Death at Scarlet Leaf.

Chapter 8

I needed to think. I needed to organize my head. I needed to work out how much I really knew, and what was missing. I also needed to work out how on earth I was going to prove all of this. But still, that could come later. I now had the main bit of the puzzle, but there was still one problem. One massive problem. The person who I now knew murdered Lord Morris could never have murdered Harvey. That was going to take some thought in itself. I sighed, determinedly putting it to one side, and picked up my book again. It was fair to say that Closed Doors was turning out to be my sort of book. The identity and the motive of the murderer was relatively straightforward, but the method was near impossible. Brilliant.

"Allie?" Mrs. Ellis poked her head through the sitting room door, what must have been an hour later.

"Mm?" I said, looking up.

"It's dinner soon. I'd recommend getting ready."

"Dinner. Right" I nodded. "See you there."

Mrs. Ellis left, and I followed her out and up the stairs, hurrying upstairs to my bedroom. I changed out of my riding habit into one of my black dresses, one that wasn't Isabel's, and put the habit on the bottom of my bed, so I could take it down for Alice to wash. There was a knock at my door, as I sat down at my mirror to do my hair.

"Come in."

Newham entered, already dressed for dinner.

"I think I owe you an apology" he began. "However mad they may be, your methods seem to work, and we would have never gotten anywhere in this case without you. I think we all need to treat your methods with a little more respect."

I smiled, turning around.

"You don't have to. I'm nearly there now, anyway, so you won't have to put up with me for much longer" I reassured him. He laughed.

"Actually, there's one part of your story that confuses me a little. You know when you told us this afternoon that Alice didn't tell you about the will because she thought it would be an insult to Lord Morris's memory?"

"Yes?" I asked. I couldn't see where this was going, but I let him continue.

"Why would it be? I mean, the will was going to get read out anyway, so why should she keep it a secret?" Newham asked. I frowned.

"I…don't know. I'll find out, though."

Newham smiled.

"Have I found something to perplex even your ingenious mind, Miss Winter?" he teased.

"You've brought the perplexing count up to two" I replied, finishing my hair and standing up. "Can you ask Barnes to investigate more on Harvey's death? It would be very helpful."

Newham raised his eyebrows.

"That depends. Are you going to tell me anything I don't already know?"