“Yes,” she said, puzzled. “Did you want to see them again?”
She retrieved the box for Lewis, who sorted through the effects until he found the Book of Proverbs. Yes, the writing was slanted and well-formed: the mark of an educated man.
“May I borrow this for a short time tomorrow?” he asked, and Minta, though obviously puzzled, nodded her assent.
The next morning Willett was nowhere in sight, but Benjamin was in the cramped little corner of the building that had been set aside as an office of sorts.
“Mr. Lewis,” he said, “Willett told me you were around the other day. I was sorry I missed you, so I’m glad you came back.”
“It’s good to see you again, too,” Lewis said. “I hear congratulations are in order. You’ve married since I left.”
Benjamin grinned. “Best thing I ever did. Should have done it long since.”
“I hear you’re so busy you’re not painting anymore.”
“That’s right. Given it up, just like my father wanted me to for years, although Willet and I may do a mural for the new church.”
“I do have a question regarding those pins you made. I understand that you travelled for a time selling them? As well as your portraits and paintings?”
“No, that’s not really quite right,” Caddick said. “Simms had his regular routes, so I sent most of the pin stock out with him. When I travelled I was selling the paintings. It’s only the well-to-do in the towns who would buy those, you see, but the pins were more popular with the poorer folk. I couldn’t cover the same kind of ground as Simms because he had all his other stock as well. He might sell some yard goods, or a pot or a tool at the same time. There just wasn’t enough profit in the pins to merit a special trip anywhere, but it was all right for him because he was going anyway.”
“So he handled the bulk of them?”
“Yes, he had most of them,” Caddick agreed. “Oh, I’d always have a few with me, just in case, but by and large it was Simms. He always said he wished they were worth more because he sold so many of them. He gave a lot of them away, as well. You know, if somebody bought a bible or a prayer book, he’d throw in the pin as a bonus.”
A bible or a prayer book … or a little red Book of Proverbs.
“Does this have something to do with Rachel Jessup?” Caddick asked. “Willett said you were asking questions about her.”
“Well, yes it does. I have never been convinced that all the questions about her death have ever been answered.” He shrugged. “I’m just trying to put the pieces together, that’s all.”
“Don’t tell me you fell under her spell as well?” Caddick teased. “She had all the young fellows dancing, that’s for sure, but I’d have thought you’d be unmoved.”
Lewis smiled. “Oh, no. Don’t worry, I’m well aware that I’m a crotchety old man and unattractive to all, except perhaps my wife on a good day. It’s just a small mystery that’s been nagging at me for a time.”
“And you think it has something to do with Isaac Simms?”
“I’m not sure,” Lewis said. But he was. And becoming surer all the time.
“Did you have any sort of written agreement with Simms? Or was it all just a verbal arrangement?”
“It wasn’t worth enough to be bothered with any sort of contract. I’d just make a note of what I sent with him and he’d make a note of what he’d sold.”
“Do you still have the notes?”
“Yes.” He disappeared under the counter and hauled out a box. “I should have tossed this out ages ago, but my father was always a stickler for record-keeping. He says you never know when you may have to prove something.” He shuffled through the documents. “Yes, it’s all here.” He shoved a sheaf of papers toward Lewis.
He only needed to find one and it didn’t take him long. There, in a fine sloping hand were the words RECEIVED, 31 JULY 1837, 100 PINS. CONSIGNMENT SALES AS AT 9 OCTOBER, 1837–82. PAID 10 OCTOBER 1837.
Just to make sure, he pulled open Rachel’s book and compared the writing. There was no question. It was the same. But why would Simms have written in the book before he placed it in her lifeless lap?
He handed the papers back. “Thank you. That helps a lot.”
Caddick shrugged. “I don’t know how, but you’re welcome.”
Lewis had never set much store by the Caddicks’ so-called “artistic talents.” The pins, he felt, were quite useless articles and perilously close to being icons of a sort — something that was more along the lines of the Catholic way of thinking than the Methodist. He could see no reason for Willett’s landscapes at all: why put something down in paint when you could see it in person? But he had had a change of heart about Benjamin’s little miniature portraits. He wished that he had, at some point, had the sense to have one done of Sarah, for he realized that he was beginning to forget what she looked like.
IV
The next day Betsy announced that she was ready to try their return journey, and Minta looked dismayed. “You can’t go yet. It’s been so good having you here. Martha is wonderful with Henry. Stay another day. Please?” and then she disappeared out to the blacksmith’s shop. When she returned, she had a smug expression on her face, but refused to say anything until Seth came in for his dinner.
She waited until the children had finished eating and then she cleared her throat and looked at Seth.
“What are you looking at me for?” he said. “This is your scheme, you do the talking.”
“Well.” She sat up a little straighter in her chair. “I’ve been thinking.”
“That much is obvious,” Lewis said. “I can tell by the look on your face that you’re hatching something. So tell us what it is.”
It turned out to be the last thing he expected.
“Well, we have the half-house that’s empty, you know. We wanted to rent it anyway, to help out until the shop gets off the ground. Seth and I have been talking about trying to find a tenant.”
Seth was busy all day in the smithy, and it looked to Lewis, at least, that the business was well-launched already, so he knew that Minta was just using this argument to lay the groundwork for what she had in mind.
“I’ve found it a real help to have Martha around,” she went on. “She’s so good with Henry, and I was just thinking that maybe, since the place is empty anyway, you might think about renting it. I know you already have a place in Bath,” she said hurriedly, “but you could rent here just as easily as there, and since you’re travelling all the time anyway, it would be easier for you to come back here. It’s not nearly as far.”
“Well, yes,” Lewis said. “But that would only hold true for a time. I’m just as apt to be on a different circuit in a year’s time.”
