An Unsuitable Job for a Woman

Cordelia awakens in her car, somewhat recovered from the shock of her attempted murder and Chris Lunn’s death. She drives directly to Sir Ronald’s home. The front door is open, and Cordelia thinks “the house had waited for her” (194). As she is standing in the hall, Miss Leaming comes down the stairs and takes the pistol from her hand. She tells Cordelia Sir Ronald is in the study.

Cordelia confronts Sir Ronald with what she has figured out: He killed his own son and staged the scene to look like “an accidental death during sexual experiment” (196). Sir Ronald asks her who interfered with the body and staged the suicide; Cordelia responds, “I think I know, but I shan’t tell you” (196). She accuses him of sending Chris Lunn to kill her. Sir Ronald insists he only asked Lunn to follow her, to ensure Sir Ronald was “getting value” for his investment in her services.

Sir Ronald denies all of Cordelia’s accusations, and any evidence she might have used to prove the truth of them is gone. While Sir Ronald all but admits his guilt, he has plausible deniability, and she knows it. They get into an argument about the nature of good and evil, with Sir Ronald telling Cordelia that “Mark’s death was necessary and, unlike most deaths, it served a purpose” (198). Cordelia is horrified that “a human being could be so evil,” and Sir Ronald responds, “If you are capable of imagining it, then I’m capable of doing it” (199).

Cordelia tries to argue that Sir Ronald didn’t need to kill Mark, but he is remorseless: “My son was a self-righteous prig. How could I put myself and my work in his hands?” (200). Cordelia threatens to reveal the murder, and Sir Ronald promises to ruin her if she does.

Miss Leaming comes into the room and shoots Sir Ronald dead with Cordelia’s pistol, “an execution, neat, unhurried, ritually precise” (201). She says she did it because Mark was her son with Sir Ronald. Cordelia asks how she could be certain Sir Ronald was the murderer, and Miss Leaming reveals the lipstick used on Mark’s face, which she had just found in the pocket of the suit Sir Ronald wore the night of Mark’s death. Cordelia asks if Lunn could have planted the lipstick, but Miss Leaming says no, because she and Lunn were together in bed that night.

Cordelia devises a plan to cover up Sir Ronald’s murder. She walks Miss Leaming through the process of posing the gun in Sir Ronald’s hand, remembering a story Bernie told her about a woman who nearly got away with killing her husband except she had posed the body that made it clear he could not have fired the shot himself. Cordelia uses this knowledge to pose Sir Ronald in a way that makes suicide seem plausible. The two women rehearse their stories for the police then reveal their truths to each other. Miss Leaming confesses that she was the one who found Mark, cleaned his body, and faked the suicide note; Cordelia explains how she came to suspect the woman. They call the police and report the murder, using their cover story. The cover story hinges on Sir Ronald having confiscated Cordelia’s gun at their first meeting and has the women meeting in the hall and the hearing the shot.

While they wait for the police, Miss Leaming tells Cordelia they will meet one last time after the inquest but should not talk to each other until then. The women are nervous, but then Cordelia says, “If we keep our heads this can’t go wrong” (209). Miss Leaming replies, “What is there to be frightened of? We shall be dealing only with men” (209).

The police come and conduct their investigation. The women stick to their story, and eventually the police send them home. There is an inquest, which is a kind of trial to determine the manner of a death. Miss Leaming and Cordelia both testify. They lie, and the judge rules that Sir Ronald committed suicide.

Outside the courtroom Cordelia meets Hugo, who is dismissive of Sir Ronald’s death, saying, “Death is the least important thing about us” (222). He invites her to stay in Cambridge for a little while instead of returning to “town,” but she refuses: “There was nothing in town for her, but with Hugo there would be nothing in Cambridge for her either” (223). She will stay until she has met with Miss Leaming, and then “the case of Mark Callender will be finished for good” (223).

Cordelia and Miss Leaming meet as they’d arranged—by “accident,” at a church service. Miss Leaming wants to know if Cordelia will keep the agency going, and they discuss business for a moment, then Miss Leaming explains how they faked Evelyn’s pregnancy and fooled everyone into thinking that Mark was really Evelyn’s son. She explains why Nanny Pilbeam had to be sent away and how Sir Ronald would allow only that “incompetent fool Gladwin” (229) to attend Evelyn when she was ill. She even explains why Evelyn went along with the deceit: “she convinced herself that what we were doing was best for the child” (228). Miss Leaming notes that having a baby restored Evelyn to her father’s good graces and his will.

Miss Leaming reveals that because she “wasn’t allow to love” Mark, she “knit him endless jerseys” (230). She reflects on how he might have seen things: “Poor Mark, he must have thought that I was mad, this strange, discontented woman whom his father couldn’t do without but wouldn’t marry” (230).

Miss Leaming offers Cordelia a signed confession that would exonerate Cordelia if the investigation were ever reopened. Cordelia burns the note, saying, “Your lover shot himself. That is all that either of us need to remember now or ever” (231).

Cordelia returns to the cottage and prepares to leave, cleaning up and taking away her and Mark’s things. On impulse she goes to the well and discovers that Miss Markland has planted flowers all around it. Cordelia is “torn between pity and revulsion” and leaves the cottage, convinced now the “case of Mark Callender was finished” (234).