Murder at Mansfield Park

O’Hara shrugged her shoulders. "All I can say is she definitely meant to meet someone that morning. That pelisse she was wearing? It was the best she had, and she had some beautiful things. She wouldn’t ’a worn that for a walk in a muddy garden with no-one round to see."

Maddox nodded thoughtfully; Mary Crawford had made a similar observation, but it had taken this girl’s rude simplicity to make its full meaning manifest. He decided it was time to question her more minutely on the matter in hand.

"Do you know of anyone who might have wished Miss Fanny harm?"

O’Hara’s eyes widened in alarm. "Killed her, you mean? I can’t tell you anything about that — I don’t know nothing about it, and that’s God’s honest truth."

Maddox cursed himself; terror would only petrify her into silence. "No, no, do not fret about that. I only wish to know the real state of things between Miss Fanny and her relations."

O’Hara gave him a narrow look. "I suppose there’s no harm in telling what everyone here knows — "

"No, indeed, Hannah, and especially when it is what everyone knows, but no-one will say. No-one in the family, that is."

O’Hara gave him a penetrating glance. "They didn’t know the half of it. Not Sir Thomas and her ladyship, anyways. It always looked peaceful and good humoured enough on the surface, but underneath it was a different story, make no mistake about it. At least as far as the young ladies was concerned. Miss Fanny had a cunning way of her own of causing quarrels without seeming to, if you take my meaning. And as soon as Miss Maria set her cap at Mr Rushworth, well, you can just imagine what Miss Fanny thought ’a that — I think it truly was the first time in the whole course of her life that she’d ever wanted something and not got it at the first time of asking. The bickerings that man caused! Miss Maria did what she could to stand her ground, but she never had cat’s chance — Miss Fanny would bawl at her like a trollop when they were out of hearing of the rest of the family, however dainty and demure she made sure to look in the drawing-room."

O’Hara sat back in her chair, and eyed Maddox in a conspiratorial manner. "If you ask me, something happened on that jaunt to Compton. I can’t tell you as to what, but everything changed after that and it weren’t just the news about Sir Thomas.You see if I’m not wrong."

Maddox did not rise to the bait. "And what about Mr Norris — how did he feel about all this?" he continued.

O’Hara did not appear to be particularly interested in Mr Norris. "Oh, you never could tell, with him. He’s a deep one — keeps his feelings to hisself. But one of the footmen saw what happened when he got back from Cumberland the first time and caught Miss Fanny and Mr Rushworth at that play rehearsal. She was in his arms, so Williams said. Almost kissing, he said. Not at all what a man like Mr Norris would have expected, I can tell you. Williams said his face was black as thunder, and he insisted the whole thing was stopped, right there and then. It was the talk of the servants’ hall for days after."

Maddox could well believe it; O’Hara, meanwhile, was still speaking.

"All the same, if you ask me, he was as tired of her, as she was of him. It wasn’t just about Mr Rushworth, either. They both preferred someone else."

Maddox sat forward in his chair; he had already discovered, or guessed, much of what O’Hara had told him, but this he had not heard before.

"Oh, he did his best to hide it," she said, "being so strict and all, but you only had to look at him when she was in the room. He was in love with her. It was written all over his face."

"It is most important there is no misunderstanding about this point, Hannah," said Maddox choosing his words with care. "To whom are you referring?"

"Why, Miss Crawford, of course. Who else could it be?"

Even though the hour was late, Maddox sent Stornaway to fetch Maria Bertram’s maid, and sat over the fire while he awaited her arrival, perusing the notes Fraser had taken. He also read once again the observations he himself had recorded after his conversation with Mary, in the light of O’Hara’s last and most suggestive revelation.

It was all very interesting, very interesting indeed.

Chapter 14