“Merciful Heaven! What was his object?”
“First, to get rid of a wife.[{58}]”
“A wife?”
“He and your cousin, I think we’ll find, were privately married. By fixing the crime on Redway, he would remove your husband. In that way he expected to free himself and you, and make his marriage with you easy.”
“But I never would have married him.”
“Don’t be too sure.”
“I didn’t love him.”
“But you loved your child?”
“Yes, yes!”
“I am willing to risk my professional reputation on the guess that he has the little girl’s whereabouts in his possession, and would have used her to get your consent to become his wife.”