The Hyde Park Headsman Read Online Free PDF

evidence.”
    Mina Winthrop swallowed hard, as if she had some obstruction in her throat. “Evidence?” she said awkwardly. “What do you mean?”
    “You don’t wish to hear, my dear,” Bart Mitchell saidquickly. “The less you have to know about the details the better.”
    “I am not a child, Bart,” she protested, but before she could add anything further, he rested both his hands on her shoulders and leaned a little over her, looking at Pitt.
    “Of course you are not, my dear, but you are a woman newly bereaved, and it is my privilege to protect you from any further unnecessary pain, not to mention my duty.” This last was to Pitt, and his clear, very blue eyes were level and held an air of challenge.
    Mina straightened up a fraction, lifting her chin.
    “In what way may we help, Mr. Pitt? If there is anything I can do to assist you to find out who did this to my husband, please be assured I shall do it to the utmost of my ability.”
    “What could you possibly know?” Bart said with a shake of his head. “You have already told Inspector Tellman what time you last saw Oakley.” He looked at Pitt again. “Which was late yesterday evening after supper. He said he was going to take a short walk for the good of his health. He never returned.”
    Pitt ignored Bart Mitchell. “When did you become concerned by his absence, Mrs. Winthrop?”
    She blinked. “When I awoke this morning and came down to breakfast. Oakley normally rises early—earlier than I. I saw that his place was still set at the table and had not been used.” She ran the tip of her tongue nervously over her lips. “I asked Bunthorne if the master were not well, and Bunthorne said he had not seen him this morning. Naturally I sent him upstairs to check, and he returned saying that Captain Winthrop’s bed had not been slept in.” She stopped abruptly, her face suddenly very pale.
    Bart’s hand tightened on her shoulder.
    Pitt was going to ask the obvious question, about her and her husband having separate rooms, but it seemed unnecessary. He knew that many families, who could afford to, had separate bedrooms for husband and wife, with connecting doors. It had never appealed to him; he was used to the closeness of smaller spaces, the gentle intimacy, and found in it one of his greatest pleasures. But then few people were as fortunate in their marriages as he, and he knew it. To share even the privacy and vulnerability of sleep with someone one did not love must be a refinement of misery which would destroy the best in either person. And to one accustomed to the freedom to choosewhether to have the window open or closed, the curtains drawn or wide, the counterpane this way or that, consideration for another must be a strange and uncomfortable restriction.
    “Had that ever happened before?” he asked.
    “No—not that I recall. I mean …” She looked at him anxiously. “I mean not without his saying where he would be and when he would be back. He was always most particular about keeping people informed. He was very exact, you know. I expect it comes from his naval training.” She opened her eyes a little wider. “I daresay one cannot command a ship at sea if one allows mistakes, or people to wander off and come back as they please.”
    “I imagine not, although it is outside my experience,” Pitt equivocated. “I take it, ma’am, that he was a very precise man, used to keeping an exact order in things?”
    “Yes,” Bart said rather quickly, and then closed his mouth in a thin line. “Yes he was.”
    “Please do not misunderstand us.” Mina looked at Pitt. She had very fine blue eyes with dark brown lashes. “He was not without humor. I would not like you to think he was a martinet.”
    The idea had not occurred to Pitt, but the fact that she denied it raised the question in his mind.
    “Did he have friends in the neighborhood upon whom he might have called?” He asked this not because he thought it helpful—Tellman would