“Aye—you’ve just missed him.” Frowning, the stable master walked out to join them. “Came racing down in a right state and yelled for his horse. He was nursing one arm, but he wouldn’t let me see. Just insisted he have his horse, and the instant it was brought out, he hauled himself up and took off.”
“Which way?” Sebastian asked. “Did anyone see?”
“I didn’t.” The stable master turned and looked back toward the stable.
The youngest stable lad had gathered with his fellows in the entrance; it was he who volunteered, “Went northwest, he did.” The lad pointed. “Up toward the road.”
“We need horses.” The inspector stood at Sir Humphrey’s shoulder. “Right now.”
Increasingly grim-faced, the stable master nodded and signaled his lads, and they leapt toward the stalls.
Crawford turned to Sebastian and Antonia. “You two need to wait for us. You can’t go after him alone—he might well have rearmed himself by now, or met up with others.”
Sebastian frowned. “He must be heading toward Canterbury and the London road.”
Sir Humphrey humphed. “That’s a decent ride across country, and he’s wounded—he won’t be able to ride that hard. We’ll catch up with him before he gets far.”
Sebastian glanced at Antonia, then nodded. “Very well. We’ll wait and ride with you.”
They heard footsteps on the path and the sounds of male voices exclaiming. The four of them turned and beheld the rest of the male guests; as a group, led by Parrish and McGibbin, they came striding into the stable yard.
Parrish and McGibbin halted before Sir Humphrey and the inspector, with the other four men ranging at their backs. “We understand,” Parrish said, “that Boyne—Connell Boyne—is somehow behind what’s been going on here over the past week. If you’re riding out after him, we want to come, too.”
“It’s only fair,” Wilson put in. “He murdered his brother and sister-in-law and caused suspicion to fall on all of us.”
The inspector stared at the group, then glanced at Sir Humphrey. “More eyes and hands, more witnesses. It can’t hurt.”
Sir Humphrey pursed his lips, but then nodded.
“Excellent.” Hadley Featherstonehaugh stepped around the inspector and Sir Humphrey and led the other men to the stable.
Two stable lads led out saddled horses for Sir Humphrey and the inspector, then rushed back to help saddle the rest.
Antonia brought the mare around, then glanced at Sebastian.
He handed the gray’s reins to the inspector, then grasped Antonia about the waist and hoisted her up.
She slid her feet into the stirrups and settled her skirt.
Sebastian retrieved his reins from Crawford. He met Crawford’s eyes, then glanced at Sir Humphrey. “We need Connell Boyne alive.”
“Because of that business with the gunpowder?” the inspector asked.
Sebastian nodded. “You’ve both seen my authority.”
“Oh, you’ll get no argument from me.” Crawford looked at Sir Humphrey. “I’d prefer him alive, too. I like all my loose ends neatly tied off, even when they aren’t, strictly speaking, mine.”
“Apropos of loose ends”—Sebastian looked to where the other men were emerging from the stable one by one, each leading a saddled horse—“we agree that most of the male guests could have killed Lady Ennis, but I’ve always wondered about which man she, dressed as she was, would have allowed into her room at that time of night without her being very much on her guard. If she had no other lover among the guests, then aside from myself, the only other man of the company I could imagine her inviting in without a qualm would be her brother-in-law. As far as she knew, she had nothing to fear from Connell. To my mind, he should be at the top of your list of suspects for her murder, but we’ll never have any proof short of a confession.” He focused on Crawford. “Unless you learned anything from the staff?”
Crawford shook his head. “Not a thing. None of them were in that part of the house at that time.”
Sebastian nodded. “That was to be expected. However, there’s something that’s been nagging at me about Connell’s alibi for Ennis’s murder. You told Lady Antonia and me that it was difficult to see how Connell could have stabbed Ennis late enough to meet the doctor’s timetable, then got to the end of the library in time to be seen sitting there by Parrish and Featherstonehaugh without also being seen going into the library by them.” Sebastian paused as Worthington, Filbury, and Wilson, now mounted and looking intent and grim, walked their horses up and reined in to wait for the others.