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“How could I when it was the only thing keeping me alive,” Blackwood implored

Isabella sat forward “The murderer knows you have the book?”

“I don’t knohat ga,” Blackwood said, “but after his death, the gentlee He knew of my involvement, and I have used the notebook to black away”

“A gentleuest was the likely candidate “Has this gentleman not made some attempt to recover the book?”

“One night, I returned to the gatehouse to find the place had been ransacked I have been ed twice in the space of a month It is why I must move, why I cannot be seen to follow a routine”

Everything was beginning to make hley Grange? Is it because you fear what the gentleht do in his desperation to find the notebook?”

Blackwood nodded “The gentleman is unstable I fear”

“And you are certain Lord Fernall did not simply trip and fall down the stairs?” Tristan had to ask the question An innocent man would be just as determined to obtain slanderous material

“Lord Fernall did not fall down the stairs” Blackwood’s eyes grew large and wide “The gentleh it was nothing ”

“Good Lord!” Tristan could not hide his shock It took a cold, callous man to behave in such a vicious manner “And you bore witness to the crime”

“I shouldn’t have been in the house, but I’d taken Molly back to her roo to the servants’ quarters and so we’d coh theon the landing and so hid at the bottom of the stairs”

“Did you not hear a conversation?” Isabella asked “Did the gentle my husband?”

“The gentleman crept up behind hiht his lordship before he hit the floor”

An eerie silence filled the roo the macabre scene

Blackwood suddenly ju sos odd at the time”