“No thanks to Elias,” Olivia said, “who blew up my laboratory the first time to keep me from discovering it.”
When a chill spread through Vanessa, she began to think she’d put the brandy down prematurely. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing! “The first time? And who’s Elias?”
“A villain for hire, we think,” Olivia said with surprising nonchalance. “He was poisoned in prison before he could tell us anything.” She laid her hand on Thornstock’s knee. “But that was after Thorn whisked me away to the country and bought me a whole new laboratory so I could do my experiments again.”
Good Lord. Explosions and arsenic poisonings and experiments and manufactured “accidents.” What else was this family dealing with? Sheridan’s treatment of her seemed inconsequential by comparison.
She thrust out her chin. No, she would not let him get away with it so easily. You lied to him about your feelings for Mr. Juncker. You wouldn’t have ended up married to him if you’d told him the truth.
Shoving that uneasy thought into a dark place in her mind, she picked up the glass of brandy and took another warming sip.
“I know this is a great deal to take in all at once,” the major said, having obviously noticed her brandy consumption. “But you can see why we’ve been trying to investigate it.”
“On our own,” Lady Gwyn said, “since none of us knows whom to trust outside the family.”
“Although we’ve narrowed our suspects to three possible villains,” Joshua said.
“You mean villainesses, don’t you?” Sheridan’s gaze fixed upon her now.
It took Vanessa a moment to comprehend why. Then she scowled at Sheridan. “You think Mama had something to do with this?”
“Grey certainly thought so.” Sheridan dragged in a deep breath. “He was supposed to be the one to question your mother. But given your mother’s dislike of him and with Beatrice so close to having her child delivered, he wanted to be with her, so—”
“He asked you to do it,” Vanessa finished for him. Her heart sank. If Mama proved to be a murderer, how could she bear it? Granted, her mother wasn’t the easiest person to live with, but Vanessa didn’t want to see her jailed, or worse yet, hanged. She could see why Grey would think Mama capable of it, but he was wrong. He had to be wrong.
Something else occurred to her. If Grey hadn’t asked Sheridan to do the questioning of her mother, Vanessa wouldn’t be married to Sheridan at all. Although at the moment, she wasn’t sure her cousin did her any favors. “Wait,” she said as the word villainesses sank in, “you suspect three women?” Clinging to the possibility that it was one of the others, she met Joshua’s gaze. “Mama and who else?”
Olivia said tartly, “My mother and Lady Hornsby.”
Good Lord. All were respected women of rank. “I assume you don’t suspect them of colluding with each other to do this.”
“No, of course not,” Joshua said. “Although they did have their coming outs together. Along with the dowager duchess.” He paused. “And yes, we eliminated my mother-in-law first. For one murder she was in labor, and for Uncle Armie’s she wasn’t even in the country. Although we believe that the individual who committed the first two murders probably hired someone to commit the second two—perhaps Elias—we don’t think anyone could have arranged that from afar. The dowager duchess’s family was in Berlin at the time, at too great a distance to do so.”
Vanessa tried to think through what he was saying, but she couldn’t make sense of it. “Why on earth would this . . . ‘villainess’ wait decades to again murder someone—or have him murdered, for that matter?”
Joshua shrugged. “We think Uncle Armie was murdered to bring Sheridan’s father and mother back to England so that Sheridan’s father could be murdered.”
That sort of made sense. Except for one thing. “Yes, but why then? There had to be a reason your uncle Armie wasn’t murdered ten or twenty years ago instead of last year.”
“Well,” Joshua said, “his death wouldn’t necessarily have brought Sheridan’s father back unless Uncle Armie had already inherited the title. If Sheridan’s grandfather had still been alive, it might not have made as much difference. And Uncle Armie’s wife dying could also have set everything in motion, since there was always a chance she might bear him the heir.”
“Yes, but that was ten years before Uncle Armie was murdered,” Sheridan put in. “Admit it, Joshua, that’s the one flaw in our tidy assumptions. Why did the killer wait so long? She had to have had a reason.”
At the word She, Vanessa stared at Sheridan. “And I still don’t see why you’re suspecting women in the first place. I mean, wouldn’t it make more sense to suspect men? Surely men commit more crimes than women.”
Joshua nodded. “True. But whoever committed the first two murders had to have access to Grey’s father and Thorn’s father. There were house parties going on for both murders, and the only guests who were present for both were those three women.”
Vanessa frowned. “I don’t understand. Why do you assume the killer was a guest?”
“The servants were all attached to the houses where the parties were,” Thorn said. “They wouldn’t have been at both parties.”
“Unless they were personal servants,” Vanessa said. “I’m sure Lady Hornsby travels with a lady’s maid and a couple of footmen, don’t you think? I know Mama generally insists on having our family physician travel with us. She has all sorts of ailments, you know. The only reason she didn’t bring him this time was he wasn’t in town for her to ask him.”
The dowager duchess leaned forward. “Lady Norley said she always brings her lady’s maid as well. Did any of you consider the personal servants?”
The men looked at each other.
Vanessa shook her head. “You didn’t, did you? Men. They never consider the domestic staff.”
Joshua straightened, clearly annoyed at having this oversight shown to him. “You have a point. But we can’t be sure those same servants were working for their employers during both parties. Besides, we have to rule each woman out before we can even look into their servants.”
“True,” Thorn said.
Joshua went on. “And perhaps now that Vanessa is caught up on everything, we can proceed to covering more recent events. Sheridan, did you learn anything from Lady Eustace?”
When he glanced at her warily, Vanessa merely tapped her fingers on one silk-clad knee and tried to ignore him. She did wish women had wrappers like these banyans. They were much less revealing. But she also wished this particular banyan didn’t smell so temptingly of her husband’s favorite spicy cologne. It reminded her of how tenderly he’d deflowered her.
Blasted man. Every time she wanted to stay angry at him, she remembered some . . . some nice thing he’d done. Perversely, that made her glare at him. “I suppose you got Mama to admit to murder while I wasn’t around.”
“Hardly,” Sheridan grumbled. “I can’t even get her to talk about those two house parties.”
“That’s because you’re going about it all wrong,” Vanessa said. “Mama only lapses into memory if the memory reflects particularly well on her. You need to appeal to Mama’s belief that everything is about her. Better yet, you should let me question her.”
Sheridan narrowed his gaze on her. “Not a chance. She’s your mother. How could we trust you to be objective?”
She sniffed. “I can be plenty objective about Mama, which you would learn if you’d just let me wheedle the truth out of her.”
Olivia straightened in her chair. “If Vanessa can question her mother, I don’t see why I can’t question mine.”
Joshua cast her a stern look. “Does that mean Thorn hasn’t questioned your mother yet?”
“Well, no.” Olivia shot her husband an apologetic glance. “But he and I both will make sure to find out from her what we can. She’s really quite reasonable once you get to know her.”
“She is, actually,” Thorn said. “Putting aside her attempt to
blackmail me into marriage nine years ago, that is.”
“Thorn!” Olivia protested.
“I deserved it, sweeting. It’s fine.”
“Hmph.” Olivia turned to the group. “Grant you, Mama will do almost anything to protect her family, but I can’t see her killing anyone with no purpose, and I wasn’t even born when the first two murders happened, so she would have had no reason. Whereas Vanessa’s mother . . .” She trailed off, as if realizing she was about to say something rather condescending. Vanessa didn’t mind, having learned, in the short time she’d known Olivia, that the woman was generally blunt.
“Look,” Vanessa said, sweeping her gaze about the room, “I know Mama can be difficult, even cruel. Certainly she was horrible to Grey. But to murder two people and arrange the murders of two more? The impracticality of it alone rules out Mama. Why, she couldn’t even manage my debut ball by herself—she had to get Grey to help her. Trust me, my mother could never be a master criminal of the sort you’re describing. That would require far too much effort.”
The dowager duchess nodded. “That is more in line with the Cora I used to know. Her wickedness was always borne of weakness.” She turned grim. “She preys on children who can’t defend themselves and her own daughter who only wants her love. But murder three powerful dukes and a newly minted one? I’d be shocked to find out she would risk it. And for what? Why would she keep killing dukes, anyway?”
“Because she was hoping to have her husband inherit the dukedom?” Joshua said.
“That only works for the first murder.” Sheridan frowned. “Although we honestly don’t know if she poisoned baby Grey as well. He was sick at the same time as his father.”
“But if Mama had given him arsenic,” Vanessa pointed out, “wouldn’t he have died? I can’t imagine an infant surviving such a poisoning. Even if he had, even if Mama was responsible for the former Greycourt’s death, what reason did she have for killing Thorn and Gwyn’s father?”
“To be honest,” Joshua said, “we’re still a bit fuzzy on the motive or motives for the two earlier murders. The only thing we seem to agree on is that it involves the dowager duchess.” Everyone looked at him in outrage. “Not as a suspect, mind you, but as a victim in some way.”
“There’s at least a motive for Lady Eustace to have murdered Grey’s father,” Olivia said. “But my mother has no motive for any of the murders. Access without a motive doesn’t prove much unless you can put the arsenic in her hand.”
The dowager duchess looked at Olivia. “And the second murder—if it was one—was made to look like a carriage accident. I cannot see your mother sabotaging a carriage. Can you?”
“Of course not,” Olivia said. “She wouldn’t even know how.”
“Are you saying the villainess must be Lady Hornsby?” Joshua glanced at Olivia. “Or one of the personal servants of the three women?”
“I wouldn’t put it past Lady Hornsby,” Gwyn grumbled. “She keeps avoiding me. It’s almost as if she knows what I’m after.”
“She did leave the wedding before I could even so much as speak with her,” the dowager duchess said. “Although it’s not unusual for her to leave events early. She has quite a busy social life.”
After another quick sip of brandy, Vanessa jumped in again. “And what would be her motive?”
“She wanted my first husband,” the dowager duchess said. “And our marriage thwarted her in that.”
“She was also rumored to have been meeting our father behind your back,” Thorn said quietly.
“I told you,” the dowager duchess said, “that is ridiculous.”
Vanessa took another, bigger sip of her brandy. Olivia was right. It was rather delicious when one sipped it.
“You also told us that Lady Hornsby’s husband died of an ague,” Olivia said. “Like your first husband? Is it possible she poisoned her own husband?”
“I suppose it’s possible but it’s highly unlikely,” the dowager duchess said. “And if it were done so she could gain Thorn and Gwyn’s father, then why not kill me instead? Why kill my second husband? It makes no sense.”
“It really doesn’t,” Gwyn said. “She has no good motive. The only person she might have had a reason to kill was her late husband.”
Sheridan nodded. “And he was old, so she could have just waited until he died.”
“Or perhaps she has a maniacal dislike of men and merely sought to eliminate them for herself and her closest friend where possible,” Thorn said.
Vanessa found Thorn’s remark so ridiculous that she sipped more brandy. As she did, she noticed Sheridan wearing a skeptical expression. At least she wasn’t the only one who thought Thorn’s statement was absurd.
“Let’s leave motive aside for the moment,” Joshua said. “We simply don’t know enough yet to determine what that might be. First we need to establish whether they had anything to do with the murders. We suspect that Sheridan’s father was lured to the home my sister and I used to share so he could be pushed off that bridge, possibly by Elias. I showed a forgery expert both the note used to summon the duke and the letter Elias wrote to Lady Norley. The expert said they might have been written by the same person, but he couldn’t swear by it.”
“Speaking of Elias,” Thornstock said, “do we have any idea who poisoned him in prison?”
“Unfortunately, no,” Joshua said. “I questioned every guard and every individual who worked in the kitchen. Either they don’t know or they’re not saying. The prisons are notoriously corrupt, so those who work in them are more afraid of their superiors than of someone like me, who is merely with the marines and not an official employee of the courts. In time I could perhaps learn the answer—with more thorough research into each individual’s connections—but at the moment that line of pursuit will have to be tabled. However . . .”
Joshua walked over to where a stack of papers sat atop a writing table. “I fortunately had the forethought to have a sketch made of Elias at the morgue. Gwyn drew up copies for all of us.”
“They don’t look like buildings, do they?” Thorn quipped. Apparently Gwyn had a love for anything involving architecture.
“Very amusing,” Gwyn drawled. “You’re merely jealous that I know how to sketch whereas your only talent is . . .” When Thorn stiffened, she paused. “Being insufferable.”
Joshua rolled his eyes. “In any case, only Thorn, Olivia, Gwyn, and I have even seen the fellow, so one of you might recognize him from another context. I also figured that Sheridan could show them around in Sanforth to see if anyone recognized the lad. Because if Elias had been close by at all—”
“Then he might have been the one to kill both men,” Heywood said.
“Exactly,” Joshua said.
“I don’t know,” Thornstock put in. “Elias didn’t strike me as the sort of fellow to commit murder at anyone’s bidding. He was careful not to blow up the laboratory until he was certain Olivia wasn’t in it.”
“Ah, but she’s a woman,” Joshua pointed out. “He might have felt differently about killing two aging dukes. Especially if he was being paid well to do so.”
“True,” Sheridan said. “And I agree that the sketch should be shown around town. But I can’t be the one to do it. Someone else will have to.”
“Planning on an extended honeymoon, are you?” Thorn asked.
“Are you?” Vanessa repeated. She was finding this whole discussion fascinating. Or perhaps it was merely the brandy.
“Unfortunately, no.” Sheridan was avoiding her gaze now. “I’m meeting with Bonham in London to discuss some questions I have concerning the books for the estate. I need to go over the accounts before my meeting, so Vanessa and I and her mother leave in the morning.”
“We do?” Vanessa asked. No one had consulted her about the matter. That made her take yet another sip of the brandy. It truly was quite warming.
“Perfect!” Gwyn said. “You can question Lady Eustace on the way.”
“I’ll try,” Sh
eridan said. “But she’s not that forthcoming.”
“That’s true,” Vanessa said. “Not at’all.”
Joshua walked over to pour a glass of brandy himself.
“I thought you only drank rum,” Thorn said.
“I prefer rum, but any port in a storm, as we seafaring fellows like to say.” Joshua took a long swallow of the liquor.
“He should be careful,” Vanessa whispered to the dowager duchess, but it came out rather loud. “It’s best if you sip it.”
Joshua chuckled, but Sheridan stalked over to pick up Vanessa’s nearly empty glass. “How many ‘sips’ of this have you had?”
Vanessa tipped up her chin. “As many as I want, thank you very much.”
“You see what you started?” Sheridan told his mother.
“What I started! You’re the one who misled her about your intentions.”
“Yes,” Vanessa said, slurring the word a little. “Exactly. You misled her . . . me . . .” She waved her hand at his mother. “What she said.”
“Shall I go on?” Joshua asked.
“Certainly,” the dowager duchess said. “But I think I’ll take Vanessa upstairs to bed. It’s late, and I’m sure she’s quite tired.”
“Is that what we’re calling it now?” Gwyn murmured to Thorn.
Sheridan glared at them both. When the dowager duchess helped Vanessa to a stand, he started to follow the two women. “I’ll go with you.”
“No, indeed,” his mother said. “You need to be here for this discussion. I, on the other hand, do not. I’ll just make sure Vanessa is settled into bed, and I’ll return.”
“All right,” he said warily.
The last thing Vanessa saw before she was led away by the dowager duchess was Sheridan staring after her with concern on his face. It helped to assuage a tiny bit of her hurt feelings.
She and his mother, who kept her arm about Vanessa’s waist, climbed the stairs in silence. As soon as they entered Vanessa’s bedchamber, however, her mother-in-law released her to pull back the bed coverlet. Vanessa swayed a bit, but mostly she just wanted desperately to sleep.
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