A Perilous Perspective (Lady Darby Mystery #10)(42)
“First of all, did you have any interactions with Miss MacCowan?”
“Aye, I spoke wi’ her for aboot . . .” She tilted her head in thought. “Five minutes, I would say.” She glanced toward me. “I was mendin’ a rip in one o’ m’lady’s hems.”
“And how did she seem?”
She shrugged. “She seemed nice. We didna have time to exchange more ’an the usual pleasantries and lighthearted grumbles o’ a maid’s life.” Her eyes narrowed, lifting to the ceiling. “Though, noo that I think aboot it, she did seem a trifle pale and nervous. And she had a bit o’ a cough. I thought she was merely anxious to see Liam, and a bit embarrassed, feelin’ in the way wi’ all the comings and goings from both the gentlemen’s and ladies’ dinners, but maybe I was wrong.”
Gage’s gaze shifted to meet mine. “What about the footman Liam? What do you make of him?”
“As far as I can tell, everyone seems to like him. Kens his business and doesna make trouble for others. But he’s quiet and mostly keeps to himself. I dinna think he’s said more ’an a dozen words to me since our arrival, but he’s always verra pleasant.” She nodded toward the valet. “He’s said more to Anderley than me, so he’s probably able to tell ye more than I can.”
Gage neither confirmed nor denied this, instead pressing her on the point he clearly wanted to know most. “Do you think he might have been capable of violence or discreetly poisoning someone?”
Bree straightened in surprise. “Weel, I dinna ken. A brief acquaintance doesna really tell ye much aboot a person, noo does it? But if I had to give ye my best impression, then nay. At least, not o’ the violence.” She shook her head. “And I canna say aboot the poisonin’. That’s trickier to tell.”
Gage nodded, turning to his valet. “Has he turned up yet?”
“No. The last thing I heard of the matter before answering your summons was Callum grumbling about having to manage Liam’s duties as well as his own.”
A tiny pleat formed in Bree’s brow and then smoothed away.
“Are the other staff members concerned about him?” Gage queried.
“Aye,” Bree replied. “The housekeeper told me it’s no’ like Liam to disappear or to be slack in his work. That he’s always been as reliable as the sunrise.”
I lowered my cup to the table. “Then I suppose the question is, do we think Liam had anything to do with Mairi’s death, or has he made himself scarce because he’s afraid of being accused?”
Gage’s eyes searched my features. “What do you think?”
“I think it’s the latter for several reasons. She was killed by a poison she ingested. One that I strongly suspect was slow-acting. Otherwise, we should have found evidence in the gallery or on her clothes that she ate or drank something.” I began ticking off the possibilities. “Crumbs, a spilled cup, remnants in her mouth.” I gestured toward my maid. “Bree says she was pale, nervous, and coughing, which could all be indicators she already wasn’t feeling well when she arrived at Barbreck. Yet upon first glance, the bleeding from Mairi’s facial orifices made her death look violent. She looked as if she’d been beaten.” I turned to Gage, knowing he would agree with this statement. “Imagine Liam standing next to Mairi, his sweetheart, and suddenly she begins dripping blood down her face. Perhaps he tried to help her, getting blood on himself in the process, and then she drops dead. He must have been shocked and bereft, but also terrified. He wouldn’t know how to even begin to explain it. Given all that, it’s understandable that he might have panicked and fled.”
Anderley nodded. “As the only person present at the time of her death, he must have known blame and suspicion would fall on him.” The taut expression on his face told me he empathized with the footman. As a fellow male servant, he was the likeliest person among us to understand precisely what Liam had been thinking and feeling, and what he’d faced with such an accusation made against him.
“Then we all agree he probably ran out of fear rather than guilt,” Gage concluded. “But he still may know or have seen something that could tell us what happened. We need to find him.”
“Speak to the butler and housekeeper,” I directed Anderley and Bree. “Find out if Liam has any family living nearby.”
“I’ll speak to Callum as well,” Bree said. “He and Liam were friends, so he might o’ told him things he wouldna told the others.”
“They’re also rivals,” Anderley pointed out with a dark look. “With Liam gone, he’ll be promoted to first footman. Or I imagine that’s what he’s counting on, at any rate.”
Bree frowned. “That’s a rather unworthy sentiment. He’s expressed nothin’ but concern for Liam.”
“Between grumbling about the extra work he has to do in his absence,” he reminded her.
She arched her chin. “Weel, I imagine you’d be grumblin’, too, if you were in his place.”
“Maybe. But perhaps it’s best if I be the one to speak with him. I suspect he’s all too aware of your sympathy for his plight and likely to take advantage of it.”
“I’m no’ so easily gammoned as that,” she retorted, bristling with anger. “Besides, he’s no’ likely to talk to you. Thinks you’re stuffy and self-important. A regular English nob.”