This is an interesting question. Many readers must have wondered if Vera would ever get caught. Framton Nuttel would surely mention his visit to her. They seem to be in fairly close contact. However, the author makes it clear that Framton's sister hadn't been back to that part of England in years and didn't have a good recollection of some of the people to whom she wrote letters of introduction on her brother's behalf. His sister had told him.
"I shall just give you letters of introduction to all the people I know there. Some of them, as far as I can remember, were quite nice."
And when Vera casually inquires if he knows anyone in the area, he tells her:
"Hardly a soul," said Framton. "My sister was staying here, at the rectory, you know, some four years ago, and she gave me letters of introduction to some of the people here."
So Framton has met a few people through his sister's letters, but he has not made any real connections, probably because he creates such a poor impression on strangers. He has no one in the vicinity whom he can ask about Vera's story. However, he must start feeling suspicious after he has time to think about what happened. If he tells his sister about it, she will have no one to ask except the vicar. This is probably what Framton will do and what his sister will do. She can only write the vicar a letter. There were, of course, no telephones in those times.
The vicar would be astonished when he received the sister's letter. He wouldn't have to make inquiries because he would know that all the Sappletons were alive and well. As a matter of fact, he would probably see all of them, including Vera, every Sunday. The vicar would realize that Vera had made up a ghastly story to frighten their visitor. The only question seems to be what the vicar would do about it. Framton's sister would not know anything that would be helpful to her brother because she had been away from that rural area for four years and didn't really know any of the people very well. She would not want to make personal inquiries except to the vicar--and it is possible that she might not even want to do that. Why not? Because it would only stir up trouble. If the vicar talked to Mr. and Mrs. Sappleton, they would be very embarrassed. They would know their niece was lying, but they wouldn't want the incident to be spread around all over the neighborhood. They would feel that a total stranger had caused them trouble and now that total stranger, whom Mrs. Sappleton didn't like, was bringing in his sister and the vicar to create further trouble. It would look as if they drove a poor, sick man away when he was only seeking a tiny amount of tea and sympathy.
If Framton's sister wrote the vicar, he would certainly reply to her. But his reply would probably be that the Sappletons were all alive and that he saw them frequently. He would say that he knew nothing about anybody being killed while hunting and that it must have been some misunderstanding. The vicar's sympathies would naturally be with the Sappletons because they are local residents and parishioners.
There is a chance that the vicar might want to have a private conversation with young Vera and tell her that she shouldn't be making up stories. But we can imagine how Vera would handle the vicar! She would probably just make up another wild story to discredit Framton. After all, he is the one who is suffering from the nervous disorder. He is therefore not in perfect control of his mental faculties. He just misunderstood something she said about the danger of being sucked into a bog and then imagined that her three male relatives were returning from the dead. It was all in Mr. Nuttel's imagination, and he ran away so fast that he didn't even get to meet the three returning hunters. If only that nice Mr. Nuttel had stayed for tea, he would have seen that they were perfectly all right.
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