The Caves of Shend by David Hennessey — Read

There was one thing which, for some time, had greatly perplexed Beatrice. Shortly after the funeral of the lawyer and before the trial, the whole of the Dorset family had gone into half-mourning, and on several occasions on which she had met Donald and Betty Dorset, their conversation and conduct had indirectly suggested a doubt as to whether Septimus was really dead.

It seemed impossible to Beatrice that he could be alive, for the corpse was actually taken up from the caves below 'The Towers,' and no one else had been known to disappear either from 'The Towers' or the neighbourhood. But still, the mere suggestion of such a possibility threw a faint light, like that of an Arctic winter, over the whole dark landscape of Beatrice's past experiences. She would have given half her fortune to have known for certain that the lawyer was still alive.