As I had no answer to his questions, except for the obvious one that my husband’s brother did, in fact, wish to provoke me, I stomped past him and back to the body. Without the crowd around it, Perrin’s lifeless form somehow seemed more macabre. Only his boots showed beneath the blanket, and the tented fabric above the chest made the presence of the knife even more glaring.
I looked at the carpet around Perrin’s body. It was large, spanning almost the entire space of the hall and was in muted colors of tans and light greens. Frowning, I bent beside the body and flipped the blanket back.
Perrin’s eyes stared at the ceiling.
“What are you doing?” Mr. Ryder lowered gently into a squat next to me, the skin between his eyes creasing.
“Does anything seem strange to you?”
His eyebrows flew skyward, and I hastily added, “Aside from the body with a knife sticking out of it?”
He disapproved of the question, I could tell. But to his credit, Mr. Ryder made a thorough perusal of the body. “What are you seeing that I am not?”
My tongue burned with the myriad responses I had to that, but I restrained myself to the present matter. “Blood. There’s very little of it. That knife has a three-inch blade. I would expect it to create a pool of blood or at least drips on the surrounding area.” I chewed on my bottom lip. “And on the killer.”
The butler and two footmen entered with a wide, rough plank of wood.
I straightened, and Mr. Ryder stood, one of his knees making a popping noise. We watched as the footmen recovered the body, then lifted it onto the plank.
“We’ve made space in the ice house,” the butler said. “It’s starting to flood from these incessant rains, but my lord should be well above the water line.”
I nodded, my gaze transfixed on the space where Perrin’s body had lain. No blood there, either. I waited for Perrin’s servants to leave the room before turning to Ryder. “He wasn’t stabbed to death. I’d bet my club on it.”
“How can you possibly know that?” Ryder placed his fists on his lower back and arched, earning another satisfying pop. The moralist was tall and trim, but his body was as susceptible to age as the rest of ours.
The thought was oddly comforting.
“We hosted a surgeon as a guest lecturer at The Minerva Club last year. He discussed several famous murders in history.” My lips curved. “The ladies’ queries flew off on some tangents. He was kind enough to oblige our questions. And one aspect of murder by stabbing that he discussed was how much blood ittypically produced. But if one is already dead, if one’s blood has already stopped pumping….”
“A knife could enter a body without much of a mess.” Ryder looked back at the clean carpet. “Why would anyone stab a dead body?”
That was indeed the questiondu jour. My brother-in-law angered many people, but putting a knife in his lifeless chest seemed excessive.
I pushed my spectacles up my nose and turned for the stairs leading down to the kitchens. “I bid you goodnight, Mr. Ryder.”
“The guest rooms are all upstairs,” he called out.
“I know.” The stairs down to the kitchens were not in as good condition as the others, and I carefully picked my way down. The butler sat at a large, wide table with several other servants, large glasses of what I assumed liquor before them.
He quickly stood when I entered. “My lady, I—”
I flapped my hand at him. “Please, sit. I was hoping I might be able to speak with the stable master. Has he retired yet for the night?”
“I don’t think anyone will be getting much sleep tonight, milady.” He nodded to one of the footmen, and he scurried off, presumably to fetch my quarry.
There was an awkward silence as we waited. I didn’t think Perrin spent much time in the kitchens, which was his loss. Everyone knew that midnight pudding always tasted better when shared with those who had cooked it.
“What are we going to do?” one of the maids finally asked. It was the one who had found Perrin’s body. She was a hearty girl, one you could picture milking a cow and carrying the buckets with ease. Her red hair and pale skin spoke of an Irish heritage, though any brogue had long since left her voice. “Our employer is dead. Do we wait for the ’eir to take over? Look for other employment?”
The butler frowned. “Hush, child. That isn’t Lady Mary’s concern.”
My heart sank. It felt like it was, at least until Perrin’s heir could arrive. Perrin was the father of two boys, young men now, but neither would be able to attend to their duties quickly. The eldest was in Rome, on a tour of the continent, his father had said, when all of society knew he had taken orders in the papist religion. The younger was in the Navy. I didn’t know when he would be released from service.
I leaned against the table, fatigue catching up with me. It had been quite the day. “I can’t make that decision for anyone, but if you do decide to stay on until the next owner takes possession, I’ll make sure your wages are paid.”
The butler inclined his head. “Most generous, milady.”
The stable master arrived, unwrapping himself from a dripping blanket he must have covered himself in to try to avoid the rain. “You wanted to see me, Lady Mary?”
