‘It must have been terrible for Lady Hardcastle,’ says Anna, drawing the coat tighter. ‘Realising the daughter she let her lover go to the gallows to protect had murdered her own brother in cold blood.’ Her voice drops. ‘How could you do that, Evelyn?’
‘I think the better question is why she did it,’ I say, looking at Anna. ‘Thomas liked to follow people around. He knew he’d get into trouble if he was caught, so he got very good at being quiet. One day he followed Evelyn into the forest, where she met a stable boy. I don’t know why they were meeting, or even if it had been planned. Maybe it was a coincidence, but I think there was an accident. I hope it was an accident,’ I say, shooting a glance at Evelyn, who’s appraising me like a moth that’s landed on her jacket. Our entire future’s written in the creases around her eyes; that pale white face is a crystal ball with only horrors in the fog.
‘Doesn’t matter really,’ I carry on, realising she isn’t going to answer me. ‘Either way, she killed him. Likely, Thomas didn’t understand what he’d seen, or he’d have run back and told his mother, but at some point Evelyn realised he knew. She had two choices: silence Thomas before he told somebody, or confess to what she’d done. She chose the first option, and set about her work methodically.’
‘That’s very good,’ says Evelyn, her face lighting up. ‘Aside from a detail or two, it’s almost as if you were there in the flesh. You’re a delight, Mr Gold, you know that? Far more entertaining than the dull creature I mistook you for last night.’
‘What happened to the stable boy?’ asks Anna. ‘The stablemaster said he was never found.’
Evelyn considers her for a long while. At first I think it’s because she’s deciding whether to answer the question, and then I realise the truth. She’s summoning the memory. She hasn’t thought about it in years.
‘It was the most curious thing,’ says Evelyn distantly. ‘He took me to see some caves he’d found. I knew my parents wouldn’t approve, so we went in secret, but he was very tedious company. We were exploring, and he fell into a deep hole. Nothing too serious, I could easily have fetched help. I told him I was going to, and then it dawned on me. I didn’t have to fetch help. I didn’t have to do anything at all. I could leave him there. Nobody knew where he’d gone, or that I was with him. It seemed like fate.’
‘You just abandoned him,’ says Anna, aghast.
‘And you know, I rather enjoyed it. He was my thrilling little secret until Thomas asked me why I’d gone to the caves that day.’ Keeping her gun trained on us, she lifts her lantern out of the mud. ‘And the rest you know. Pity, really.’
She cocks the hammer, but Anna steps in front of me.
‘Wait!’ she says, stretching out a hand.
‘Please, don’t beg,’ says Evelyn, exasperated. ‘I hold you in such high regard, really you have no idea. Aside from my mother, nobody’s thought twice about Thomas’s death in nearly twenty years, and then, out of the blue, you two appear with almost the entire thing wrapped up in a nice little bow. It must have taken a great deal of determination, and I admire that, but nothing is so unbecoming as a lack of pride.’
‘I’m not going to beg, but the story’s not done,’ says Anna. ‘We deserve to hear the rest of it.’
Evelyn smiles, her expression beautiful and brittle and utterly mad.
‘You think me a fool,’ she says, wiping the rain from her eyes.
‘I think you’re going to kill us,’ says Anna calmly, speaking as one would to a small child. ‘And I think if you do it out in the open, lots of people will hear. You need to move us somewhere quieter, so why not let us talk on the way.’
Evelyn takes a few steps towards her, holding the lantern close to her face so that she might better inspect her. Her head is cocked, lips slightly parted.
‘Clever girl,’ says Evelyn, purring in admiration. ‘Very well, turn around and start walking.’
I listen to this exchange with increasing panic, desperately hoping the Plague Doctor will appear out of the gloom and finally put an end to this. He must surely have enough evidence to support Anna’s freedom by now.
Unless he’s been delayed.
The thought fills me with dread. Anna’s trying to keep us alive, but it will all be for nothing if the Plague Doctor doesn’t know where to find us.
I reach for our lantern, but Evelyn kicks it away, motioning us into the forest with the point of her gun.
We walk side by side with Evelyn a couple of paces behind, humming softly. I risk a look over my shoulder, but she’s far enough back to make snatching the gun an impossible endeavour. Even if I could, it wouldn’t be any use. We’re not here to capture Evelyn, we’re here to prove Anna’s not like her, and the best way of doing that is to be in danger.
Heavy clouds blot out the stars and with only Evelyn’s dim flame to guide us, we’re having to move cautiously to avoid tripping. It’s like trying to navigate through ink, and still there’s no sign of the Plague Doctor.
‘If your mother knew a year ago what you’d done, why didn’t she tell everybody then?’ asks Anna, glancing back at Evelyn. ‘Why arrange this party, why invite all these people?’
There’s genuine curiosity in her tone. If she’s afraid, she’s keeping it in a pocket somewhere I can’t see. Evidently, Evelyn’s not the only actress in the house. I can only hope I’m doing as well. My heart’s thumping hard enough to crack a rib.
‘Greed,’ says Evelyn. ‘My parents needed money more than my mother needed to see me hang. I can only assume the marriage took some time to arrange, because Mother sent me a letter last month telling me that unless I allowed myself to be wedded to that odious Ravencourt, they’d turn me in. The humiliation of today’s party was a parting shot, a slither of justice for Thomas.’
‘So you killed them in revenge?’ asks Anna.
‘Father was a trade. Michael murdered Felicity, and I murdered Father. My brother wanted his inheritance while there still was one. He’s buying Stanwin’s blackmail business with Coleridge.’
‘Then it really was your boot print I saw outside the gatehouse window,’ I say. ‘And you left the note claiming responsibility.’
‘Well, I couldn’t have poor Michael being blamed, that would defeat the point entirely,’ she says. ‘I don’t intend on using my name once I leave here, so why not put it to some use?’
‘And your mother?’ asks Anna. ‘Why kill her?’
‘I was in Paris,’ says Evelyn, anger heating her words for the first time. ‘If she hadn’t bartered me to Ravencourt, she’d never have seen me again. As far as I’m concerned, she committed suicide.’
The trees break suddenly, revealing the gatehouse. We’ve come out around the back of the building, opposite the latched door into the kitchen the fake Evelyn showed Bell that first morning.
‘Where did you find the other Evelyn?’ I ask.
‘Her name was Felicity Maddox. She was some sort of con artist, from what I understand,’ says Evelyn vaguely. ‘Stanwin arranged everything. Michael told him the family wanted Felicity to marry Ravencourt in my place, at which point they’d pay him half of the dowry to keep quiet.’
‘Did Stanwin know what you planned to do?’ asks Anna.
‘Perhaps, but why would he care?’ shrugs Evelyn, gesturing for me to open the door. ‘Felicity was an insect. Some policeman or other tried to help her this afternoon and you know what she did? Instead of admitting everything to him, she ran straight to Michael and asked for more money to keep quiet. Really, a person like that is a stain upon the world. I consider her murder an act of public service.’
‘And Millicent Derby, was her death a public service?’
‘Oh, Millicent,’ says Evelyn, brightening at the memory. ‘You know, back in the day, she was as bad as her son. She just didn’t have the energy for it in her later years.’