“Not at all, Dobbs. Knowing the lady just a little, I have been most interested. Now tell me, was Miss Larchester an only daughter?”
“The only child, sir.”
“You are quite sure of that, Dobbs. There was no elder or younger sister knocking about somewhere on her own?”
Dobbs did not seem surprised at the question; he was not by any means a suspicious man.
“Quite sure, Mr. Sellars. I have heard her father say a dozen times, that he only had one child, and that his wife died in giving it birth.”
Dobbs retired after another dose of whisky, and Sellars ruminated over the latest information.
Both Sir George’s brothers had died unmarried, and there had been no sisters. Therefore it was impossible for him to have a nephew.
Mrs. Morrice, née Lettice Larchester, was an only child, therefore it was equally impossible for her to have a nephew.
And yet young Archibald Brookes was accepted as the nephew of both, the son of her sister and his brother.
What was the mystery that lay behind this obvious lie?