Instruments of Darkness Read Online Free PDF

That is indeed Alexander’s. I wear one very much the same.’ He extended his left hand, showing them the twin of the ring they had found, shining on his middle finger.

    ‘Can you be sure?’ Harriet asked. ‘I think you once said you have not seen Alexander for many years.’

    ‘I saw him last in sixty-five, shortly before I joined my regiment. But I am sure. If Alexander ever lay before me, I would know him, however many years had passed. This man means nothing to me. I believe, therefore, it cannot be my brother.’ He turned to Crowther. ‘My brother broke his leg badly as a child in a fall. After, he walked always with a slight limp. Would you be able to tell if this man had had such an injury, were you to examine him more fully? But perhaps I ask too much.’

    ‘The injury would show, and I am happy to examine the body further.’

    Hugh nodded shortly. ‘Well, that may serve as confirmation for the Coroner and his men, and you have my thanks. But I am sure in my own mind that this is not Alexander. And thank God for that.’

    Mrs Westerman sighed. ‘Well, I am glad to hear it. I believe the body is just in Caveley Park lands, so I will have this poor man taken into my house till the Squire arrives, and we find out what is to be done - unless you have any objection, Thornleigh.’

    Hugh looked at her longer than perhaps he should have done before he spoke, and as he looked, Crowther saw an expression of longing and shame that made him think of a whipped dog, pass over his face. Crowther found himself speculating. The young, battle-scarred neighbour, the husband away at sea . . . Then he smiled at himself. He was turning romantic.

    ‘Of course, Mrs Westerman. Can I be of any further assistance?’

    ‘No. The men from the park will be here shortly and we will accompany the body.’

    ‘Very well.’ And with no more than a bow to them both, Hugh turned and made his way back down the hill again - as fast, it seemed, as he could manage without running from the place.

    ‘He drinks,’ Crowther said, as he watched the blue frockcoat swallowed up again by the woodland. Harriet had leaned against one of the ash trees on the edge of the path.

    ‘Yes, I’m afraid he does. The steward, Wicksteed, runs the place while he keeps company with a bottle.’

    ‘It will kill him in the end - and fast, I think, if he is already at this stage in such relative youth.’

    ‘Good.’

    Crowther twisted round to stare at her. An unusual woman certainly, but to say such a thing! He had not realised he could still be shocked by the speeches of a gentleman’s daughter. His manners must have remained more nice than he had thought. Mrs Westerman continued merely to look at the ground in front of her, tapping her crop. It was only moments before he heard more footsteps and saw Harriet’s groom with another man approaching up the path. She sighed and lifted her eyes.

    ‘My poor peaceful copse. It is as busy as Cheapside this morning.’ She straightened and gave the men their orders with calm good sense, then turned back to Crowther. ‘Come over to the house with me, Mr Crowther. We shall meet with the Squire and then examine this man a little more closely.’

    As her servants made ready to carry the body to Caveley, Crowther noticed her gaze at the path down which Hugh had disappeared. Her anger seemed to have dissipated, and her face was filled now only with regret.

I.5

    T HE FEAR THAT she was about to hear that Hugh had slit his own throat nearly within sight of her home had left Rachel pale and nervous for some time, but she had recovered enough to greet her sister and Mr Crowther when they arrived and pour tea for them both without any shake in her hand.

    She had seen Mr Crowther once or twice in the street, and once through the upper windows of his own house, staring out into the road apparently unaware of anything before him, and naturally she had heard the gossip about him from her maid when he first