had only encountered Harriet on a handful of occasions but each time, including this most recent one, came away from their interaction feeling judged. In many ways Swann respected Harriet’s outspoken manner and felt a kinship with her somewhat iconoclastic nature. Despite her title and standing she was known to hold extreme views and on more than one occasion, Swann had been told, had been the house guest of the radical William Godwin and his wife.
Harriet had married young but her husband had died not long afterwards and the inheritance she had received allowed her to indulge an independent lifestyle. She had written several pamphlets on a range of subjects and was an outspoken advocate on women’s education. She had travelled extensively throughout the Continent until Napoleon had effectively cut England off from the rest of Europe.
Throughout her life, she had made as many powerful enemies as she had allies, but somehow the latter allowed her this blithe attitude toward her reputation. But whereas he respected her, Swann thought any association with Mary might be detrimental to his sister. He consoled himself, however, with the fact that this would hopefully be the last time they saw Harriet for a long time.
Swann now turned his attention to a more immediate dilemma to be dealt with – that of Edmund Lockhart.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
At the age of eighteen, fourteen years previously, Swann had embarked on the quest to bring his father’s killer to justice by whatever means necessary. Even before then, however, he had begun to develop what he termed the ‘System’. The System was a method of deductive reasoning that combined Socratic dialecticism and Hobbesian logic, but circumscribed by common sense. At its heart was the detailed examination of the various answers arising from any given question, in order to bring about a satisfactory conclusion. This exploration would continue to be applied until the truth, or as close an approximation of it as possible, was achieved. It had served Swann well on a number of previous occasions and so he decided to apply it to the matter of Edmund Lockhart and the coach journey they had shared from London the day before.
Swann thought back and recalled the information he always instinctively absorbed, even when it was not relevant to an investigation. On arriving at the Royal Mail coach’s departure point in Lad Lane, Swann had been assured of three pieces of information. The coach would depart at thirty minutes after seven precisely, it would reach Bath thirty minutes after nine the following morning and, aside from the driver and guard employed to protect the mail box, he would be travelling alone. The initial piece of information had proved accurate, as had the next, despite a delay at their first stop – the General Post Office in Lombard Street – where congestion from a multitude of Royal Mail coaches bound for different parts of the country had held up the loading of their own mail box. It was the final piece of information, however, which had proved incorrect.
Five minutes before the coach had been due to start out from The Swan with Two Necks coaching inn, the trio of additional travellers entered the carriage. This had swelled its occupants in a single instance to the full compliment a Royal Mail coach was permitted to carry inside. Although Swann had been unperturbed by this intrusion at the time, a piece of information was a piece of information and the fact it was inaccurate told him one of two things; either the ticket officer who informed Swann of his sole occupancy not thirty minutes before was unaware of these extra passengers when relaying the information, or else the arrangements were made in the time that had elapsed since. If the former, this merely implied a lack of communication within the organisation and therefore this particular avenue of enquiry could be brought to a conclusion, as it could add no further dimension to the main question: what Lockhart was
Harriet had married young but her husband had died not long afterwards and the inheritance she had received allowed her to indulge an independent lifestyle. She had written several pamphlets on a range of subjects and was an outspoken advocate on women’s education. She had travelled extensively throughout the Continent until Napoleon had effectively cut England off from the rest of Europe.
Throughout her life, she had made as many powerful enemies as she had allies, but somehow the latter allowed her this blithe attitude toward her reputation. But whereas he respected her, Swann thought any association with Mary might be detrimental to his sister. He consoled himself, however, with the fact that this would hopefully be the last time they saw Harriet for a long time.
Swann now turned his attention to a more immediate dilemma to be dealt with – that of Edmund Lockhart.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
At the age of eighteen, fourteen years previously, Swann had embarked on the quest to bring his father’s killer to justice by whatever means necessary. Even before then, however, he had begun to develop what he termed the ‘System’. The System was a method of deductive reasoning that combined Socratic dialecticism and Hobbesian logic, but circumscribed by common sense. At its heart was the detailed examination of the various answers arising from any given question, in order to bring about a satisfactory conclusion. This exploration would continue to be applied until the truth, or as close an approximation of it as possible, was achieved. It had served Swann well on a number of previous occasions and so he decided to apply it to the matter of Edmund Lockhart and the coach journey they had shared from London the day before.
Swann thought back and recalled the information he always instinctively absorbed, even when it was not relevant to an investigation. On arriving at the Royal Mail coach’s departure point in Lad Lane, Swann had been assured of three pieces of information. The coach would depart at thirty minutes after seven precisely, it would reach Bath thirty minutes after nine the following morning and, aside from the driver and guard employed to protect the mail box, he would be travelling alone. The initial piece of information had proved accurate, as had the next, despite a delay at their first stop – the General Post Office in Lombard Street – where congestion from a multitude of Royal Mail coaches bound for different parts of the country had held up the loading of their own mail box. It was the final piece of information, however, which had proved incorrect.
Five minutes before the coach had been due to start out from The Swan with Two Necks coaching inn, the trio of additional travellers entered the carriage. This had swelled its occupants in a single instance to the full compliment a Royal Mail coach was permitted to carry inside. Although Swann had been unperturbed by this intrusion at the time, a piece of information was a piece of information and the fact it was inaccurate told him one of two things; either the ticket officer who informed Swann of his sole occupancy not thirty minutes before was unaware of these extra passengers when relaying the information, or else the arrangements were made in the time that had elapsed since. If the former, this merely implied a lack of communication within the organisation and therefore this particular avenue of enquiry could be brought to a conclusion, as it could add no further dimension to the main question: what Lockhart was
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