Highgate Rise 2 (Pages 32 - 110)

 SPOILERS!!!

Charlotte receives the visit of her sister, Emily, who has returned from her honeymoon. Recently Emily married Jack Radley, a penniless young man, and they have been travelling through Europe for months. Now Emily confesses to Charlotte that she doesn't know what her life will be like from now on. Emily loves adventure and when she asks Charlotte about the case Thomas is working on right now, she tells her about the death of Clemency Shaw, but she does not know anything. Then the two women go to see Lady Vespasia, and the woman remembers that Mrs Shaw was a very kind woman who was campaigning for better conditions in slum lodgings. Lady Vespasia tells them that they could go and see the Member of Parliament, Somerset Carlisle. The man tells them that Clemency may have ruffled some feathers as she tried to reveal who the owners of the slums were. So there is a clear motif why Clemency was killed, and not her husband.

Thomas keeps investigating and realises that Dr Shaw has a tendency to speak his mind, which might have created some enemies. He also learns that some women may find him attractive. For example, Flora Lutterworth used to come a see him often, and his father begrudged the fact that he was never told the reason of those visits. The investigation also leads him to the family. Clemency is the granddaughter of Bishop Augustus Worlingham, a man who is admired and his brother-in-law Josiah Hatch, is financing the construction of a window in his honour. Then Pitt also discovers that Clemency's father, Theophilus Worlingham, died in strange circumstances. He complained about chills, and Dr Shaw simply told him to get some rest. Then two or three days later the man was found dead in his study. He had twenty pounds in his hand, and in his desk drawer there were bundles of money, exaclty £7483, and nobody knew whey he had withdrawn all that money from the bank.

Charlotte goes to see her mother and her grandmother. When she mentions that Clemency Shaw has died, her grandmother says that she used to know her aunts, Celeste and Angeline Worlingham, so she wants to go and pay them a visit. Charlotte thinks it is crazy that they should go when her grandmother hadn't seen the women in thirty years and the two sisters may not even know who she is. However, they go. While they are there, some other people visit. Hector Clitheridge, the vicar, and his wife, Aulalia, arrive, and they offer whatever comfort they can. Prudence and Josiah Hatch also arrive, and the Dr Shaw. Charlotte can tell that there is little love lost between Dr Shaw and Josiah, and he doesn't approve of his new ideas and how he hasn't given a penny for the window in honour of the bishop. 

I have no idea who the killer is, but as the plot is now focusing on the family, I wonder if the key is there.