Pride and Premeditation (Jane Austen Murder Mystery #1)(24)
“The Bingley family is holding back,” Lizzie declared. “And I can’t figure out why. It seems as though Hurst was in debt, although I don’t know to whom. It was bad enough that the Hursts stood to lose their home. But is it enough to have driven them to murder?”
“Losing one’s standing in society is hardly motive for killing someone,” Jane pointed out.
“Agreed,” Lizzie said, “but you haven’t met Caroline Bingley or her sister. Besides, Abigail told me that it was Caroline who convinced her sister to leave her husband.”
“That’s scandalous, but not a crime. I can’t say I wouldn’t do the same if you or any of our sisters were married to someone like that.”
“I would hope that we’d stop Lydia or Kitty from marrying the kind of man we’d later convince them to leave!”
“You can’t always know a person’s nature by looking at them,” Jane wisely pointed out.
“True,” Lizzie murmured, and thought of Caroline Bingley. She had seemed uppity and conceited and . . . fearful? “What if someone in the family had other motivations?”
“Such as?” Jane seemed truly startled at the thought.
“I don’t know precisely, but Caroline is hiding something.” Lizzie tapped her spoon against the shell of her soft-boiled egg rather more violently than she needed to. “It’s hard to explain, Jane, but she was dismissive of me, and not just because she thought I was impolite. She’s disdainful, to be sure, but she didn’t want her brother to tell me anything about the family. There are many days when I’d happily let Kitty or Lydia go down for some petty crime, but if it were you or I, don’t you think that we’d do anything to help clear our brother’s name?”
“You shouldn’t be quite so harsh on Lydia and Kitty,” Jane admonished her. “But, yes. If you were in trouble, I would throw propriety out the window.”
“Exactly. Which makes me suspect that she wants her brother to be hanged for the crime.”
“Lizzie!” Jane exclaimed. The horror in her voice was endearingly innocent, but Lizzie thought of Mrs. Davis and her plan to implicate her husband so that she could remarry. Who knew what people were capable of?
“Consider it, Jane: What if Caroline wanted to free her sister from a scoundrel of a husband? But what if she also wanted to free herself from her brother’s oversight? They’ve no living parents, so Caroline is beholden to her brother until she marries. This is the perfect solution that gets rid of both men—kill her brother-in-law, and frame her brother!”
“Is Mr. Bingley really that horrible?”
Lizzie considered the question. “I don’t think so. In fact, if we had met under better circumstances, I think I might like him. Not like that—don’t give me that look! But despite his dislike of Hurst, he was truly rattled by his death.”
“He sounds quite reasonable, then—so why would Caroline wish to harm him?”
“I don’t know!” And yet, Lizzie was determined to play out her theory. “Caroline appears to possess the coldness necessary to execute such a crime. She has means—anyone could acquire a penknife—and she has access. It would not be difficult for her to enter her sister’s house and position herself in a secret location in Mr. Hurst’s bedchamber in wait. Her sister was safely away, and she knew that her brother would bring Hurst home—”
But Jane interrupted her with words that dashed Lizzie’s golden dreams of strutting victorious into the Longbourn & Sons offices: “But you don’t have any proof.”
“I’ll get it. Or I’ll get a confession.”
“How will you do that?”
Jane’s tone was gentle, but it brought about a wave of irritation in Lizzie. Caroline would hardly admit to anything if Lizzie were to present her with the facts of the case. Maybe if she showed her the button? But the button was flimsy and easily denied. Lizzie could try to question Louisa alone, but there was a chance that Louisa didn’t even know what her sister had done.
Besides, it would be a very difficult task to turn one sister against another, perhaps more difficult than getting one to confess the truth. She’d never tell Jane because it would horrify her sweet-mannered older sister, but Lizzie would do any number of illegal things to protect her.
“I suppose I shall have to consult Papa.” Lizzie sighed, knowing that asking his advice on the best way to question a suspect might show her hand. Then again, she could see Charlotte.
“I wish you luck,” Jane said. “But I’m not convinced. Why resort to murder to escape her brother when she could just do what every other wealthy young lady does—get married!”
Lizzie was about to say that perhaps not every young lady wanted to marry, when she heard Mary’s voice. “Who’s getting married?”
The two elder Bennets started, and Lizzie chirped, “No one!” as Mary entered the dining room. She was dressed in an old gray frock of Lizzie’s that did not fit her well, and her hair was scraped back severely.
“You never tell me anything,” she complained. “I know you were talking about someone getting married.”
Because you tell Lydia and Kitty everything, and they tell Mama, Lizzie thought sourly, but Jane answered instead. “Just idle talk, not directed at anyone in particular.”