Murder at Mansfield Park

prove any thing in itself. Is it at all possible, do you think, that she was calling to him for help? We know he was
in the park at that time. Might she have seen him at a distance, and called to him, even if he never heard her—even if he never even knew she was there?’
    ‘Then why has he confessed? Why admit to a crime he did not commit?’
    Henry took her hands in both his own. ‘Has it crossed your mind, even for the briefest of moments, that he may have been protecting you ?’
    ‘But why? Why should I need his protection?’
    ‘Come and sit down, and tell me, as exactly as you can, what you said to Mr Norris this morning.’
    She sat down heavily on the bench, her mind all disorder, trying to recapture her precise words. ‘I—I told him that Julia had spoken a name, but that I did not need to repeat it. I
said I could not allow you to be falsely accused, and that I had no choice but to go to Maddox. And I said,’ her voice sinking, ‘that he and I might never see each other
again.’
    She was by now crying bitterly, but her brother, by contrast, was in a state of excited agitation.
    ‘So you never, at any point, accused him directly?’
    She shook her head.
    ‘In fact, my dear Mary,’ he said, coming to her side and taking her hand, ‘every thing you said might have led him to believe that you were confessing to him .’
    It was gently spoken, but every word had the force of a heavy blow. She gazed at him in amazement, her mind torn between bewilderment and mortification. The shock of conviction was almost as
agonising as it was longed for; he was not guilty, but he was willing to appear so for her sake, and she alone had placed him in this peril.
    ‘But Henry, this is dreadful!’ she cried. ‘I must explain—how could he have believed me capable of—’
    ‘You believed him capable, did you not?’
    ‘I must go to him—to Maddox—I must tell him—’
    ‘Calm yourself, my dear sister. You are not thinking clearly. We do not even know where Mr Norris is at this moment. He may, even now, be on his way to Northampton. And as for Mr Maddox, I
fear you will need more proof than this to convince a man of his make. He has his reward money already in his sights, and he will not relinquish a suspect who has so conveniently confessed, unless
we can present him with another equally promising quarry. Our best course will be to convince Mr Norris that his heroic concern for you is not necessary; if he can be persuaded to withdraw his
confession, we may be better placed to counter Maddox.’
    ‘But how are we to do such a thing? If we do not even know where he is?’
    ‘Leave that to me, my dear Mary. I will go at once to the Park, and see what I may discover. I do not expect the family to see me—that would be too much of an intrusion—but the
steward, McGregor, will be as well-informed as any body, and he still has regard for me, even if some others at the Park do not. You, in the mean time, should take some rest. I will return as soon
as I am able.’
    She had no better plan to propose, and returned to the house after watching him mount his horse, and head down the drive. She heartily wished to avoid going into company, but she knew that any
further absence would only attract more notice and enquiry, so instead of retiring to her room she joined her sister and Dr Grant in the parlour. She could not hope for restraint from her sister,
in the face of such extraordinary news, but she did hope that, by suggesting a game of cribbage before dinner, she might limit the scope of her speculations. The cards were brought, and for the
next hour the reckonings of the game were interspersed with Mrs Grant’s wondering conjectures.
    ‘And that makes thirty-one, Mary. And to think, all this time the killer was right under our very noses—and for it to be Mr Norris too!—it just shews that you can never judge
by appearances—I always thought him such a placid and agreeable gentleman! Four in hand and eight in crib. And to think, anyone of us might have fallen prey to his murderous urges, and been
slaughtered in our beds at any moment!’
    ‘I think that most improbable, my dear,’ said Dr Grant, looking up from his copy of Fordyce’s Sermons . ‘According to the eminent authorities on the subject whose
works I have perused, Norris does not exhibit any of the recognised characteristics of lunacy, and is therefore most unlikely to be an indiscriminate killer of the type to which you