Crime doesn't pay enough (part 2 of 3)

It was one of the easiest investigations imaginable. When his lordship was out, I sneaked into his room and browsed through his papers. Not among his main piles of letters, but in a separate drawer in the writing table there were letters written in a distinctly female handwriting. I had brought a small camera and took photos of some of the juiciest passages. It turned out to be a lady F, married to one of the big landowners in the next shire. The letters did not contain any romantic drivel, but they were straight to the point. They contained one amount after the other, for this night here and that night there. They were quite simply invoices for romantic services. Lady F was a prostitute and lord B was her (perhaps only?) customer.

There was definitely money in this. I could either sell the story to the press or just exert some classic blackmail on his lordship. I decided to follow the second path, as I considered it a more long term investment.

His lordship was very understanding. He expressed his understanding in tears and prayers that I would never reveal this scandal to anyone. A further sign of his understanding was a sizeable increase in my salary.

My first intention had been to retire and live on whatever money I could get from the old man, but I realised the risks. If it had been this easy for me to discover his secret, anyone else might find out as well, and then the secret would no longer be mine. If a journalist got hold of it, my extra income would cease immediately.

That's why I went for the more discreet solution to stay in his lordship's service but with a much increased salary. That meant that I could make sure no one else approached the incriminating papers.

The snag was that this was much more demanding than I had anticipated. My salary had increased, but so had my workload. The fact that his lordship was such a loner had raised interest in him from journalists and tourists, and every week there were people who tried to penetrate the grounds with cameras big as pikes. I set up an alarm system, making sure I would be able to get them before they came any close to the manor, but the alarm system often woke me up in the middle of the night when deer or wild boars triggered the traps.

(To be continued. Fairly certainly. But no one knows why. Yet.)