Circle of Shadows

II.4

Monsieur Clemme had the sense to do no more than open the door and then depart murmuring something about seeing to the disposal of their belongings. Harriet stepped into the large parlour in time to see her sister stand, but before she could form any impression of Rachel’s looks, the latter had thrown herself into her sister’s arms and buried her face in her neck.

‘Oh Harry, you came! Thank God!’ She stepped back and offered her hands to Crowther and then Graves. ‘Crowther, Graves — how glad I am to have you here.’

Her composure deserted her entirely and she burst into tears. The gentlemen examined the furnishings of the room, a great deal of gilding, while Harriet put her arm around her sister’s shoulders and gave her a handkerchief. She leaned her cheek against her hair, which was silk smooth. Rachel had been only fourteen years old when their father had died. Harriet had walked into the salon of the parsonage, and after four years of sailing with her husband around the world it had seemed small, and her own clothes and demeanour too grand for the modest little room. Then Rachel had hesitated, only for a moment, before running to embrace her sister, and Harriet had thought, Lord, another person to look after. It was months before she discovered that her modest, quiet little sister had been her father’s housekeeper and nurse, that Rachel’s trials might not have been as dramatic, bloody or adventurous as Harriet’s but she had faced them alone and withstood them bravely.

The room in which she now held her sister could not have been a greater contrast to the modest parsonage. The walls were a frenzy of plaster figures picked out in gold against pale green panelling, and the furniture itself, all gilt flourishes and elaborate curves, seemed to disapprove of them. The parsonage had smelled of mown grass, of the Norfolk summer; this room tasted of hot-house lilies. It seemed to Harriet that even the carved marble Graces holding up the mantelpiece were staring at them.

After a few moments Rachel managed to say, damply, ‘My apologies, but I have so wished to have you here. However did you manage it? When Colonel Padfield told me you were arriving today, I did not think it possible.’

Harriet guided Rachel to a chair in a convenient grouping by the fireplace and the gentlemen took their seats opposite the sisters. ‘Michaels, Mrs Clode!’ Graves said, smiling. ‘We would have been another fortnight on the road at least, were it not for him. He knows the lingo and he knows when to press and when not. But that’s all that needs to be said of our journey.’

‘Michaels here too? Lord, what trouble we have given you all.’

Graves leaned forward and took Rachel’s hand with the easy intimacy of long friendship. ‘What of you, my dear? How are you and poor Daniel managing? Verity, Mrs Service and the children send all their love.’

‘Their letters outpaced you, just. I had my first words from home only two days ago. Verity said the kindest, wisest things and poor Susan sounded quite distraught.’ She smiled very slightly and freed her hand to wipe her eyes again. It was known that Lady Susan had fallen madly in love with Daniel Clode at the age of nine while he helped save the lives of herself and her younger brother the Earl, and was still, while also loving Rachel sincerely, not quite free of the attachment. ‘I am as well as you might expect. The District Officer, Krall, has been fair, and Colonel and Mrs Padfield have been quite kind. The Colonel is an Englishman employed by the Duke. His wife is a German lady he met here; she accompanies me whenever I am allowed to visit Daniel in Castle Grenzhow and waits in the carriage for me. But none of them know us! They all think Daniel did this terrible thing. They all but confess they think it would have been better if he had died in that horrid little room! Lord, I am so glad you are come! You know he didn’t do it, don’t you?’

Harriet held her to her side. ‘Of course he didn’t, darling. We have been reading all the papers since this morning.’ She held her away from her for a second. Her sister’s green eyes seemed rather large in her face, and her skin had a grey tinge to it. ‘You have grown thin, my love.’

‘I am well, Harry. Only promise me you can make them set Daniel free again and I shall be better.’

‘We have enough to save him, even in those papers, I think, thanks to Crowther. But who would do this? Who would frame Daniel for the killing in such a way? And attempt to murder him?’

She saw a wild hope light in Rachel’s eyes. ‘There was a man! You think so? We have been trying to believe, I have been trying to think, some terrible accident. But who could we have offended so? We are strangers here …’

‘And how is Daniel?’ Graves frowned as he asked the question. The letters that had met them on their way had been from Rachel alone. They reported her husband’s health as good and his mind clear, only he seemed unable to remember any more than snatches of the night of the festival parade. No word written by his own hand, however, was found in the packets.

Rachel leaned into Harriet’s shoulder and Harriet bent to kiss the top of her head.

‘Oh Graves, I cannot say. Not well. He says he has bad dreams. The wounds on his wrists are healing cleanly, but he lost a lot of blood — it left him weak and confused for days. He spends hours staring out at the forest from that horrible place and trying to recall.’ She shook her head. ‘I have told him a thousand times I think him incapable of doing harm to that woman, but he tortures himself. He could never have harmed her, could he?’

‘Of course not. It is unthinkable,’ Harriet said firmly.

Rachel peered out from under her honeyish curls towards Crowther. ‘Mr Crowther?’

He gave a thin smile. ‘Mrs Clode, from all I know of your husband, and all I have read of the matter, I think it highly unlikely.’

Harriet felt her sister’s body soften slightly against her. ‘Thank you for coming here, Crowther,’ she said.

‘Daniel is as innocent as I am,’ Graves said in the same determined tone Harriet had used, ‘but I suppose we must find who the guilty party is indeed before we can convince him. The man has far too much imagination for a lawyer.’

Harriet almost laughed and tightened her grip around Rachel’s shoulder. ‘We shall certainly do our best. Rachel, has Herr von Krall no other suspects in the case? Has anyone discovered how poor Daniel came to be in such a confused state?’

Rachel straightened up. ‘No, it is all in the reports I sent along to you.’

‘Uncomfortable to have any scandal in court when all eyes are turned in this direction for the Duke’s wedding,’ Crowther said. ‘No wonder then they would like to believe it to be the work of a deranged foreigner.’

‘Crowther, for goodness sake!’ Harriet glared across at him, and he gave a slight shrug.

‘My apologies, Mrs Clode.’

‘I am not offended, Harry. Crowther must say what he likes, he always does after all and he is quite right. But Herr von Krall … he has doubts about Daniel’s guilt, I think. If it weren’t for him, the way he stops sometimes and frowns, I am afraid I could have almost started believing it myself.’

She was looking down as she finished, so did not see the look of shock that passed over Graves’s face. Harriet could not help noticing the corner of Crowther’s mouth twitch, however. He is proud of her, Harriet thought, for having the courage to doubt her husband.

‘Rachel?’ she said out loud. ‘My dear, I am sorry. We are interrogating you within moments of our arrival.’

Rachel managed to smile. ‘No, Harry. I am sorry to be so weak. I want — all I want is to tell you all I can, but my head is spinning.’

‘Darling, are you quite well?’ A suspicion began to form in Harriet’s mind.

Rachel held onto Harriet’s hand very tightly. ‘Oh Harry, hardly anyone will speak to me, and even those who do only pity me. I have eaten almost every meal alone.’

‘You have been in prison too, child,’ Crowther said, as she wiped her eyes.

‘Lord, I would do anything to stop crying! Do not indulge me, Crowther. It is a comfortable prison. And my sufferings are nothing to my husband’s.’ She said the word firmly, almost as a declaration. ‘And I have made some friends. There is a pair of brothers I wish you to meet. Mrs Padfield introduced me to them. They, like us, are not members of the nobility here and have helped me a great deal in learning how to behave, who to petition for Daniel. They have a workshop in the palace grounds.’

Harriet glanced at her sister, then her companions. ‘Perhaps you could take me to see them now, Rachel? I am sure Graves and Crowther will understand if we have a little time to ourselves, and the fresh air will do you good.’

Rachel nodded. ‘But you have only just arrived … I would not wish to seem ungrateful.’

Crowther half-closed his eyes. ‘I have spent the better part of the last month in a carriage with your sister and Mr Graves. The greatest kindness you could do me at this moment is to allow me an hour or two alone.’

Rachel grinned and Harriet caught Crowther’s gaze. She knew he would be pleased with himself when he could hide his thoughtfulness with rudeness. His blue eyes glimmered.

‘Of course, Mrs Clode,’ Graves said with his usual smile. ‘I shall find a slightly less travel-worn coat and then go and present our credentials to Chancellor Swann. Crowther, I shall not make you come with me.’

‘Thank you, Graves.’

Graves sighed. ‘Is Swann as dry as his correspondence? Lord, no doubt now they have one of my closest friends locked away they find the time has come to re-negotiate those bonds. Very well, let us wash the dirt from us and try to give the proper impression of importance.’ He leaned forward and patted Rachel’s hand again. ‘Do not fret, my dear. Mrs Westerman and Mr Crowther will return your husband to you.’