Lessons in Discovery (10 page)

more sensibly at the case as it stood. They’d taken the momentous decision to ignore all the previous assumptions, theories, whatever you’d call them. Unless the evidence and clues were in the things that they had firsthand access to or among the sworn

testimonies—for example those from the men who had found the

body—they’d accord them no authority. All that was indisputable

was they had a body in a well and no clear indication that anyone had benefited, either directly or indirectly, from putting it there.

Orlando was convinced that if they found out who had

gained from Shaa’s death, then they would be tightening the net

around the culprit. He referred to some papers he’d brought with him. “I’ve decoded two documents so far—very simple this pair

proved, just a letter substitution. He obviously didn’t want to

make it too difficult for someone to read them at some point. I’ve made copies for Dr. Peters.” He held out his original for Jonty to look at.

www.lindenbayromance.com 67

Charlie Cochrane

I dare not write these words in plain English, yet written

they must be. Were I not to survive this winter, I would have my
lady know the troubles I have borne, though I dare not as yet
name those I suspect of being culpable. Evil has many eyes and
ears and tongues, each as sharp as a serpent’s tooth and as

poisonous. I lock my door against it but I cannot keep only to my
chamber, as it could seek me as easily here as out in the streets. I
keep my dagger close by and its point honed. The Lord and Saints
preserve me.

“Powerful stuff!” Jonty whistled. “It seems like whatever or

whoever Shaa feared managed to get behind his defences in spite

of that blade’s point.”

“Aye. And it was some person of consequence, if all this

artifice and subterfuge is anything to go by. Shaa must have been desperate to confide his fears in someone, to let the queen—I

assume she is
his lady—
know of what he most dreaded.” Orlando shuddered. “To live under the fear of death, Jonty, who could bear it?”

“That’s what we all endured last winter, my friend, when

evil again walked the courts of this college. It is as well that you’ve forgotten some things—the dread we all felt wasn’t easy

to bear.” Jonty looked at the papers he held, not wishing to catch Orlando’s eye.

“Was it really so hard? I know you said we were under

threat because of the interest we took in the case, but was there more? The murderer hated men who lay with other men, so did he

threaten you because of our special friendship?” Orlando touched Jonty’s arm with something like tenderness.

Jonty sighed and sat down wearily on the leather settee—he

felt unusually tired. “Yes, he did, Orlando. He’d been spying on various people in the college and had concluded that we were

more than colleagues or even friends. We would have kept strange hours for just two ‘fellow fellows’. The peculiar thing is that he 68

www.lindenbayromance.com

Lessons in Discovery

chose me to kill first. He said it was because he was rather fond of me and he didn’t want me to be upset by your death. I’ve often

wondered since whether his affection had played some part in

tipping him over the edge into a killing spree. It isn’t a pleasant thought.”

Orlando sat down beside his colleague, awkwardly twisting

a glass in his hand. “No doubt I said this at the time, but I’m

awfully pleased he didn’t succeed. In killing you.”

Jonty smiled, rubbing his thumb over his own knuckles, as

he’d often caressed his lover’s. The urge to kiss his friend was becoming unbearable but he was still convinced Orlando wasn’t

ready. He took refuge in the mystery. “I would hope Shaa had

someone as kind and understanding as you by his side when he

was here. You say you have decoded two pieces—does the other

give us any clues?”

Orlando shrugged. “I’m sure it does but I can’t read them.

He says,
My life’s course is not mine own to choose, my moves
have been predestined, my way dictated. They watch my every

step to see whether I will turn to the right or left. Like one of the
planets I chart my course, but I have no influence over anyone’s
life. Johan is kind and good although he does not understand the
machinations of which men are capable. He is a trusting, innocent
soul. Pray God that he remains so.
”

“It all sounds rather paranoid, Orlando. As if he was looking

over his shoulder every five minutes. I wonder if it was only this man Johan Breton whom he trusted?”

“I suspect so. Do your letters give us any help?”

“Only that Shaa and Breton were very fond friends who had

got into trouble, along with Gaveson, over associating with

women of loose morals. Breton seems to have been a local lad—

not sure how Shaa came across him—and he shared Charles’

enthusiasm for the seagoing life. There were indications that they were planning a voyage together. Breton had a berth set up on a

www.lindenbayromance.com 69

Charlie Cochrane

ship leaving Lowestoft and Shaa seems to have been planning to

do a runner and join him.”

“That’s interesting. No one has ever suggested that there was

collusion over Shaa’s projected disappearance.”

“No one had access to these letters. And I didn’t realise

when I first read them that a joint venture was what was being

discussed. The language used is very veiled—Shaa seems to have

been fond of subterfuge and Breton answered in kind.”

“And did Breton get to sea when Shaa didn’t?” Orlando

tapped the papers with his pen.

“He did indeed. There is a letter from him, written in

Lowestoft, full of enthusiasm for his ship and the life ahead. Must have stuck in Shaa’s craw a bit, although I do wonder if it arrived in time for him to even read it.” Jonty shuddered at the thought of the body dumped so unceremoniously into the well. Even at such

a distance of years, murder could still make him tremble.

“You don’t think this Breton could have been responsible

and the letter was a subtle way of his displaying his ‘innocence’?

You understand my drift—by writing to a man who was already

dead, he showed he didn’t know about the killing?”

“If he was responsible, then no one suspected him. He

stayed ten years at sea then returned home to marry a local girl and live a respectable life. I can try to find out more, but I can’t see what he had to gain from the murder.”

“I suppose you’re right.” Orlando rose from the settee,

pulling Jonty up with him. “Come now. The doctor says I should

get out and about a bit more so long as I’m careful and have a

reliable companion with me. As I can’t find one of those, I

suppose I’ll have to make do with you. I would dearly like to visit the town and buy some ink or paper or anything to make me feel

like life is getting back to normal.”

“Would that include a visit to the little shop with the

liquorice?” Jonty squeezed the arm that held his.

70

www.lindenbayromance.com

Lessons in Discovery

Orlando grinned. “Undoubtedly.”

The man in the sweet shop was delighted to see Dr.

Coppersmith up and about again, lading the men with samples of

some very special toffee and fudge he’d been making. The latter

in particular reeked so much of whisky that Jonty bought a pound of it for his father and two pounds for the porters to share, their having been very kind to him during the days when he’d been a

bit low. Orlando’s eyes lit up like a little boy’s at the sight of all the sweets and he proceeded to stock up with goodies, quantities enough to last him through till spring, it seemed.

“You’ll take forever to get through those!” Jonty laughed as

they left the shop laden with brown-paper packages full of

treasure.

“Dr. Stewart, they’re not all for me, I’m not such a glutton.

The toffee in particular is for your mother. If we’re to be her

guests at Christmas then I won’t be arriving with empty hands. I mightn’t be able to think of many things which a lady of

distinction would like, but this toffee would be fit for the queen herself.” Orlando knew he sounded pompous and wasn’t surprised

that this was rarer than it had been in the pre-Stewart days. Jonty had obviously proved an extraordinary influence on him and it all seemed to be for the better.

“Indeed it would. Nearer the time we’ll need to be getting a

fair amount of gifts in—the smaller Stewarts will no doubt be

expecting their bachelor uncle to be splashing out on a thing or two.” Jonty stopped suddenly. “Excuse me, Dr. Coppersmith,

but—aaaachhooo!” An enormous sneeze, as powerful as a

broadside going off, rent the air. Jonty groped for his

handkerchief, the parcels he bore severely hampering him.

“Let me.” Orlando added Jonty’s packages to his own

enormous heap and let the man find the linen he required.

“Thank you. I really don’t know where that came from.”

www.lindenbayromance.com 71

Charlie Cochrane

“Well it nearly went right through my ear, like a rocket on

Guy Fawkes Night.” Orlando grinned, then felt suddenly

apprehensive. “Are you quite all right?”

“Oh of course, just a bit of a tickly nose and throat. I suspect it’s the fault of old Lumley in the SCR with that awful pipe

infecting the air. Dr. Peters should have it banned. Perhaps we

should drop a subtle hint to Nurse Hatfield and see what

transpires.” He smiled. “Home and a cocoa, that’s what’s called

for.” The two men walked back to college briskly, Jonty

anticipating the milky comforting brew, Orlando full of concern

although not sure why.

72

www.lindenbayromance.com

The influenza which was sweeping through East Anglia had

hit St. Bride’s with a vengeance. Even Nurse Hatfield was ill and she was never sick—no microbe would dare to attack her system.

But this time she was confined to her room, being cared for by an old colleague from her hospital days, while Miss Peters had taken charge of the sick bay.

This was a new regime and some of the students who looked

forward to their regular few days of malingering got a terrible

shock. Miss Peters couldn’t be fooled by thermometers that had

been heated on hot water bottles, nor would she tolerate such

vague symptoms as nausea. She seemed able to estimate a

temperature to half a degree merely by applying her hand to the

patient’s chest and her insistence that people stayed in bed,

quietly,
with no excitement
had a most unnerving effect on all who weren’t really ill.

It was just as well, otherwise the college facilities would

have been overrun by those who fancied they had the flu and

looked forward to being cosseted against Nurse Hatfield’s bosom.

Only the genuinely ill were admitted in the week that straddled

November and December 1906, and even then extra beds were

drafted in and Miss Peters’ formidable array of friends were

press-ganged to nurse the fallen. She and they were tireless,

dealing with all sorts of needs day and night, always ready to mop a brow or try to cool a fevered body.

Charlie Cochrane

Nurse Hatfield would have been horrified to see lads with

high temperatures being given tepid baths and gently swabbed in

order to cool their bodies.
She
would have wrapped the things up to within an inch of their lives in order to sweat the disease out.

Miss Peters was convinced that this was dangerous and always

aimed to reduce the fever before she would pile on the blankets, but then she kept the sick bay warmer than the rightful chatelaine of the place would.

Only one lad was lost, a pale sickly young man who always

struggled to fight off the smallest cold and for whom the fever had swept through his frame so quickly that he had just seemed to

give up. Miss Peters had nursed him to the end, comforting and

talking to him, although it was unlikely that he heard anything

that was spoken. And while she prepared the body for the

undertakers, the tears streamed from her eyes, as affected by this death as if the lad had been her own son. Perhaps such a young

man might have been, had the sailor she set her heart on not been sunk with his ship off the Scilly Isles twenty-odd years back, in the worst storm for a century. She’d been happy enough since,

looking after her brother and indulging in her own unofficial

research (planarian worms in all their abundance and glory) but

she’d have given it all up for just another few years with her Tom.

The epidemic, which had started with a trickle of sufferers

just after Orlando entered the sick bay, peaked in late November and just as it began to truly subside, Jonty succumbed. Orlando

found him, two mornings after the sweetshop visit, looking pale

and sweaty, rather incoherent, his voice just a dry rasp. This in spite of his insistence the evening before that he was absolutely fine, something the increasing hoarseness in his voice gave the lie to.

Orlando immediately put down the bundle of Woodville

Ward papers which he always seemed to be carrying these days

74

www.lindenbayromance.com

Lessons in Discovery

and went for Miss Peters, who was making the most of her last

official day in charge.

“It’s definitely this flu, Dr. Coppersmith.” She looked into