“Yes, in April.”

“When the mill had already been closed for about six months?”

“That is so,” said Miss Borrow. “It may be,” she suggested, “that Mr Theakston was giving it as his opinion that the mill was dangerously unsafe, which it is, and that if Mr Hartley Lessingham did not intend to have it repaired, then he should have it pulled down. He was perhaps thinking of what happened to Mr Jeremiah Meadowcroft. If this was the cause of the quarrel between them, then Mr Theakston has been proved quite right, for it was at the mill that Edwin suffered his recent accident. At least, they said it was an accident, but I am not sure that I believe them. If it was an accident they should feel sorry for him, but instead he has been locked in his room as a punishment. I have not been allowed to see him for two weeks, and I fear he is very ill.”

“One moment,” interposed Holmes, holding his hand up to stem the flow of Miss Borrow’s narrative, which had been delivered in a breathless, impassioned rush. “Who is Jeremiah Meadowcroft, and what, pray, happened to him?”

“He was the manager of the mill when it was in working order. He was found drowned in the river during the floods last winter.”

“When, precisely?”

“Towards the end of February.”

“Were the facts of the matter established?”

“They said he had been drinking at the inn at Dedstone, and was returning late at night to the mill, where he lived. It was supposed that he had missed his footing in the dark. The riverbank was very slippery and muddy at the time, on account of the flooding. Mr Meadowcroft was a well-known drunkard, so the manner of his death, although tragic, did not occasion any great surprise in the district. Several witnesses attested that he had been drinking very heavily in the weeks immediately preceding his death.”

“I see. Now, what is this accident that your brother has suffered? This is the matter you referred to in your letter, I take it?”

The young girl nodded her head vigorously. “Two months ago, I chanced to walk into the library at East Harrington Hall when Mr Hartley Lessingham was in conversation with Miss Rogerson. I heard him say, ‘I’ll get rid of them as soon as I can, one way or another.’ Then he turned and saw me, and after a moment said something about horses being no use if they wouldn’t jump, so he’d have to get rid of them; but I could tell from the tone of his voice that that was something he had just made up at that very moment. I am certain that, really, he had been speaking of Edwin and me.”

“And what has happened to Edwin?”

“For a time, as you will imagine, Mr Hartley Lessingham’s stern warnings and threats had their desired effect and Edwin ceased his exploratory adventures. Recently, however, he has started to wander off again on a variety of pretexts, and nothing I say can dissuade him. His latest excuse is that he wishes to collect chestnuts, acorns and the like, for a nature display in the schoolroom, but I have feared all along that he would get himself into mischief again. Two weeks last Saturday, what I had dreaded came to pass. Unbeknown to me, Edwin had gone off to explore the estate with a map, which we ourselves had made in the spring, with the help of Mr Theakston. I was sitting, reading a book in my bedroom, and the house was very quiet, when I heard a sudden commotion downstairs. I hurried from my room and peered down into the hallway. There stood Captain Legbourne Legge, dripping wet, speaking to Mr Hartley Lessingham and holding in his arms a sodden bundle. Then I realized that the sodden bundle was Edwin, who was limp and unconscious. I ran downstairs, and as I did so it seemed to me my guardian said something like, ‘A pity you couldn’t have finished him off.’ Captain Legbourne Legge began to say, ‘There were peasants from Dedstone there,’ but then he saw me, nodded his head in my direction and they stopped speaking.

“‘What has happened to Edwin?’ I cried.

“‘He has fallen into the river, near the mill,’ said Mr Hartley Lessingham, turning round with an expression of great anger upon his face. ‘Luckily for him, Captain Legbourne Legge was in the area, heard his cry for help and managed to fish him out. Otherwise, he would certainly have drowned. I have told him over and over again not to play near the river, and have strictly forbidden him from going anywhere near the mill. It is extremely dangerous, as you know very well, Harriet. Now see what has happened!’

“‘I did not encourage him to go there,’ I returned, feeling that my guardian was trying to blame me for what had occurred.

“‘But nor did you discourage him, either,’ said he in an angry voice. ‘I’ve a good mind to beat the pair of you till you’re black and blue! Take him up to his room, Legge,’ he continued, turning to the other man, ‘and I’ll get Mrs Hardcastle to deal with him.’

“I have not seen Edwin again since that moment, for he has been confined to his bedroom for the last two weeks, as a punishment for disobeying his guardian, and I am not allowed to visit him.”

“Do you know his state of health?” Holmes enquired.

“I am informed that he is getting better now, but I do not know whether I really believe it. I have heard him crying out in the middle of the night in a pitiful voice, as if in pain. I pleaded with my uncle that I be allowed to inform Aunt Margaret of Edwin’s illness, but he simply brushed aside my requests.

“‘Edwin will be well soon enough,’ said he when last I spoke to him on the subject. ‘Besides, there is nothing your aunt could do for him. He is receiving all the attention he needs – and more than he deserves, quite frankly – from Mrs Maybury and Mrs Hardcastle.’”

“Who are these ladies?” interrupted Holmes.

“Mrs Maybury was housekeeper at East Harrington Hall when my aunt was there, a position of some responsibility, but after Miss Rogerson’s arrival her position was altered and she was reduced to simply doing Miss Rogerson’s bidding. I know that she has been very upset by all that has happened at East Harrington in the last two years, for I chanced to overhear her once, saying as much to Hammond, the butler. I believe they both would have left long ago were it not that they are somewhat advanced in years and would experience difficulty in finding other positions. Mrs Maybury is a kind and friendly woman, and I am sure that she would do the best for Edwin, if the responsibility for his care lay in her hands, but in fact it does not, and my guardian’s use of her name to me was a lie. For when I asked her at the end of last week if Edwin was improving, she answered me with a look of surprise.

“‘Bless you, my dear!’ said she. ‘I wish I knew, but they won’t let me near him. Mrs Hardcastle has the key of the room and won’t let anyone else in.’

“Mrs Hardcastle is very different from Mrs Maybury. She is a large, coarse and ignorant woman, who has often caused trouble in the servants’ hall, and I know that Edwin has always been afraid of her. She comes of a local family, the Bagnalls, who are well known in the district as ne’er-do-wells and trouble-makers. Her sister, who is a half-wit and drunkard, was in trouble last year for throwing stones and breaking windows in the village. Mrs Hardcastle’s own husband is at present in Bedford gaol, serving a sentence for robbery. Why on earth Mr Hartley Lessingham should have entrusted Edwin’s care to such a woman I cannot imagine.” Tears welled up in our young companion’s eyes as she spoke these last words, but she wiped them away briskly with the back of her hand. “When I heard that Miss Rogerson was going up to London for a few days on some business of her own, I at once thought of you, Mr Holmes. I begged that I might accompany Miss Rogerson, in order, I said, to read something of my father’s family in the library, but my only desire, in reality, was to speak to you and plead with you to help us. If you cannot, I do not know what will become of us.”