Mr. Simon glanced at the peddler’s inventory with eyes as wide as a child’s, his gaze lighting first on one item, then another. “I do not believe I have ever seen so — so — so many — what is that?”
Mr. Deal smiled. “A wooden flute.” He picked up the intricately carved instrument and offered it to Mr. Simon. “Would you like to try it?”
Mr. Simon looked as if he would like to try it very much indeed. However, Mrs. Knightley, with a glance in Mrs. Elton’s direction, gently drew Mr. Simon away.
“We have not time, Mr. Simon, if you want to speak with Mr. Knightley. You can peruse the peddler’s wares tomorrow.”
Before Mrs. Elton could waylay them with a manufactured excuse to retain Mr. Simon for her own purposes, they took leave of Mr. Deal and set forth for Donwell. As the shadows were grown long and the temperature falling, Elizabeth was grateful to be turning their steps towards the warmth of her temporary abode. She was also eager to see Darcy again, and hear whether he and Mr. Knightley had learned anything of use this afternoon.
“Mrs. Knightley, do you — do you think the peddler sells hair ribbons?”
“He does.” She regarded him curiously. “Why do you ask?”
“I want to buy one for Doris.”
“Doris?”
“Doris Cooper.”
“Mrs. Cooper’s eldest? Is she a friend?”
“She comes each day to cook and such. Been coming since she was twelve. The same year we bought our cow. She’s calved one, two — three times.” He paused. “The cow, not Doris.”
Both ladies smiled. “So I presumed,” Mrs. Knightley said.
“Lost her hair ribbon a few days ago. Doris, not the cow. I found it later all shredded by one of the chickens. I want to get her a new one. I saw a girl this morning about Doris’s age with a pretty pink ribbon in her hair. She was talking to the peddler, so I thought maybe she got it from him. Was going to ask him, but then we had to leave.”
“I think it is lovely that you want to replace her ribbon. If Mr. Deal does not have any more, you can certainly find one at Ford’s.”
They arrived at Donwell. Though invigorated by their walk, Elizabeth was happy to retreat from the brisk air and gathering dusk. Her nose and cheeks tingled with cold, and she longed for the warmth of a glowing hearth. Parting from Mrs. Knightley and Mr. Simon, she went to her chamber in hopes of finding an established fire and Darcy.
She discovered that she would have to settle for one out of two. Her husband was absent, but a cheerful blaze greeted her. So did her maid, Lucy, who advised her that Darcy had been closeted with Mr. Knightley in the study since their own return three-quarters of an hour earlier.
Elizabeth set her new stockings on the dressing table and went to the fireplace. When sufficient warmth had seeped into her bones, her maid helped her dress for dinner. Lucy had just finished arranging Elizabeth’s hair when Darcy entered the room.
He appeared pensive, and perhaps weary. It had been a long, busy day for them both. He carried two small sacks, which he deposited on a table beside the door. Their contents clacked against each other and the table’s wooden surface, engaging her curiosity.
Lucy smoothed one last lock of Elizabeth’s hair and departed. When the door had closed, Darcy approached.
“How was your outing with Mrs. Knightley?” he asked.
“Illuminating. How was your excursion with Mr. Knightley?”
“Intriguing.”
He tucked her wayward lock of hair, which had come loose the moment Lucy quit the room, behind her ear. As he regarded her reflection in the glass, he noticed the stockings on the dressing table. “Are those new?”
“I bought them from Mr. Deal today.”
He picked them up, holding them by their tops so that the silk unfurled to full length. “Did you need new stockings?”
“We need the peddler’s cooperation. I considered them an investment.” She turned away from the mirror and reclaimed them. “I did not realize you took such interest in ladies’ stockings.”
“Only yours, Mrs. Darcy.”
She rose to put them away, deliberately brushing him as she passed. “Next time I shall buy two pair.”
He laughed and stole a kiss. “It seems the peddler did quite well by us today, for you are not the only one who encountered him.”
“Indeed? And what did you purchase?”
He nodded toward the sacks. “See for yourself.”
Requiring no further encouragement, she crossed to the table, took up one of the bags, and opened it. The sack held colored glass beads of varying sizes. She withdrew a handful.
“And you questioned the stockings. What are we to do with these?”
“They are for Lily-Anne.”
“Lily-Anne?” Whatever was her husband thinking, buying scores of beads no larger than acorns for a nine-month-old child? “I hope you do not intend them for her until she is older. If you give them to her now, she will put them straight into her mouth.”
“Then I suppose you will consider the other bag even less appropriate for her.”
She had assumed the sacks shared the same contents. She returned the beads to the first and lifted the second. It was much heavier. With a questioning glance at Darcy, she loosed the drawstring and looked inside.
Her gaze immediately returned to him. “Mr. Deal sells sling bullets?”
“He not only sells sling bullets, he sells sling bullets identical to the one we discovered this morning. Distinctive markings identify them as having almost certainly come from the same mold.”
“And to whom does he sell them?”
“That, Mr. Knightley and I have yet to determine.”
“Mr. Knightley is the magistrate. Cannot he compel Mr. Deal to name his customers?”
“As you well know, simply asking someone a question does not guarantee a truthful reply, particularly if it could incriminate the respondent. We have been discussing whether to arrest Mr. Deal outright. The sling bullet connects him to the robbery, and so provides sufficient cause. At present, however, we believe he will prove more useful to us if he remains at liberty. Mr. Knightley has assigned a man to monitor him.”
“The two of you think he was directly involved in the robbery?”
“Even if Mr. Deal knows nothing about the crime, it is highly probable that the thieves obtained their bullets from him.”
“Unless they obtained them from the same source as the peddler. In fact, he could have acquired the bullets from them in trade for something else.”
“Mr. Deal claims that he obtains the bullets from a man in Richmond. Granted, that same man could supply other merchants, could have sold the bullets directly to the robbers, or could even have committed the crime himself. However, our thieves were here in Highbury last night, and Mr. Deal has been in the neighborhood for a fortnight, so the bullets used in our robbery likely came from him.”
“Merely selling ammunition does not make him an accessory to robbery.” She paused. “Does it?”