Part 30 (1/2)

We drove into Chilham late in the morning. I couldn't send Ram into The White Horse for tea. He wouldn't be welcomed there. But I brought him a cup and asked him to wait while I went to speak to Mr. Appleby.

”I shall be here in the car, if anything untoward happens. You have only to call,” Ram reminded me.

I thanked him and went down the lane between the pub and churchyard, trying to decide how best to approach the Grahams' tutor.

And met him coming out his door as I started up the walk.

He wasn't best pleased to see me.

I said, ”Mr. Appleby. If you would walk with me for a little? In the churchyard perhaps? We won't distress your wife.”

”I have told you, I have nothing more to say to you, Miss Crawford.”

”I've learned a great deal more about the events that put Peregrine Graham into Barton's Asylum. I think it might be wise to hear me out.”

He had no choice but to fall in step with me as he turned the way I'd just come. At the head of the lane, he saw Melinda's Rolls, and the Indian driver.

”Who is that, and what is he doing here?” He stopped short, staring.

”Waiting for me.”

”I see.” We continued into the square and paced toward the Jacobean manor house at the opposite end. ”What is it you want to know, Miss Crawford? And why?”

”I'm just trying to understand the sequence of events that led to Lily Mercer's death. Mrs. Graham and her cousin were attending a dinner party. You were given the evening off-”

”I was given no such thing. It was my usual usual day and evening free.” day and evening free.”

”I see. And the servants were also given the evening off, since there was no one to dine at home except the four boys. Is that true?”

”Yes, yes, what's your point?”

”It seems rather odd, to leave four active boys in the house with only a young housemaid to supervise them.”

”She had merely to serve their dinner, which was already prepared, and draw their baths. They weren't small children, Miss Crawford, in need of tucking in and a bedtime story. They could see to their own needs. They were the sons of a gentleman, after all, not barrow boys.”

”But one of them, Peregrine, was known to be-difficult. He was fourteen, not ten, and Lily couldn't have been more than eighteen?”

We had reached the gates of the manor house and turned to walk the other way. Even in the dreary light, the lovely Tudor houses gleamed white and black.

”It was Mrs. Graham's decision to make, not mine. It was my usual usual free day.” free day.”

”Peregrine could have walked out, rather than attacking Lily. He could have gone anywhere. Anything might have happened to him. He wasn't used to being on his own.”

Appleby stopped short.

”You are pressing your luck, Miss Crawford. We can't change the past. Why rake through it? I should think that you would find the subject unpleasant enough to leave it.”

”You didn't like Peregrine very much. You punished him at every opportunity.”

”Who told you that?”

Oh, dear...how to answer?

”It was rumored in Owlhurst.”

He turned away from me. ”Peregrine was the most difficult pupil I've ever encountered. It took all of my skill and most of my patience to teach him. You have no way to measure what I endured.”

”You could have quit. You could have walked away.”

He turned to face me. ”I liked the three younger sons. Why should I refuse to teach them? Why should I punish them for their brother's deficiencies?”

”That's rather arrogant, don't you think?”

”Not at all. I'm a good teacher.”

”What if I told you that it's very likely that it wasn't Peregrine who killed Lily Mercer, although he was judged and punished for it. If you were such a good teacher, why didn't you question his guilt? Why didn't you see through the tangle of evidence and realize that it was not Peregrine, that it couldn't have been him. Couldn't you tell that he was drugged while he was in London? Surely there were signs, some indication in the character of one of the other boys that warned you to look in his direction. And what about that visit to a specialist, who could help Peregrine? There had been excursions to the zoo and the Tower, why hadn't there been time to take Peregrine for examination?”

”I was well paid to educate four youths,” he retorted angrily. ”I wasn't paid to tell my employer that one of her sons was deficient in character-”

”Then you did doubt Peregrine's guilt.”

”Not for an instant. I walked in the door, found the police in the house, and Peregrine Graham spattered with the girl's blood. It was the most shocking experience of my life, let me tell you. The atmosphere was highly charged. Mrs. Graham was very emotional, on the verge of breaking down. The police were as shocked as I was. And Peregrine stood there with a dazed expression, not a word of regret, not a word in his own defense. Robert Douglas was a rock, I stood in admiration of his quiet ability to keep the household calm. I wasted no time on doubt, I saw the proof with my own eyes.”

”Perhaps not then. But later. Later you wondered. If you were a good judge of young people, as a teacher should be, you began to question what you'd seen and been told. Other things happened, to cast doubt on Peregrine's guilt. Why didn't you do something?”

A flicker of acknowledgment crossed his face. For the first time I saw the truth exposed-he couldn't hide it, however much he tried. It was gone in a flash. And then rage took over. I thought for an instant he would strike me, he was so furious. I wondered how much of that fury was shame, because he hadn't liked Peregrine, and at first had been glad to be rid of him. And later, he still said nothing, because he enjoyed his comfortable position with the Graham family too much to jeopardize it.

I wanted to ask him which of his charges was a murderer, but I didn't dare.

He walked away from me, his shoulders so stiff with his anger that he seemed to strut. But I thought it was more the desire to lash out at me, held in check because I was a woman and this was a very public place.

I waited, in the expectation that he might turn, that he might get himself under control and protest that I'd got it wrong. But Mr. Appleby knew he'd already betrayed too much. He wasn't going to risk betraying more.

I went back to the motorcar, drawing in a deep breath as I took my seat.

Ram said, ”That man was very angry indeed.” He turned, his eyes anxious. ”Is all well?”

”I don't know,” I said slowly. ”Take me home, if you please.”

We drove sedately out of Chilham, down the hill and toward the road west. I had stirred up a hornet's nest. Pray G.o.d I wasn't the one who was stung as a result.

We stopped on the way back to the Crawford house. I wanted to make sure that Peregrine had all he needed for a visit there.