Chapter 20

The Gentleman's Way Out

5 January 1803, cont.

BEFORE BIDDING ADIEU TO THE HORSE GUARDS, I ENQUIRED of Colonel Buchanan where the Lieutenant's batman, Jack Lewis, might be found, and he had the fellow brought to his rooms — vacating them, in his goodness, when Eliza explained that we were about an errand of my lady's maid. That I had no lady's maid, she did not see fit to advise the Colonel; and so he remained in the dark as to our true purpose, as indeed he had been from the moment of our arrival.

“Miss Austen!” Jack Lewis cried, bouncing in the door with little ceremony; and turning to Eliza, had the grace to bow, though he permitted himself a low whistle. Had I not prepared her for his eccentric behaviour; she should assuredly have been disconcerted; but my cousin only smiled and inclined her head, and the batman looked tome.

“Jack at your service, miss, and ‘opin’ as you've a kind word for my mate Tom. Perishin’ with love, ‘e is,” he confided to Eliza with a wink.

“I am come to enquire about an errand I believe you did for the Lieutenant,” I told him, “in which I am concerned.”

“Ask away, miss,” said he merrily.

“It was you who retrieved the maid Marguerite's belongings from Lizzy Scratch, was it not?”

Whatever the batman had expected, it was hardly this. Jack Lewis appeared to have been struck a blow, and stepped back a pace, before recovering.

“I did,” he said, his jaw suddenly tight.

“And did you observe among her things a gold pendant locket, such as she might have worn about her neck?”

There was a silence, and Tom Hearst's man shuffled his feet.

“Lizzy Scratch has told me that she gave it to you, Jack, but when I received the maid's things from the Lieutenant for posting to the Barbadoes, the locket was not among them. Is it possible your master took it?”

“‘e'd never do such a thing!” the batman spat out, his expression gone from that of a cheerful monkey to a dangerous cat.

“Then I am left with only one possibility,” I said, “and that is that you took the locket yourself.”

He threw up his hands in an expression of disgust. “Lizzy Scratch don't know where ‘er brats are, of an evening, much less a bit of finery. Since when's ‘er word been worth so much?”

“Lizzy Scratch was especially careful in this case,” I replied, “because murder had been done. She believed that similar evil might befall her, did she keep any of the maid's things.”

He looked in desperation at Eliza, but received only her dazzling smile; and then something in his face changed. “I'll not have you thinking as it was the Lieutenant,” he said, “and I only took what was mine in the first place.”

“You'd given the locket to the girl?”

“When we was courtin’, last summer it was, in London. It was on account of me, and my past with the maid, that the Lieutenant thought to fetch up ‘er things the day she died.” For a moment only, Jack Lewis's voice broke; and then again he recovered. “Right afraid, old Tom was, that there'd be somethin’ as would lead the magistrate straight to me. My Lieutenant's a loyal man, I'll grant ‘im that.” He sat down upon one of Colonel Buchanan's chairs and put his head in his hands.

“Had you seen Marguerite since your arrival at Scargrave?” I asked the batman gently.

Jack Lewis raised a sober face and met my eyes unflinchingly. “I used to send a bit o’ note by ‘er, and we'd visit in the ‘ay-shed. But Lord bless me, I never slit ‘er throat, miss. I'd never a done that. Margie weren't a bad sort, for all ‘er ferrin’ ways; just lonely, like, and grateful for a bit'uv a cuddle.”

“So you hastened to Lizzy Scratch on the day of the maid's death, and made away with the locket.”

Jack Lewis nodded once and averted his gaze. “Could'a knocked me over with a feather when I sees it still among ‘er things, and my face clear as a candle inside. Thought they'd haul me up for murder, I did — so's I put it in me pocket, and said no more about it.”

“i must say, jane, that it looks very bad for your poor Lieutenant,” Eliza declared, as Henry's carriage rattled towards Portman Square, “very bad, indeed. I know that look of Colonel Buchanan's too well. He is intent upon making of the man an example, and satisfying his sense of order. The Colonel shall never control gambling, nor yet the duels that often result; but he shall make his officers remember Tom Hearst, and hesitate, perhaps, before they roll the dice.”

“I care little for all that,” I replied, with some truth. “My mind is sadly tormented with a dangerous possibility. By the time he had arrived at Scargrave, Tom Hearst was surely driven to believe his entire life hung in the balance — his commission, his possible marriage to Fanny, and his honour. That beloved possession of every officer. Would he have poisoned his uncle to preserve it? And implicate the Earl's heirs, the better to ensure that his brother George succeeded to a fortune? With Fitzroy gone — and remember. Lieutenant Hearst bore his cousin a grudge, according to the Colonel — he might eventually improve his fortunes, and win Madame Delahoussaye's consent for Fanny and her thirty thousand pounds. With George Hearst the new Earl, Tom should not want for greater means to satisfy his debts. And his corps should hesitate to drum out the brother of a peer, in a manner they should not scruple to cashier the poor relative of a clergyman.”

I paused, my eyes upon the rain that had commenced to fall beyond the carriage windows; a lady arrayed in plum sarcenet, with a feathered bonnet to match, raced at a hectic pace along the pavement, her sunshade raised in but poor defence of the weather. I feared the splashing of our carriage wheels should make a fearful business of her handsome boots. “It is in every way horrible, Eliza, and only too plausible.”

“But how should Hearst have effected it?”

“Through his batman, Jack Lewis,” I replied, turning my gaze to the scenery within the carriage. “He had made the acquaintance of the maid the previous summer, and given her a locket; in visiting Scargrave this winter it was only too likely that the acquaintance should be renewed. The Lieutenant might have persuaded his man to give the girl the nuts, with the express purpose of placing them in the Earl's tray. He may even have played upon Marguerite — offering her something she valued, in return for betraying her mistress. Certainly she wrote those letters accusing Isobel and Fitzroy Payne with some other aim than blackmail; Sir William could not comprehend why she never asked for money. But her reward was not to come from the Countess, and it was not in the form of silver. Marriage to the batman, perhaps, and safe passage to the Barbadoes?”

“But he killed her instead.”

“She knew too much, Eliza. And so he slit her throat while she waited, as she thought, for her lover — Jack Lewis. But it was the Lieutenant who arrived at the hayrick that morning, the Lieutenant who did the deed; and it was Jack who retrieved the maid's things. Tom Hearst knew he could trust to Lewis's silence; you saw how terrified the man was of being tied to the maid's death.”

“It is surprising he is even yet alive,” Eliza said thoughtfully.

“Lieutenant Hearst told me once that he owed the man his life; and even he — with his precious sense of honour — may feel an obligation in such a case. It is in every way convincing, do not you agree?”

“Jane, what shall you do?”

“I shall send for Mr. Cranley at once. Perhaps he shall be able to force an admission from the fellow; for in truth, Eliza, we have not a shred of proof.”

We were arrived in Portman Square, and Eliza's coachman had pulled up before the doors of Scargrave House. “Will you come in, Eliza, and take some refreshment?” I asked her.