12 - Nine Men Dancing by Kate Sedley Page B

he’s never told us. I think Nathaniel hoped that it was Eris knocking: if I’m honest, I’m sure the rest of us were hoping that it wasn’t. Well, we had our wish. Although Ned went out with Maud again that night and searched, and again with other men from the village all the next day and the day after that – in truth, for the best part of a week – we never set eyes on Eris Lilywhite again. She’d run away and thank God for it, say I! Oh, it didn’t end there, naturally. Nathaniel had people looking for her as far afield as Gloucester and Dursley, but her whereabouts were never discovered. So, there you are, chapman. I’ve kept my side of our bargain. That’s the story of Eris Lilywhite and the night she vanished. She was ashamed of herself and ran away.’
    ‘You don’t believe that,’ I said.
    She challenged me with a look. ‘Don’t I? What do I believe, then, my know-it-all friend? You tell me.’
    ‘All right! I will.’ I leaned forward again, holding those deep-set eyes with my own, daring her to drop her gaze. ‘You think Tom killed her. He was the only one out there in the dark when Eris said she was going home and ran out into the storm. He’d already attacked her once and he must still have been in a murderous rage. He’d been made to look the most goddam fool, not just in front of his family, but, as soon as the news became general knowledge, in front of the whole village, as well. How Rosamund Bush and her parents were going to sneer at him! He’d be the laughing stock of Lower Brockhurst and beyond. It would be too good a story for the villagers to keep to themselves. Everywhere they went, they’d be repeating it. A young man robbed of his sweetheart by his father, who’s twice his age … Oh, yes. I feel sure you think your younger nephew killed her. It’s the obvious thing to think. He was still loitering near the farmhouse when Eris left. The temptation to finish what he had been prevented from doing inside was too great. That’s certainly what they believe happened in Lower Brockhurst, judging by what I saw and heard yesterday evening.’ And I described the scene in the Roman Sandal when I had first clapped eyes on Tom Rawbone.
    ‘I wouldn’t give a groat for anything that rabble down there think!’ Jacquetta declared scornfully. But her eyes had shifted away from mine and refused to look back. ‘And if Tom did kill her,’ she added triumphantly, ‘where has he concealed her body? Because it’s never been found, as you must know.’
    ‘I didn’t say that
I
believed your nephew murdered Eris Lilywhite,’ I corrected her. ‘I said you did. And in spite of the mystery as to where the body is hidden, you still do.’
    ‘Nonsense!’ she answered stoutly, then glanced at me curiously. ‘Why don’t you think Tom killed her?’
    ‘I’m not saying he did or he didn’t. I’m keeping an open mind. But in my experience, things are often not as simple as they seem. On the face of it, allowing for possibility and probability, for motive and the opportunity to commit the crime, your nephew, Tom, appears the most likely person to have done it. But apart from your brother, everyone in this house would have liked to see her dead.’
    ‘Not liked,’ Jacquetta protested. ‘But … Very well! I agree that, except for Nathaniel, we’re all glad that she’s gone. And I think even my brother is beginning to realize that he might have had a lucky escape. Life is quieter without her.’
    ‘The old well in the woods – the one belonging to Upper Brockhurst Manor – was searched, so Mistress Lilywhite informed me.’
    ‘The Brothers’ Well? Yes, that’s so.’ And Jacquetta confirmed Maud’s story. Ned had climbed right down into the well the following morning, using the iron ladder and watched by a group of men from the village, including Father Anselm. The others didn’t bother going down after him, because they could see by peering over the rim that there was nothing there. A