and since I am relying on him to have somewhere to sleep, it seemed unwise.”
“But you are going to have to tell him eventually,” said Cassandra. “If you consider each other friends, he won’t be pleased to know you concealed this.”
“Well,” said Byron, “there must be some other reason to send a clandestine letter through a network of servants than…that.”
No one said anything.
“Well,” said Byron, “theremustbe.”
“I suppose, yes,” said Jane. “There must be.”
“Oh, dear,” said Cassandra, “that babe of hers. That brand new babe. That boy child, heir to Beaumont’s lands and money and property,thatchild. Oh, dear.”
“All right,” said Mrs. Austen. “I think that’s quite enough of this for breakfast.”
“Yes, heavens, I am too appalled to consider any more of this,” said Cassandra, getting to her feet.
“It is appalling,” said Jane faintly.
“Mmm,” said Byron taking a very large bite of his buttered scone. He chewed and swallowed, wiping crumbs from his lips. “Absolutely appalling.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“I DON’T THINKthis has anything to do with anything,” said Jane.
“No?” said Byron. “Because I had a thought about the ladder, you see? I thought that if that ladder was there, it was an easy way in or out to get up to put laudanum in that drinking glass.”
“I had the exact same thought,” said Jane. “So, yes, I think we need to know why it is that man, the one who took that letter, had the ladder put there.”
“For the window?”
“Well, who ordered him to do that? Who does he work for? Does he work for Mr. Eves?”
“Right,” said Byron.
“After you followed him to Mr. Eves, did you wait around to see where he went next?”
“No,” said Byron.
