All That Glitters: A Maggie Power Adventure (Maggie Power #2) *Unedited version*

Chapter 8

Once Emily left, I at last felt able to speak to Blake about the letter Miss Emma Strum, the Templeton-Wells's ex-governess, had sent to him after she had been dismissed.

I handed it back to him and explained the delay and difficulty in getting around to speaking to him about it.

"Did you find anything revealing?" he asked placing the letter on the table between us. "Did it summon up anything of that famous feminine intuition?" he said, a smile finally returning to his face.

"Alas, no. I think it nothing but a desperate plea, dressed up with the sort of impeccable manners you would expect of a governess," I replied.

"So we discount her, even though we know that she did not take up the position with the Deedes, which she alludes to in the letter?" asked Blake. "The family wrote back and confirmed that she had been interested in the governess position for a while, but that they did not receive a reference, nor did they see or hear from Miss Strum again."

"Did you discover if she was indeed staying in Broadstairs?"

"In truth, we do not have the time nor the men to find out such information. Another dead-end, then," he said, the smile now completely faded from his face.

"Perhaps not," I replied.

"And why not?"

"Something odd struck me about this letter, detective. This letter is so suspicious because of its very innocence. It's not the content that should interest us."

"No? And why is that?" he said.

"It is the very fact that the letter was written at all, which should make us take note. I've read it over so many times and it is its very ordinariness of the thing which is its most telling aspect," I began. "There is no emotion. No desperate declarations of love. No remorse. Nor indeed is there a single mention of the children, whose care and education she was entrusted to foster. All those years together and not one word of emotion. Very strange, don't you think?"

"Perhaps. Please tell me more," he said.

"To me, this letter is like a red flag. It is a way of getting William Templeton-Wells to take notice. This is Miss Strum tempting William," I said halting, wondering if I was going too far in my interpretation. "All of those words written within," I said picking up the letter from the table, "and yet it only says one, simple thing: don't ever forget me! I'm still here."

"My, you are a marvel. Such insight for one so young," he said. "So it is possible that they are together somewhere and William Templeton-Wells is still alive?"

"It's possible. But I think perhaps the coldness of the letter is also a sign that she may have wanted some sort of vengeance, too." I replied. "How she would ever go about such an act or whether she ever contacted Templeton-Wells again is still doubtful. Unless you have other evidence they met."

He sighed and sipped at his tea. The light rain outside tapped upon the windows, and as I glanced up at Blake, I could never recall his face looking so full discouragement or so drained of self-assurance.

"No, we have nothing of that like," he said.

"Do you wish to take this?" I asked, offering him back the letter.

"You keep it, Maggie. I hear you are in the habit of collecting such things."

"You have said very little about Richmond, did you find our allusive phantom?" I asked.

"Yes, eventually. Though it was no easy task. It took almost the whole day. I asked around the town but nobody had ever heard of him. I called at inns, tried the local church, even spoke to the local police. But nothing."