Mostly she was simply pleased at the prospect. She greatly feared difficult times lay ahead. There was to be the post-mortem examination of old Mr Partington’s body, and if that revealed, as Doctor Sumsion had seemed sure that it would, that the old miser had indeed died by poison then there would be a police inquiry. It would be an inquiry that would, at the very best, be acutely distressing. But, if those wild words which Mrs Meggs had uttered before she left the house had meant anything, an investigation could be far worse than distressing. It would mean that Richard Partington would fall under suspicion, and in the weeks in which she had been governess to his children Miss Unwin had conceived a very great liking for Richard. He had borne up well, she believed, under appalling circumstances. Persecuted by his excessively mean father, he had smiled and not lost his temper and had tried and tried to make the best of things. What other man, she had asked herself often, would endure those empty pockets?
