The Marquis thought for a moment. “If I had not happened to pass Steeple at the exact moment when the peasants were dragging the unfortunate girl to the pond, she would have been drowned and no one would ever have heard any more about her.”
“That is true, my Lord,” Roger Clarke agreed. “Then, as likely as not, she would have been buried at the crossroads with her head facing North. Unless of course they decided to throw her into the sea at Steeple Creek, which has happened before now.”
“It has?” the Marquis questioned with interest.
“It may only be gossip, my Lord, but there have been many stories of how, when men fought over local feuds, the loser has landed upon the sands with no evidence to prove he died in any other way except by drowning.”
“That makes the river extremely convenien
