Murder at Mansfield Park

‘than your picture of a gang of murderous gipsies marauding unchecked and unnoticed across the
Mansfield lawns. A mere five minutes’ mature deliberation should be sufficient to remind you that the workmen are always under supervision of one kind or another when they are in the park,
and share sleeping quarters in the stable block. I doubt any one of them could have slipped away and committed such a crime without one or other of his fellows noticing, especially as there would
have been a great effusion of blood, which could not possibly have been concealed. And what could be the motive for such a deed? I believe Maddox has agreed to question the men concerned, if only
to appease Mrs Norris, but I suspect that he knows as well as I do, that he will have to look elsewhere for his assassin.’
    It had not escaped Mary’s notice, that Dr Grant’s initial contempt for their London visitor had modulated into some thing very like respect, and she was still wondering over it, when
her sister spoke again.
    ‘If only it were possible,’ mused Mrs Grant, ‘to tell for certain who had handled that mattock. Then all would be made clear in a matter of moments.’
    Dr Grant gave a smile that expressed all the indulgence of self-amusement in the face of feminine irrationality. ‘Now you really are growing fanciful. If you are both ready to
withdraw, I will retire to my study.’
    Mary and her sister sat over the fire in the parlour, both absorbed in their own thoughts.
    ‘It still does not make sense to me,’ said Mrs Grant at length. ‘Even if the workmen indeed prove to be innocent, I cannot believe that this Mr Maddox can possibly suspect any
of the family of complicity in this dreadful deed. Surely some delinquent vagabond or escaped criminal is far more likely? Whatever Dr Grant says about it being improbable that strangers could go
undetected about the park, I find it equally unbelievable that anyone at Mansfield could be guilty of such a brutal outrage against a defenceless young woman.’
    ‘You do hear of such things,’ said Mary with a sigh. ‘And no doubt a London thief-taker like Mr Maddox has had experience of them, if anyone has.’
    Like her brother-in-law, she had to acknowledge a grudging admiration for the man’s energy and penetration. She had not given these qualities their proper estimation at first, to her cost,
but she now suspected him to be a man with an extraordinary talent for stratagem and manoeuvre, who would likely prove to be a fearsome adversary. God forbid she should find herself in such a
position! She shivered a little, and Mrs Grant got up to stir the fire.
    ‘That said, I do not envy Mr Maddox the task of questioning the servants. You know how such people are, Mary—if they are not idle and dissatisfied, they are trifling and silly, and
gadding about the village all day long. It will be an insufferably tedious task, and I doubt he will end up with very much to shew for it.’
    Mary watched the flames leap up in the grate, and reflected on her sister’s words. To judge from her own experience, the Mansfield servants would be only too susceptible to Maddox’s
method of questioning, and even if the Bertram family might fondly believe that their private affairs would remain private, she feared that Maddox would soon be in possession of a far fuller, and
less palatable, version of the truth.
    At that very moment, indeed, Mr Maddox was settling Hannah O’Hara into a similar chair, by a similar fire. He had been interested to discover that, alone of all the
ladies at Mansfield, Fanny Price had had two maids to her own use; a little, sallow, upright Frenchwoman, who clearly fancied herself as much superior to Maddox, as she must feel herself to be to
the rest of the servants; and a young girl who had until very recently made one of the housemaids, and owed her elevation to her skill at her needle. He had quickly established that this girl would
be far more convenient for his purpose than the taciturn Madame Dacier, and elected to begin his interrogations with her.
    O’Hara had never previously entered Sir Thomas’s room, far less been invited to sit down in one of his imposing chairs, and Maddox was relying on the little flutter of
self-importance that such an unlooked-for event must provoke, to put her off her guard. The glass of wine he had offered her, ‘to steady her nerves’, would doubtless have no
insignificant contribution to make in that regard. He had