“Won’t you sit down?” his mother said with a smile.
Mr. Holden took a seat in a sedan chair, and Thomas sat next to Penelope on the sofa. He saw her sweet blush and instantly regretted sitting by her when he saw Mr. Holden observing it.
“Miss Hutchinson, I know that this is an impertinent question, but I need to ask it all the same,” Mr. Holden said. “The constable informed me that before Lord Farnham married the current Lady Farnham, it was generally assumed in the village that he was going to marry you. Is that true?”
Penelope’s gentle blush deepened to a fiery red. “There was nothing formal. It was a sort of family expectation is all.”
“Do you consider yourself jilted?”
“No, it wasn’t Thomas’s fault.”
“Whose fault was it?” Mr. Holden asked.
“His father’s, of course. If the late earl hadn’t left so many debts, Thomas would not have been responsible for discharging them.”
Mr. Holden wrote down a few more sentences in his notebook.
“Dowager Lady Farnham, were you aware that there is a secret passageway that leads from the servants’ floor to your old room?”
“Yes, my old room once belonged to the Bishop of Suffolk,” she said.
“Did you ever tell your son or his wife about this extra entrance?”
His mother smiled her polite, blank smile. “Oh dear. It quite slipped my mind.”
“Does anyone on the staff know about it?”
“Hibbert does, I believe. He’s been at Ashdown longer than any of us. Mrs. Norton might, but I am not sure. I don’t entirely recall. It hasn’t been used in many years, of course.”
“Have you entered your daughter-in-law’s room at night and watched her while she sleeps?” Mr. Holden asked softly.
His mother tried to smile but couldn’t quite manage it. Thomas held his own breath waiting for her answer.
“No.”
“Do you like your daughter-in-law?”
“She’s not a bad sort of girl, even if she is an American,” his mother said, as if that explained everything about Cordelia.
“Are you sorry to lose your place as the mistress of the house? Your room? Your precedence?”
“Yes,” she said. “When Mrs. Norton called me Dowager Countess of Farnham, I almost wished my husband wasn’t dead, but it really is so much better for everyone that he is. Even if Thomas didn’t marry Penelope and Cordelia is an American.”
Thomas did not know what to say. He felt sympathy for his mother but realized that she was as much a stranger to him as his father. He’d been allowed to see her for an hour before dinner growing up, when he wasn’t at school. But he had no idea who his mother was or what she thought. Or how she’d felt about his father’s death, his marriage, or the changes to her longtime home. He should have talked to her about all of these things, but he had no experience doing that. His family had never confided in each other. Perhaps that was why he wanted a different relationship with his wife—one with open communication.
“I should like to speak to the servants now,” Mr. Holden said.
Thomas stood up and opened the door. He left the room without glancing back at his mother or Penelope.
32
“You’ve got your wish, my lady,” Miss Vaughn said, as she helped Cordelia into her mauve evening gown, with a scooped neck and extravagant puffed sleeves trimmed with lace.
“What wish?”
“The uppity Hibbert’s been taken into custody for questioning.”
“What!?” Cordelia gasped in surprise.
