The clock struck midnight, the main house was totally silent, however below stairs, there were many people still up and about.

Andrew Adams was sat in his room, writing a letter on his worn desk, sipping a glass of brandy.

Emily Cory and Felix Kraus were sat plotting about what they were going to do about the estranged couple.

In the maids room, Charlotte Lewis, Grace May and Elizabeth McDuff were sat gossiping about Adams and his suspected mistress, Lady Rebecca Farquherson.

In the Footmen's room, George Cosmo, Fredrick Matkin and Joseph James were sat sniggering and whispering about a trick they were planning to play on Adams and Kraus, while William Forest lay, pretending to be asleep thinking about his beautiful housekeeper.

Frank Kenally was sat drumming his fingers on his desk thinking what to do about Jarvis and his mistress.

Flora Ryan was sat in front of her mirror, brushing through her curls, before retying it up and walking to the cupboard to find her shawl.

As the clock stuck half past a silent shot was fired, the figured sneaked out of the dining room, while Walter Cory lay flat on his back, waiting to be discovered.

The next day the police were called in, Walter was moved up to sickroom, while a policeman stood guard over his room, and another over the dining room. The rest of the staff were to stay in the servants hall and it was made sure that no one left the room.

"This is ridiculous!" Flora shouted, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I just want to go and see him."

"Look, Mrs Ryan, you have been told to sit still like a good girl and if there is any change you will be told," P.C. Rathmell insisted.

Felix stood up and wrapped his arms around her and she sobbed into his shoulder, and Fred and Joe glanced at each other and then over to Will. After a while, another policeman arrived, along with the doctor.

"Good news," Doctor Evans began, "he is going to be fine."

Emily and Flora sighed with relief.

"I am Sargent Parks, I'm going to investigate this case."

"Case?" Felix asked, puzzled.

"Yes, attempted murder, now there are only 12 of you here at the moment, so that narrows it down a bit," he says.

"What you think it was someone in the house, in this room?" Grace gasped.

"Yes, miss. I do."

"Who'd do such a thing?" Charlotte whispers, clutching onto Grace.

Everyone glances around the room.

"Now you may all go now, on one condition… no one leaves the grounds I'll be interviewing you all, individually and I'll be talking to Mr Cory, see what he remembers-"

"Can I go and see him?" Flora blurts out, cutting him off, the Sargent and doctor nods and she hurries off, without listening to him finish.

"Well you may go." They all hurry away. "Right what have we got, Pete?"

Sargent Richard Parks and P.C. Pete Rathmell got straight into the case. So… he'd been found next morning at 7, by a Grace May, who'd been on her way to find Mrs Ryan in her office, however she wasn't there.

"Had dinner been cleared away?" The Sargent asked, leaning back in Walter's desk chair.

"Half of it, sir." Grace replies.

"Half of it? Who's job is it usually to do that?"

"Mrs Ryan's."

"What did you do after you found him?"

" I screamed and everyone came rushing in."

"Really?" Grace nods. "Everyone?"

"As far as I could tell, I mean I was in shock"

"Then what happened?"

"Well Mr Adams took control, while Mr Kraus took Mrs Cory and Mrs Ryan away, who wanted help him, but Adams told no one to move him and he sent Fred to get the police and Joe to go and get the doctor." He nods.

"How long have you been working here, Miss May?"

"Erm… 3, maybe 4 years." The Sargent nods.

"So you know all the staff really well." She nods. "Did you notice anything different about any members of staff last night, or this morning?"

"I don't know… there's been a bit of a tense atmosphere around this place lately. Especially with the Earl being away, everyone's got more time, so are finding it harder to get along."

"A tense atmosphere between who?" The Sargent asked sitting up straight.

"It's not really my place to say… but, between certain members of male staff fighting over a certain member of female staff."

"Who!"

"Mr Jarvis and Will… over Mrs Ryan. It's begun to get physical, and this is not the first time, Mr Jarvis has hit someone over Mrs Ryan."

"Well how about that?" Glancing at P.C. Rathmell. "I think that is all, if there is anything, please do come and tell me." She nods, standing up. "Oh and one last thing, what were you doing last night, around 12:30?"

"I was asleep, sir."

"In the maids room?" She nods. "Who else was there?"

"Liz and Charlotte, we'd been talking until 12:10ish and then we all fell asleep." He nods.

"Thank you, Miss May." She nods and walks towards the door.

So… William Forest… Flora Ryan?

Sargent Parks spent ages in the dining room, looking over the room. Half the crockery was still out and on the table. The thing that was puzzling Richard was… there was a carving knife on the table, why the need for a gun, if that was out. Surely that meant that it had been planned, instead of self defence or a spare of the moment thing. There was an empty brandy glass on the edge of the table at the end Walter had been found at. The Sargent walked around the table and towards Flora's desk, there were no papers on her desk, that puzzled him, he knew that his desk back at the station was full of papers and he'd noticed that Mr Jarvis' was covered in them too. He pulled her drawers opens, and rummaged through them, the top whole had lots of papers shuffed in it. The bottom one was locked, that was odd, picking up the keys that Mrs Ryan had given him, he opened the bottom drawer, it was totally neat and tidy, yet in the top, one it would have been impossible to find a thing. It was only then, that he noticed the cigar but over by the window, walking slowly to it, he quickly noticed that the window, was in direct line with her desk, which brought him to the conclusion that any papers on there would have ended up all over the room if she opened her window on a windy day. Sighing to himself, he slowly exited the room, he was getting no where.

Walking up to the sickroom, he passed no one, everyone seemed to be keeping themselves to themselves, knocking on the door, he heard Emily Cory call for him to enter. He did so and saw Flora kneeling down besides his bed, holding his hand tightly, while Emily was sat in a chair, sewing. Walter was awake, he looked up at the Sargent and gave him a weak smile, however when Flora looked up, she didn't even give him half a smile.

"Mrs Ryan, Mrs Cory, would it be possible for me to have a moment alone with Mr Cory?" They nod, and both stand up, Flora leaning down giving him a kiss on the forehead, before exiting. "Feeling any better, Mr Cory?"

"Much, it's that woman, gives me the strength to do anything," chuckling slightly.

"Mrs Ryan?" And Walter nods. "Mr Cory, how much of last night, do you remember?"

"Not much, erm… I can remember up to about after dinner, I'd stayed behind to have a brandy and cigar."

"Was there anyone else there?"

"Felix and my mother for a while, but then they left and it was just Flora and I."

"Was she clearing away dinner?" Walter nods. "About what time was this.

"10ish, maybe later, we'd had an extremely late dinner"

"Can you remember when Mrs Ryan left?" He shakes his head.

"We were talking, I remember that, but after that, my mind goes blank." He nods, thinking to himself.

"And you don't remember seeing anyone else after that?" He shakes his head.

"You don't think it was Flora do you!"

"Oh no, no, these questions are only procedure." Walter nods.

There was still no sign of the near murder weapon and the Sargent announced that perhaps it was time, they did a room search, without any of the staff knowing, meanwhile Sargent Parks, decided it was time he had a nice little chat with Flora Ryan.

"So you are telling me, that after dinner you began to clear up the dinner, but you left you rest of it, deciding that you'd do the rest of it in the morning and you left your office at about 11:30, leaving Mr Jarvis in your office alone?" She nods. "Have the two of you slept together, Mrs Ryan?" She looks up quickly.

"I beg your pardon!"

"Have Mr Cory and yourself, slept together, having sexual relations? I mean you've been seeing each other for a while now."

"Yes, we have."

"Really, then why last night, did you leave him in you office, instead of the two of you going somewhere?"

"Erm…" She was lying! "Well… I wasn't feeling very well."

"Even so, surely the two of you share a bed?"

"Well, yes, but I didn't want to pass my cold on." He nods, disbelievingly. "Mrs Ryan, does anyone have keys to your drawers except you?" She shakes her head.

The more he interviewed people the more he confirmed his suspicions that Flora was lying. While interviewing Adams, he told him, that Mrs Ryan was incredibly punctual and never had she before left the dinner from the evening before out, Frank Kenally said a similar thing, however Miss McDuff had the most interesting thing to say. She'd apparently seen Flora fleeing from her office at about 11:30 and hurrying upstairs, she was crying and she'd heard her and Jarvis shouting at each other, although she hadn't heard what about.

"Jarvis remembers her starting to put the crockery away at 10ish he said, however she didn't leave until 11:30, that's a long time for two people to sit in a room together." P.C. Rathmell nods. "So they argued, that she neglected to tell us and she flees upstairs."

"But sir, if she was gonna kill him, wouldn't she just have picked the knife up off the table and stabbed him." The Sargent thinks about this for a moment.

"No, she was upset, she fled upstairs, and had time to think, then got the gun, went back downstairs, shot the bd, simple as that, besides he's surely a lot stronger than her, she wouldn't have managed it."

"But, what did he do in her office for an hour?" The Sargent shrugs. "It sounds like a lot of guess work to me sir." He nods.

"But what else have we got?"

"The Forest lad, you've still got to speak to him. It could have been anyone, not one person got a strong alibi. What about Kenally, he doesn't like Jarvis, or Adams he's next in line for his job." The Sargent nods.

"I think we stick with Ryan for now."

What were they arguing about?

Next day, there was still no sign of the near murder weapon and the Sargent was going for a walk around the grounds, giving himself a chance to think. There was something bugging him… something Miss May had said… that was it. Adams had told no one to move the body. Rathmell had said that Adams was next in line for Jarvis' job… however something that happened next was to quickly put the thought of Adams out of his head.

The staff were all eating in the hall in the absence of being able to use the table in Flora's office, only Frank was eating, not dwelling in pity for Jarvis, everyone else was sat staring at there food. Flora stood up and made her way over to the door, intending to go and see her wounded loved one, but Sargent Parks appeared in the doorway.

"Are Mrs Ryan, just leaving?" He says, his eyes narrowing. "If you would sit back down, I've an announcement to make. We've found the gun." Everyone looks up. "And we are ready to make an arrest."

"Well?" Flora asks.

"Who is it?" Emily continues.

"Tell me again, Mrs Ryan what Mr Cory and yourself did between the hour and a half you were alone in your office, and had stopped putting away the evenings dinner?"

"Talked."

"What did you talk about?"

"What do two people usually talk about?"

"I'm asking you."

"Business matters… things. How am I supposed to remember what we talked about?"

"And one more thing, you left half the dinner out of the table why?"

"Because I wasn't feeling very well and decided to finish it in the morning."

"You weren't feeling well, yet you stayed up for another hour and a half and 'talked'!" He snaps and Flora steps back.

"What are you suggesting, Sargent?" She asks coolly.

"I'm not suggesting anything Mrs Ryan, I'm merely going to state that now we found you in possession of the attempted murder weapon, we have enough evidence to take you in." A few people gasp.

" You can't be serious!"

"I'm entirely serious, now if you will?" he say, indicating to the door.

"But I didn't! I wouldn't! Why would I want to kill him! I love him!"

"Don't ask my Mrs Ryan, love does very strange things to people, you could have a number of reasons."

He grabs her arm and she struggles for a moment, before allowing him to take her. A stunned Felix and Emily get up and follow them.

"There's something you don't see every day!" Frank sniggers. "Good on you Mrs Ryan!" He shouts. "About time someone sorted that damn butler out."

"Shut it Kenally!" Will hisses.

"Ooooo, sorry mate, forgot you totally infatuated with the lass." Lizzie grasps the edge of her chair, tightly.

He lay upstairs in bed, doing his best to think. Think about what had happened. There was a little knock on the door and he told them to enter. Felix and Emily walked in.

"Where's Flora?" He asks, sitting up. Felix and Emily glance at each other and Felix begins.

"She's been arrested." Walter's eyes widen in shock. "The Sargent thinks it was her." Emily shakes her head.

"She wouldn't!" Emily shouts and Walter stares at the wall.

Down at the station, Sargent Parks was not having much success.

"Look, sir. The D.I.'s gonna say we don't have enough. We've got a gun, we've no fingerprints. That's it!" P.C. Rathmell sighed.

"Fingerprints! Did you find any gloves in Ryan's room?" He shakes his head. "Well get back to Taplows and start looking, I'll come along tomorrow."

Next day, when the Sargent arrived at Taplows, he found the P.C., who told him that Fred Matkin was missing his gloves. As the footmen had gloves, only Fred's were missing.

"I'm just trying to think when I had 'em last, sir. I'm sure I put them back with my boots."

"Was anyone else there?"

"George and Liz," Fred says, thinking hard,

"What was Miss McDuff doing in the footmen's room?"

"She was looking for Will." The Sargent nods, putting this piece of information to the back of him head. "Maybe I should have a word with Mr Forest."

"That's ironic, you've made an arrest, but having talked to the person, who would want to kill Jarvis most." The Sargent raises his eyebrow, thinking about this and set out to find Will. He was told he'd find him in the bottom garden, pining for his loved one. However he did notice that he was not the only one looking for Will, however she beat him to it and he watched her.

"You alright?" Will jumps and turns to look at her.

"Been better."

"Oh come on Will, she's a murderer, well nearly, surely she's not worth crying over."

"How can you say that Liz? I thought you and Grace and Charlotte were on her side."

"I am, we are, everyone is, except Frank, but I hate to see you like this." Taking his hands and he looks at her, his eyes narrowed.

"I can't believe she'd do something like this."

"I know. I thought her and Jarvis were devoted to each other. You'll have to get over this, sooner or later Will." He nods. "I'm always here for you." He nods and she gets up and begins to walk and sees the Sargent walking towards them, he'd doubled back, so they wouldn't know he'd been listening and whispers. "Sargent, I've remembered something else. I saw Mrs Ryan coming out of her room at 12:20sh."

"Saw?"

"I mean heard, it woke me up, she was struggling with her key I think." The Sargent nods and thanks her, carrying on, walking towards Will.

He didn't get much out of Will, he'd been asleep in the footmen's room from 11:45 till morning, the rest of the footmen could back that up, he sighed to himself as he watched Will walk away.

What were they arguing about? That same question kept popping up in his head. There was something niggling at him. What was it? He needed more proof, nail Flora… for a moment he nearly had it but… no. He stared at the big Oak Tree as the wind blew the leaves to the ground.

"His shoulder, his shoulder…." The Sargent keeps repeating. "Why would someone shoot him in the shoulder?"

"Maybe they had a bad shot?"

"Maybe he was moving… or maybe they had a very good shot and were aiming for his shoulder."

"But that wouldn't kill him." Exactly! The Sargent thinks to himself.

"What was the weather like that night, Pete?"

"Erm… windy, quite a nice temperature, clear sky, I think." Suddenly he smiles.

"Pete go and get a key to Mrs Ryan's room and get up there! I think I've got it!" He dashed up to her room and burst though the door, and quickly saw the shawl on the back her chair, picking it up, he picked an oak leaf of it.

"Oh the door is already unlocked," says Pete, appearing in the doorway.

"That's not what I needed it for. What I wanted you to do, is stay here and jangle that key in the lock." Pete looks at him puzzled, and he hurries down to the maids room.

The Sargent reappears and smiles, I've got it! Just one or two things he need to check out and he'd be fine, and would have a case… surely.

That night, Walter was helped downstairs, into the servants hall, where everyone else was waiting patiently, watching the Sargent. After a lot of waiting Mrs Ryan arrived, she did everything she could to avoid eye contact with anyone.

"Come on now, Sargent! Are you going to tell us what this is about! I'm sure I'm not the only one with things to be doing!" Frank shouts and the Sargent turns to look at him.

"Alright." He says and beings to pace up and down, glancing at everyone in turn. "This has been a difficult case, cause non of you had strong enough alibis, or maybe you did, but just couldn't say." Glancing at Flora, who raises her eyebrow. "This is what I think happened. Everyone finishes there dinner. Mrs Ryan begins to clear away dinner, however she gets distracted, by… I don't know, let's say, Mr Jarvis was feeling rather randy." The footmen snigger, save Will and Grace and Charlotte glance at each other. "That's besides the point, anyway, he's smoking, drinking brandy… so decides to open the window, however the papers on Mrs Ryan's desk, go everywhere, and he begins to collect them up and puts them in her top, however he sees something that catches his eye. Mr Forest can you draw?" Will looks up.

"A little."

"This catches his eye, holding up a little half burnt drawing of Flora, I didn't see it at first with all the papers in her drawers. And they begin to row. Correct me if I'm wrong Mrs Ryan?" She shakes her head and he carries on. " She ends up storming out, and he… I'm guessing he fell asleep in her chair, or something. However someone heard them rowing, Miss McDuff, rowing over Mr Forest. The Mr Forest she was earlier telling to forget about Mrs Ryan and move on, tell me Miss McDuff, are your feeling towards Mr Forest, slightly more than unprofessional?" She doesn't answer and he continues. "You said 'I thought she and Jarvis were devoted to each other', one may interpret this as her saying that Mrs Ryan wouldn't have tried to kill Mr Jarvis, however what she meant was, she didn't think Mrs Ryan would start shagging Mr Forest…." Jarvis swallows. "….Anyway a jealous Miss McDuff decides to try and drop Mrs Ryan in it. Starting by making sure she mentions to me that she'd heard the two of you arguing. And then Mr Matkin mentioned that when he'd last had his gloved you been there looking for Mr Forest, all you had to do was go back, when everyone was working, take the gloves, then wait until Miss May and Miss Lewis had fallen asleep and you could sneak downstairs, shoot him in the shoulder, just enough so you wouldn't kill him, but you could frame Mrs Ryan, so you hide the gun in her room and disposed of the glove, however you dropped yourself in it, by mention that you'd seen Mrs Ryan leaving her room, you were suppose to be asleep-"

"I heard!"

"However when I listened to see if you could hear Mrs Ryan's key from the maids you couldn't possibly have heard it from there and then the noise of the wind on top of that, however you did see her struggling to lock her door, which in the end she left unlocked, and you knew that this was your only chance to hide the gun in her room, while she was down at the Oak Tree." Flora suddenly looks up and Will glances at her, the three look between each other and the Sargent sees the pleading look in both there eyes, he gives each of them a little wink.

"You don't have any proof!" he pulls the gloves out of his pocket with a flourish.

"I noticed that you have very small hands, however Mrs Ryan has large hands, and then I also noticed that Mr Matkin has got extremely small mans for a man and there was no way, this would fit Mrs Ryan." Mrs Ryan smiles.

"So I'm in the clear!" He nods and she smiles.

"P.C. Rathmell, if you'll escort Miss McDuff down town."

Lizzie goes quietly, Walter is taken back up to bed and Flora goes for a quick word with the Sargent.

"How did you find out about the Oak Tree?" she asks

"Mr Forest was sat there yesterday and I found the leaf on your shawl and I put 2 and 2 together, like Miss McDuff all he had to do is wait for the rest of the footmen to fall asleep and he could go and meet you." She smiles at him. "May I just make one suggestion?" They nod. "Choose between the both of them, before something else like this happens."

"Oh I'm not seeing Will. We met up so I could tell him to stop pestering me, after he drew that picture of me, while I was asleep, I decided to set him straight." The Sargent smiles at her. "Thank you."

"My pleasure. Keep well, my dear." She nods and sighing softly, turns and makes her way upstairs to Walter's room to nurse his poor shoulder.

Upstairs, he'd insisted that everyone leaves him as he waits for Flora, she entered and he walked towards her.

"I'm sorry. For getting the wrong idea about you and Will," he whispers and she whispers.

"Just because he fancies me… doesn't mean that I fancy him back… I love you. Oh when I thought I was going to loose you." He smiles and kisses her softly and slowly he begins to unbutton her dress. "Walter, we can't. You'll just hurt your shoulder more."

"Listen Flora, when I got shot in the shoulder before and it was all over, you wouldn't let me make love to the damsel, that I'd saved from distress… but now it's all over this time, you have to let me make love to you or the story wouldn't be complete, even if I had a broken leg and was slipping in and out of consciousness, you'd still have to let me make love to you… now that it's all over." He whispers, continuing to unbutton her dress as she giggles at the plain stupidness of his story and just allowed him to make love to her… finishing the story.