Detective Mary

Chapter 3

Miss Bentley saw a ghost?

The story spread throughout the ball in a few moments, the music was suspended, and Mr. Bentley hastened to bring back Miss Bentley, told his underlings to close the gates of the manor, and was not being able to stop himself from pacifying her.

Mr. Bingley asked, "What on earth is going on?"

The frightened Miss Bentley was pale and her eyes were still glistening with tears. It was a good thing that the men and women who had come to the ball were all in place, and the chatter and boisterous voices of the people rather made Miss Bentley a little calmer. Wiping her tears with a handkerchief, she stumbled, "I was just going to go to the side room to rest for a while, when I saw a black handprint on the window, and when I looked toward the window, I saw a, a black figure, disappearing in the garden!"

Miss Bentley's words landed on the floor, and many of the ladies present covered their mouths in horror.

From the sidelines, Darcy spoke, "It's haunted early in the morning and late at night, picking the most crowded time of the ball to be haunted."

Mrs. Hurst sniffed and raised her head in slight displeasure, "Do you mean to say my sister is lying."

Mr. Darcy didn't bother to argue with Mrs. Hurst, and looked directly at Mr. Bingley, who was both disinterested and reticent at the ball, "I think it's more likely to be man-made than haunted, and we should ......"

Before he could finish his sentence, he saw Elizabeth Bennet, the second young lady of the Bennet family, who had been snubbed by Darcy himself at the ball, carrying the hem of her skirt in one hand and holding up a paraffin lamp in the other, walking over in the direction of the side room that Miss Bingley had mentioned.

Without thinking, Darcy directly stopped Elizabeth in her tracks, "I think it would be better for you to stay in the hall, Miss Bennet."

Elizabeth raised her eyes, and Darcy noticed that although the second young lady of the Bennet household was not as poised as Jane Bennet, she had soulful eyes. Those dark eyes were intelligent and bright, lighting up her entire face as if they had a life of their own.

"What are you doing near the side room, sir, when it would be better to stay in the hall?" Elizabeth asked, boldly looking directly at Mr. Darcy.

"I was naturally going to inspect the side hall."

"Then so am I," Elizabeth said nonchalantly, "and with all due respect, Mr. Darcy, stopping the bystanders would seem to indicate that you have an agenda."

"......"

Darcy gasped, he hadn't even called Elizabeth sneaky yet, and she had turned the tables on him first?

Just as he was mulling over his words and preparing to strike back, the door to the side room opened.

The crowd was startled, yet out of the side room stepped Mary Bennet, who had just danced with Mr. Bingley.

Mary looked at Elizabeth and Darcy, who were vaguely confronting each other, with a puzzled expression, "What are you quarrelling about? Did you bring the paraffin lamp, Lizzie? I found some clues, the side room is too dark to see clearly."

Elizabeth sniffed and lifted the paraffin lamp, ignoring Darcy, "Let's go."

The two ladies took the lead, directly leaving Mr. Darcy on the side, he could not be directly attacked, but only with Mr. Bingley to follow behind.

Darcy did not say anything, but on the contrary, Mr. Bingley showed a surprised expression, "When did you come to the side room, Miss Mary?"

Mary was dancing with Bingley when the accident occurred. Even if the "haunting" was man-made, as Darcy said, it would never be Mary.

"Just when Miss Bingley said the ghost was in the side room." She replied as a matter of course.

"This is absurd," accused Mr. Darcy, "to act without the master's permission, and besides, if the visitor were a robber or some other miscreant, who would be responsible for your safety?"

Mary was not offended; she only smiled indifferently, "Come with me."

With that she took Elizabeth's paraffin lamp and led the crowd to the window.

In fact, what Mary thought after hearing the word haunted was basically the same as Mr. Darcy - with so many people in the ballroom, it's too bad of a time to be haunted, isn't it? And as a future person who has traveled through time and space who has been educated in Marxian materialism since she was a child, Mary really can't accept the idea of ghosts and gods ...... Well the world of fiction isn't necessarily materialistic, and who knows what strange works of art the authors mixed in when constructing their worldviews.

But Marx also said that practice is the only source of knowledge, and even if there are ghosts, it would be better to see for yourself.

These words can not speak with the Victorian gentlemen and ladies, so Mary simply give up communication, heard that it is the side room out of the matter, then shouted Elizabeth to get a paraffin lamp, their own first to take the liberty.

"There's only so many windows in the side room," Mary explained as she pushed open the closed window, "I came straight over to check on the situation, and then I saw all this."

Saying this, Mary held the paraffin lamp up to the windowsill.

This was before the days when electric lights were in common use, but the lit paraffin lamp was enough for the crowd to see what Mary had found: not only was there a handprint on the window that had frightened Miss Bentley, but there was also a dark shoe print on the windowsill.

"With all due respect," Mary spoke, "who lived in the bedroom above the side room?"

"It is I." Mr. Bingley answered.

"Then I think," she quirked her lips, "you should see what's missing from your room, sir."

Mary put away the paraffin lamp and continued, "The garden is very wet at night, and the visitor could have fallen into the mud accidentally to leave hand and foot prints. And judging by the size of the shoe prints, it should be a man. I just opened the window and saw that there is a floral decoration above this window, Mr. Bentley, and more than a ghost, I think it is more like Miss Bentley bumping into the thief who tried to grab the floral decoration and go over the wall to your room."

Mr. Bentley flinched, "In that case ......"

"You go and check your room," Mr. Darcy said, "I'll escort these two ladies back to the hall and make the announcement."

Mary: "Ah ...... wait a minute, Mr. Bingley."

Where can I announce this, the suspect hasn't been caught yet, in case it's an inside job, wouldn't this be spooking the police.

"We'll have to check the gardens, Mr. Darcy," so Mary suggested, "Maybe we can find the footprints left behind and see where he's really run off to."

Darcy frowned, "It's too dangerous for you to go."

Mary was beyond disappointed, "No?"

She was genuinely curious as to how a large living person managed to do what Miss Bentley had said, disappear out of thin air from the garden.

The haughty Mr. Darcy did not know what was on Mary's mind, but Elizabeth knew exactly. She saw that Mary could not stop glancing out of the window and immediately understood her sister's intentions.

Elizabeth pretended to be relieved and said, "It's all right, Mr. Darcy doesn't dare to go, we can go ourselves."

Mary covered her mouth in surprise, "Is Mr. Darcy so timid?"

Darcy: "......"

What do you mean he doesn't dare, and is still timid? Of course he dared, however how could he let the ladies step in on such a matter, even if he wanted to investigate, it should be left to the men and servants.

He couldn't believe that the ladies of the Bennet family didn't understand this, especially the one who was the older sister, Elizabeth Bennet clearly did it on purpose. Upon seeing her soulful and lively eyes, and Mary Bennet's look of feigned confusion, Darcy was practically gagged speechless by these two sisters who were singing in unison.

"Please return to the hall," Darcy spoke coldly, "Mr. Bingley and I will take someone to the garden to explore the situation."

Mr. Bingley, who had gathered around to watch his best friend's dislike being picked up by the two ladies, couldn't help but lose his laughter. He had an excellent character and knew that Mary and Elizabeth were sincere in their desire to uncover the culprits, and did not care about their rude behavior, instead he rounded up and said, "If you two ladies have any other insights, please feel free to say them, we will take care of them in our investigation."

Yeah, well, Mary still liked her future big sister-in-law, Mr. Bentley, a little more than Darcy - at least he respected her and listened to people.

"It's not much more than that," Mary said eloquently, "I personally think the thief would be a mole, or at least a local who knows Netherfield Manor well. It's a good choice to pick the time of the ball to steal, everyone is indulging in socializing and there are so many people that it's a little easier to muck around. But first, he knew the ball was tonight, and second, he had to be familiar with the structure of the manor, otherwise he wouldn't have known that the master bedroom was above the side room. This burglar is not clever enough to run away or hide in the manor, whether he runs away or hides, and with the loan of the hounds Mr. Steward has been keeping he will be able to track la."

Elizabeth listened to the explanation with an unmarked sigh of relief, "I think Miss Bingley can stop being afraid."

Looking at the situation, the likelihood of it being a ghost was low to none.

Not really demons and ghosts, Mary even had a hint of pity. You know that the United Kingdom is an important origin of fantasy novels, can not see the vast world of Middle-earth and Westeros continent of deceit, to get together a Harry Potter's hilarity can also be well, alas.

On the other hand, this thief is also unlucky enough. If it was not for Miss Bentley to bump into him and wipe off his footprints when he came out over the wall, when Mr. Bentley went back to find his bedroom burglarized, he would have had a lot of time to transfer the stolen goods. The English countryside in this era does not have a perfect police system like London. To solve crimes in the countryside, you basically had to mobilize the people.

"I have a request, sir." Mary thought for a moment and spoke.

"If the murderer is apprehended, will you let me see him some other time when you have a chance," she said, "I am curious as to his motives. You have just moved to Netherfield Hall, and no more stupid and greedy servant would have done it at once; they have had plenty of opportunity to take advantage of it, and I think ...... perhaps there was some other reason for this action."

"No problem, and I have to thank you for your eagerness to help, Miss Mary," Mr. Bingley laughed, "It seems the rumors that Miss Bennet was too talented to be true. I have never seen any young lady so bold and quick-thinking."

Mary had no choice but to reply with a smile, "I've just been reading a few of the detective novels that Papa brought back from London."

"Detective novels." Darcy suddenly spoke up.

Not expecting Mr. Darcy to pick up on this, Mary had thought he would scoff at such popular works. Mr. Darcy looked to Mr. Bingley, who naturally understood what he was thinking, "In that case, I recall that Mr. Holmes' infant son became a detective in London."

Mary: "......"

Mr. What?? What detective?

Holmes: ？？？？？？