Chase knew better than to ask questions or demand information. He had considered Beth, but had rejected the idea. Beth was the person who healed and helped. Not a person who killed.
“Then there was that man poking around,” she added. “One like you. Mr. Finley had hired him to look for evidence about Minerva, that she had a lover or whatnot. I didn’t like that. I feared he would either find enough to convince a court, or he would make it up. If he didn’t, Mr. Finley was likely to just steal her. Who would care or know, except me? She weren’t really safe, even if she had left him, was she?”
“No.” With no family to rely on or run to, Minerva was vulnerable as long as she remained married to Finley.
“What did it, though, was seeing him again. He came right to our door on his horse. Minerva saw him and she looked like death itself. Jeremy went out there and told him to go, that he had no rights there. The man’s response was to use that crop on Jeremy again, slashing down from on high on that horse, again and again. Jeremy finally grabbed the crop and threw it aside, but his face was cut and his neck—it was like the old nightmare come alive again. So I took the pistol we kept in the house, and waited for him while he was on his ride in the forest. He liked going there, even if the land weren’t his. Liked pretending he was lord of some manor, when he was lord of none.”
“Did he think it not odd that you were there?”
“At first he thought I had brought a message from Minerva. He actually looked pleased. When I told him not to go near her or my son again, that I would not stand for it, he tried to use that crop onme. I will admit my mind turned black then. I had the pistol in my hand under my wrap, and I just—” She blinked hard. “I tried to feel bad about it, what with being a God-fearing woman, but I couldn’t believe any God would blame me too much. A mother doesn’t sit by while her child is hurt. He was only seventeen then. Still young. And Minerva—I couldn’t watch her go through that again. I don’t think she would have taken it either. She had grown a lot, in her mind and self. She would have fought him if he got her back. And he would have killed her for sure, eventually. He had it in him.”
She stopped walking and folded her arms and looked out over the park. He folded his too and looked with her. What to do now? That question hung heavily between them.
“I would have gone forward and admitted it, if Minerva were ever taken to gaol. I want you to know that. I would never have let her hang. I was preparing myself for it, settling matters as best I could, when they said it was an accident. It was a gift, really.”
“I believe you would have come forward if you had to. I don’t doubt that.”
She turned to look at him, her eyes filmy with tears and memories, but not repentance. “Are you going to tell Minerva about this?”
He doubted he had to. Minerva was good at inquiries. She knew she had not used that pistol, so who had? There were only two likely possibilities. “I don’t see any reason to tell her. You may want to eventually, in case she has wondered about Jeremy.”
“I’ll still come forward if need be. If all of this comes alive again, and there’s those trying to harm her.”
“It was ruled an accident, and may just lie there as that. If anyone starts asking questions, I will try to turn their eyes on the poachers known to frequent private hunting grounds like those woods. It would be like Finley to confront one of them. It is my hope it doesn’t even get that far. But if necessary—it is good to know you would do the right thing.”
She nodded. “I’ll be hoping it goes the way you say.”
“Come. I will take you home so you don’t have to walk or hire a carriage. I have mine here.”
She brightened. “I’ve been wanting to ride in it.”
“We will have to make a stop first, if you don’t mind. Minerva will be wondering where you have been all this time. We’ll tell her I took you to buy a new dress. That means a dress must arrive, so we will stop to have one made.”
She walked faster. “I tell you I killed a man and you buy me a dress? Doesn’t seem right somehow, but I’ll not complain about it.”
He would buy her a whole wardrobe for easing his worry about Minerva.
* * *
“I have been thinking,” she said, to divert them both.
“That is often dangerous.”
“My thoughts were about this legacy, and the others.”
That captured his attention.
“If he knew me in such a slight way, perhaps that was how he knew the other two women whom you now must find. Perhaps like me they are not even aware that he previously touched on their lives.”
“Our minds are much alike when conducting inquiries. I trod my path and you walk yours, but we tend to arrive at the same destination. If we are right, they will be harder to find.”
“One of his habits brought him into contact with me. Perhaps that same one, or a different one, made him aware of them.”
“I have been pondering what I know of him, and what his habits were, to find new directions to investigate.”
“Are you going to tell me those habits?”
“No.”
