Nevile’s hatred of Audrey and his plot to murder and frame her

Nevile’s hatred of Audrey and his plot to murder and frame her grows out of a history that the characters initially misunderstand. Audrey had left Nevile for Adrian, Thomas Royde’s brother, but Nevile helped arrange their divorce and shielded Audrey from blame. Later, he turned that outwardly generous conduct into a cover for resentment, and sought to make Audrey pay by framing her for murder.

The Marriage and the Hidden History

The police initially treated Nevile as the husband who had left Audrey. Thomas Royde corrected that account: Audrey, not Nevile, ended the marriage, running away with Adrian. Adrian was later killed in a car accident. Nevile then behaved with what Thomas described as chivalry, arranging for Audrey to divorce him and taking the blame himself. This history reverses the apparent roles of abandoned husband and abandoning wife, and changes how their later reunion can be understood.

Thomas also explained why Audrey came to Gull’s Point when Nevile wanted her to meet Kay Strange. Audrey had no reason to hate Nevile, he said; she had reason to feel grateful. Nevile had tried to persuade her to accept an allowance, which she refused, and she did not feel able to decline his request to meet Kay. The meeting therefore arose not from hostility on Audrey’s part but from the obligations Nevile’s conduct had created between them.

Money, Reputation, and Resentment

The divorce and the former marriage remained present in financial arrangements as well as memory. Nevile clarified that money under Lady Tressilian’s will was intended for Audrey, who had been his wife when the will was made. During the police discussion, Battle pointed out that Audrey had been entitled to an allowance from Nevile at the time of the divorce. Together, these details show that Nevile’s connection to Audrey had not simply disappeared with the legal end of their marriage: provision and support remained in question, even though Audrey declined his offer of an allowance.

Battle’s later interpretation was that Nevile had used the public story of the divorce to protect his pride. In Battle’s account, Nevile presented himself as the one who had left Audrey, while privately resenting that she had chosen another man. Battle connected this grievance to Nevile’s marriage to Kay, suggesting that marrying a woman who loved him helped sustain the public version of events. This is Battle’s explanation of Nevile’s behavior, rather than a reconciliation of the public story with the history Thomas reveals: Nevile’s apparent sacrifice and his private resentment could coexist, with the former concealing the latter.

From Affection to Revenge

Battle described Nevile’s feelings as having changed from love to hatred. His accusation was not simply that Nevile wanted Audrey dead, but that he wanted her death to carry a further consequence: Audrey was to be blamed and hanged for a crime she had not committed. The revenge thus depended on controlling the story others believed about the former couple. A public image of Nevile as the husband who had left Audrey helped hide the truth of her departure, while his earlier act of taking responsibility could make a later accusation against her seem plausible.

Battle also linked Nevile’s response to injury and punishment to an incident from his childhood, referring to an old bow-and-arrow case he had investigated. In Battle’s view, Nevile had long treated harm done to him as something that required punishment, and regarded death as a proportionate penalty. The reference gives the revenge plot a history beyond the marriage, but the evidence presents it as Battle’s assessment of Nevile, not as an independently established diagnosis. The decisive change in their relationship remains the conversion of lost affection and wounded pride into a deliberate effort to destroy Audrey.

The Plot and Its Exposure

The investigation gathered details that connected Nevile to the crime and tested the apparent case against Audrey. Battle challenged him over fingerprints on a club he had recognized as his property, while questioning whether the doctor could swear that the object was the weapon. Lady Tressilian had rung for her maid after Nevile left her the previous night, a detail that placed the household’s movements within the police reconstruction. These inquiries matter to the relationship because the intended accusation against Audrey depended on making the evidence point away from Nevile.

Nevile also described returning to the cliffs where he had been rescued the previous January. He said that on Monday night, at about eleven, he stood lost in thought and looked across toward Gull’s Point. In a later clarification, MacWhirter said he had not actually seen anyone climbing a rope: he had been at Stark Head on Sunday, not Monday, and had inferred what happened from the suit before learning that a wet rope had been found in the attic. The distinction between witnessed fact and inference complicates the apparent evidence surrounding the case, rather than establishing that Audrey was responsible.

Consequences and Significance

Once Thomas disclosed the true history of the marriage, Audrey’s supposed motive weakened: she had left Nevile, but he had helped her and she had refused his financial support. Battle instead identified the concealed motive as Nevile’s desire to punish her for leaving and to make the punishment appear to be the law’s work. The relationship’s central irony is that Nevile’s earlier assumption of blame, which protected Audrey, became part of the public narrative he later manipulated against her.

Nevile confessed, and Battle said the police would not need MacWhirter’s evidence. MacWhirter added that Nevile was so unwell he might not live to stand trial, leaving the legal outcome uncertain. The confession nevertheless establishes the relation’s final transformation: the former husband who once arranged Audrey’s release from their marriage had become the architect of a scheme to implicate her in murder.