The man was answering the way he had answered the magistrate. Guarded. That alone piqued Chase’s curiosity. Had Minerva received more forthright answers? She had no standing to ask, which alone may have garnered her more.

“Did anyone visit? Anyone at all? A neighbor, perhaps. A business associate. Even if you did not know the name and did not serve them in any way, were you aware of anyone like that being on the property?” He could find no other way to cover all eventualities.

Edkins studied his line. He made the lure bob. He appeared not to have heard the question.

“One,” he finally said. “That afternoon. I looked out into the garden and saw His Grace with someone. A woman.”

“One of his sisters?”

“I can’t say. I don’t think she entered through the house. I think perhaps she came in the garden from the back. I could not see her well. I only know it was a woman from the bonnet and such. They were among the trees in back, strolling.”

“Do you think he expected her?”

“I wouldn’t know. He talked with her, though. He did not make her leave.”

A woman. Damnation. “Have you ever seen someone who you think was this woman? In London, for example?” He added the last to appease his conscience that he was not really asking if Edkins had seen that woman a half an hour ago, in his own sitting room.

“I can’t say that I have, sir.”

That was not the same thing as saying he hadn’t.

“That evening, after dinner, did the duke return to his chambers? Did you serve him?”

“No. I was in the dressing room dozing as was my habit. He came up very late most nights. I rarely prepared him for sleep before midnight. Then suddenly it was morning and he had never come. We soon knew why.” Sadness flexed his expression. He squinted behind the spectacles.

“What do you think happened?”

“I think he fell. It is not safe up there. That wall would not protect him much if he slipped. I don’t know why he went up there at night like that, with it so dangerous.”

He went because up there at night, nothing existed except him and the vast night sky. Uncle Frederick had not been an especially spiritual man, except for his habit of taking walks under the stars.

Chase could think of nothing else to ask for now. He stood to take his leave. Just then the line tensed and dipped down. With a big smile Edkins began pulling in his catch.

“It will be a small one,” he said. “Small lake means small fish. But I don’t need much for my supper.”