“Yes, I see.” The magistrate’s beady black eyes, so reminiscent of two currants sunk in a Christmas pudding, moved from the Marquis to the Dowager and back again. “And so you entered this room, Lord Kinsfell, in the very midst of Mr. Conyngham’s declamation?”

“I did.”

“And to what purpose?”

“I meant to pass through it to the back hall, and proceed thence to my rooms. I was utterly fagged, if you must know, and desperate for quiet.”

Mr. Elliot glanced around. “Pass to the hallway where, my lord? For I observe no other door than the one by which you entered.”

Lord Kinsfell strode impatiently to the far side of the fireplace, and pressed against a panel of the wall. With a creak, it swung inwards — a barely discernible door. “It is intended for the ease of the servants, but it makes a useful passage when the main door to the hall is blocked.”

“As it would have been during Mr. Conyngham’s recital.”

“Obviously. The door from the drawing-room to the back hall stands to the right of where Mr. Conyngham was positioned. I should have had to force my way through the greater part of the company to attain it. And that I did not wish to do.”

“Commendable, I am sure. Mr. Conyngham must certainly regard it thus,” Mr. Elliot said slowly, and reached a well-fed hand to the silently swinging door. “Very cunning, indeed. May I request a taper, Your Grace?”

The taper was duly brought from the fire, and held aloft in Mr. Elliot’s hand; the magistrate leaned into the passage, and snorted with regret. “How very disappointing, to be sure. Not a cask of gold, nor an abducted princess can I find — nothing but a cleanly-swept hall of perhaps a dozen yards, such as one might see in any well-regulated household. You are plainly no friend to intrigue and romance, Your Grace. For of what use is a passage, if it be not dank and cobwebbed, and descending precipitately to a subterranean cell?”

Not even Maria Conyngham found strength to protest at this; but her looks were hardly easy. She followed Mr. Elliot’s every move, as he closed the passage and threw his taper into the fire. To Lord Kinsfell he turned at last, and enquired, “And who among Her Grace’s household is familiar with this passage, my lord?”

“Everyone, I must suppose,” replied the Marquis.

“Very good, my lord — you will please to sit down. Mr. Conyngham!”

“Mr. Elliot?”

“Were you long intending to declaim your passage from Macbeth—or spurred to the act by the whim of the moment?”

“I was requested to perform by the Dowager Duchess, when first the invitation to Laura Place was extended.”

“So it was a scheme of some weeks’ preparation, I apprehend?”

“To recite a part of which I am so much the master, must require a very little preparation, sir,” the actor replied stiffly.

“Quite, quite — but you do not take my meaning, Mr. Conyngham. The interval of the speech was intended as a piece of the evening’s entertainment — in short, it was planned?”

“It was.”

“Capital! And how long did you spend in prating and posing?”

“Mr. Elliot!”

“Oh, God’s breath — answer the question, man!”

Hugh Conyngham’s air of contempt deepened visibly. “I should judge that I spoke for no less than five, and no more than ten, minutes, sir.”

“During which time Mr. Portal met his end.”

“So we must assume.”

“Any cries? Any scuffle?”

“Nothing of the sort — until, that is, Lord Kinsfell entered the room.”

Mr. Elliot heaved a sigh, and threw his corpulent frame onto the settee. It creaked beneath his weight. One blunt-fingered hand caressed his chins, and the other lay limp upon his knee. He seemed to be waiting for something — divine inspiration? But no — it was the return of the constable named Shaw. The man appeared and claimed the magistrate’s attention.

“Well, my good fellow? Was our Devil’s imp observed?”

Constable Shaw shook his head. In so anxious a moment, the gesture must be eloquent. I felt my hopes to sink.

“Lord Kinsfell!”

The Knight inclined his head.

“You persist in refusing to offer some explanation for your conduct?”

The Marquis’s colour was high, and I detected the effects of anxiety in his countenance. “I do not understand you, Mr. Elliot. I have offered the only possible explanation under the circumstances.”

“Rot!” The magistrate grunted, and slapped his knees with decision. “Very well — come along with you, my lord.”

“I beg your pardon, sir?”

“To the gaol!”

The Dowager Duchess cried out with horror, and staggered at her granddaughter’s shoulder. Lady Desdemona’s arm came up in support, but she uttered not a word.

“I am very sorry, Your Grace,” the magistrate continued, “but there it is — we must have Lord Kinsfell along to the gaol! For one man is dead, as you will observe, and another must pay for it; and in the absence of the unseen fellow at the window, I cannot think that anyone will do nearly so well as his lordship!”

“But I am innocent!” the Marquis cried.

“Perhaps you are, my lord,” Mr. Elliot responded kindly. “Perhaps, indeed, you are. But what does that signify, if you cannot possibly prove it?”

12 December 1804, cont.

I AWOKE THIS MORNING RATHER LATER THAN IS MY WONT, being entirely overset by the events of last evening and the weariness of my return from Laura Place. Thus I made my way to the breakfast-room in every expectation of finding it quite deserted. But here presentiment failed me — for at the sound of my step upon the threshold, the assembled Austens each turned a countenance suffused with false innocence. From their eager looks it was apparent that word of the murder had preceded me.

“Well, my love!” my mother cried, waving her napkin with some animation, “make haste! Make haste! We have been expecting you this quarter-hour. I will not be satisfied until I have heard it from your own lips. A lovers’ quarrel, so Mr. Austen’s paper says, but with theatre people, it might have been as much a joke as anything. There is no accounting for an actor’s taste.”

“Although in this instance,” I observed, as I pulled back my chair, “it is the manager who is dead.”

“There, now!” My mother rapped the table triumphantly. “And so we cannot hope ever to learn the truth of the matter from him. All dispute is at an end. But I cannot be entirely mute upon the subject, Jane. I cannot turn so blind an eye to the comportment of my youngest daughter. How you can find diversion in such a business—”

“Diversion, ma’am?”

“You have a decided predilection for violence, my dear, and if the habit does not alter, no respectable gentleman will consider you twice. Only reflect,” she admonished, with a pointed gesture from her butter knife — “you are not growing any younger, Jane.”

“Nor are we any of us.”

“Jane, dear, let me pour out your chocolate,” said my sister Cassandra, reaching hastily for my cup.

“Tea, rather — for my head does ache dreadfully.”

“Gentlemen of discernment,” my mother continued, warming to her subject, “cannot bear a young lady’s being too familiar with blood. I have always held that a girl should know as little of blood as possible, even if she be mad for hunting. When the fox is killed, it behooves a lady to be busy about her mount, or on the brink of a pretty observation regarding the landscape’s picturesqueness. So I believe, and so our James agrees — and he hunts with the Vyne[14], you know, and must be treated to refinement in such matters on every occasion. Blood, and torn flesh, may only be termed vulgar. Are not you of my opinion, Mr. Austen? Was it not very bad of Jane to have remained in such a place, once the knives were got out?”