The Shadow at Greystone Chase (An Angela Marchmont Mystery Book 10) by Clara Benson Page A

the marriage at all? With all his concern for the family fortunes I’d have expected him to forbid it, but it seems he was quite in favour of it.’
    ‘According to my sergeant, who knew the Laceys slightly, it was Roger himself who introduced her to the family after he met her uncle, who was an agent or an importer or something of the kind,’ said Freddy.
    ‘He must have thought there was some benefit to the de Lisles from it, then,’ said Angela. ‘Perhaps some business interest. Still, it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that we seem to have reached a dead end. We’ve spoken to Godfrey de Lisle—to little purpose—but apart from the housekeeper the other day we haven’t seen anybody else who was in the house at the time of the murder. We really ought to speak to Henry Lacey and his friend if at all possible. Perhaps Mr. Gilverson will be able to help me with that. I might go up to London this afternoon.’
    ‘I’ll come with you,’ said Freddy. ‘I promised to see a chap later about something.’
    Angela agreed, although she suspected that Freddy’s real purpose in accompanying her was to keep an eye on her, for he evidently did not trust Charles Gilverson or his motives in recruiting her to investigate Selina de Lisle’s murder. Angela was not certain she trusted him herself, but she comforted herself with the thought that if Gilverson could give her no further information then she would be perfectly justified in withdrawing from the case.

W HEN THEY ARRIVED in London, Angela went straight to Mr. Gilverson’s office, which was situated in a small side-street off Chancery Lane, and was admitted. Mr. Gilverson greeted her with every appearance of pleasure, and invited her to sit.
    ‘The sea air seems to have done you some good,’ he said. ‘You have a little more colour in your cheeks than when I last saw you.’
    ‘Have I?’ said Angela. ‘I’m certainly finding it bracing, at any rate—almost to the point of numbness, in fact.’
    Mr. Gilverson laughed.
    ‘I understand your visit to Greystone Chase passed off successfully,’ he said.
    Angela agreed that it had, and told him what she had found out so far. She also mentioned her conversation with Colonel Dempster and his belief that the servants knew for certain that Valencourt had killed Selina. Mr. Gilverson frowned.
    ‘Ah, yes, Colonel Dempster,’ he said. ‘He was an old admirer of Evelyn’s. Is he still living in Denborough?’
    ‘Yes,’ said Angela. ‘He admitted that he used to be in love with her. To be perfectly honest, from what I’ve heard of Roger de Lisle I’m surprised he allowed the colonel in the house.’
    ‘Evelyn was never interested in the colonel, so I expect Roger didn’t see him as a serious threat,’ said Mr. Gilverson. ‘But you’re right—had he suspected anything at all he’d have had no hesitation in barring him from Greystone immediately. He tended to do that with her friends if he thought she was getting too fond of them.’
    ‘I’m glad I never met him,’ said Angela. ‘I think I should have been frightened of him. It sounds as though he ruled over the place with an iron rod.’
    ‘Oh, he certainly did that,’ said Mr. Gilverson.
    Angela remembered what Gilverson had said about his having fallen out with Roger and being no longer welcome at Greystone. Evidently he had been subject to Roger’s will just as everyone else had. She wanted to ask the solicitor what had happened but something about his manner prevented her, and so she went on:
    ‘We spoke to Mrs. Smith, the housekeeper, who was there at the time of the murder, but she didn’t give me the impression that she knew anything and was hiding it. Not that that means anything, of course.’
    ‘I beg your pardon—“we?”’ said Mr. Gilverson.
    Angela realized that he knew nothing about Freddy, and hastened to explain that a friend was helping her.
    ‘He is a reporter, and very useful for this sort of thing,’ she said.