11 - The Lammas Feast by Kate Sedley Page B

something to do with Jasper Fairbrother’s murder, surely? Oh really, Roger! Now, that’s what can only be described as clutching at straws. I never heard anything more absurd in my life!’
    ‘She’s an odd woman,’ I murmured defensively. ‘John Overbecks himself says so.’
    Adela snorted. ‘Two questions, then: would she have had the strength to stab Jasper and what would be her motive?’
    I had no answer for either query, so I held my peace. I could have said that women, even the frailest of them, can find amazing reserves of strength when they have to. But as to motive, there the water was darker and muddier. No one except Jane and her elder sister knew the real reason for the Baldock sisters’ flight from Exmoor. Had Jasper, who had spent his life prying into people’s secrets so that he could turn the information to his advantage, discovered something that even John Overbecks did not know?

Seven
    W hile I was finishing my breakfast – bread and ale, boiled oatmeal and herring – I said to Adela, ‘I’ll return the scarf to Mistress Overbecks myself, after I’ve restocked my pack.’
    ‘I shan’t have time to wash it,’ she demurred, but without exhibiting much enthusiasm for the job.
    ‘She can do it herself, if she wants to. The chances are that she’ll throw it away and John will buy her another one.’
    ‘Oh, come!’ Adela objected, laughing. ‘Master Overbecks may be warm in the pocket, but he’s not a spendthrift.’ She swallowed a mouthful of oatmeal. ‘Roger, you don’t seriously suppose that Jane Overbecks had anything to do with Jasper’s murder, do you? That blood could have come from a cut finger. It might be animal’s blood from when she was preparing meat.’
    ‘
If
she prepares meat, that is. I’d wager that her husband does most of the cooking. He’s bound to be better at it than she is. He looked after himself for long enough, all the years he was a bachelor.’ I finished my fish and took a last swig of ale. ‘But no, on reflection, sweetheart, I think you’re right. I’m just clutching at straws in order to prove Richard wrong about the Breton. It isn’t that I can’t imagine Jane Overbecks killing anyone, but not like that; not with a neat, quick knife thrust up between the ribs to the heart. No, if Jane took a knife to someone, the attack would be frenzied, not one wound, but dozens. The room would have been like the Worship Street Shambles. Besides, if Jasper
had
found out something about her past life, before she and her sister came to Bristol, and was blackmailing her, John would have been bound to know about it.’
    Adela nodded in agreement. ‘Jane has no money of her own. Jasper wouldn’t have bothered with her: he would have gone straight to Master Overbecks with his knowledge.’
    There was a speculative pause while we looked at one another across the width of the table. For once, the children were quiet. Adam had been fed, while Nicholas and Elizabeth were busy downing the first meal of the day to keep up their strength, and were temporarily deaf to the conversation of their elders.
    ‘You don’t think . . .?’ Adela began, then stopped, uncomfortable with what she had been about to suggest.
    ‘It’s possible, I suppose,’ I answered slowly. ‘But John seemed genuinely shocked by the sight of Jasper’s body.’
    Adela put her spoon down with a clatter.
    ‘What are we thinking of?’ she demanded disgustedly. ‘A simple bloodstain on a scarf, and we’re both letting our imaginations gallop away with us without rhyme or reason. We ought to be thoroughly ashamed of ourselves! It’s all your fault, Roger! You started me thinking like this. You don’t have a single shred of evidence to connect either of the Overbecks to the murder, now do you? The Breton’s our man, as Richard says. Let the officers of the law deal with it, and mind your own business for once.’
    ‘Very well! But I still don’t think the Breton’s guilty,’ I added