Page 49 of Corpse in the Canal

“So are you,” Daphne said, bringing her back to reality with a thud of her heart.

“I can’t imagine why you think so.”

Daphne jerked her head toward the back door, through which Solomon had vanished a minute before. “If he’s such a good man, why are you keeping it secret?”

That was the question Constance could not answer, though she felt her stomach tighten and some emotion washed over her, part shame, part panic. Whatever, she could not deal with it now. She had a mystery to solve.

“Is your husband the father?” she asked Daphne bluntly.

“Yes.”

“Does he think so?”

“Yes.”

Constance swallowed. “Is this your first child?”

Daphne smiled faintly. “Yes.”

“Are you happy about it?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

Aside from the fact the child could be Percy’s… Constance shrugged slightly. “It changes things, does it not? A child.”

“It’s how the world goes round. You think too much.”

Constance blinked in fresh surprise. She wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. Instead, an odd gurgle sounded in her throat, which she hastily swallowed. “Perhaps I do.”

*

She took Solomon’s arm as they walked away from the lock along the canal toward Larchford. She needed the physical contact. “Did you learn anything from West?”

“A mere repetition of where he had been and who had seen—nowhere and no one. He admitted to owning a pistol but claimed to be unsure where it was. Though he did offer to hunt it out ‘for the constable.’”

“Well, we are the interlopers. Did he have anything to say about Percy?”

“He admitted to losing to him last Saturday.”

“Did he pay up at the time?”

“No. He said he’d take it off what Percy already owed him. I mentioned that witnesses reported his being disgruntled at the loss, and he claimed to have been more annoyed by Percy’s attitude, which he called ‘gloating.’ Somehow, though, I can’t see West being so infuriated over it that he shot him several days later. Did you learn anything more from Mrs. West?”

For some reason, it felt hard to say, as if she were betraying a confidence, which wasn’t at all the case. Daphne had been quite open about it. “Only that she is pregnant for the first time.”

Solomon glanced at her, brows raised. “Is she, by God? Is it West’s?”

“She says so, as though she is sure. It sounded more like a decision than knowledge to me.”

“Is West so sure?”

“That, I don’t know. It raises some ugly possibilities.”

“Such as West going after Percy for siring the child he had never managed with Daphne. It’s a better motive than the few pennies. A resurgence of the old anger that caused him to beat his wife, reinforced by the insult of the child…”

“Perhaps.”

“You don’t sound enthused by the idea,” Solomon said.