She had got up from the bed and was all the way to the door before the next screams came. That had been a series of cries, lower, longer and more heartfelt. Even in her room, she had known that it was Liv crying out and that something in their lives had changed irrevocably to cause this reaction.
But the first cry was not a voice she’d recognised. Clearly, Liv had been in shock if she’d thought she had been the cause of the first cry. More likely, someone had found the body, screamed and ran. Liv had heard it and gone to see what the matter was. She had cried out when she’d found their father, her mind blotting out those few moments before the shock and the sound that had disturbed her.
Someone else had been in the study that night. A woman. She had been gone by the time Liv had arrived in the room from the library.
But for the moment, Peg had to deal with the chaos she’d created by forcing her sister to relive the most traumatic night of her life. Peg carefully untwined the handkerchief from Liv’s hands, shook it out and pressed it to the tears that were still streaming down her face. ‘I am sorry for making you talk about this,’ she said, giving her older sister another hug.
‘Then why did you?’ Liv demanded. ‘The only way I am able to function at all in this madhouse is to ignore what happened in it and pretend that I did not see the horror in the study that night.’
‘Because I need to know,’ Peg whispered, wondering if her sister could understand. ‘Both of you have managed to keep me in the dark about it. I know you were trying to protect me, but I am a grown woman and old enough to know the truth.’ She gave Liv yet another hug and an encouraging smile. ‘Now, at least, I can share your burden with you and make it lighter.’
Liv shook her head. ‘Your efforts to uncover the facts with Mr Castell have only made the problem larger. Now, Hugh will never let us out of his sight. We will be trapped here for ever. And I cannot stand it much longer. Why could you not have left well enough alone?’ She pushed her fist against her mouth, as if she regretted speaking a thing she’d meant to keep secret.
Peg pulled back, shocked. Perhaps she had grown too used to her favoured status as the baby of the family. If she meant to behave as an adult, she must accept responsibility for the trouble she had caused her sister. She reached out to take Liv’s hand again. ‘I am sorry. But I will find a way to make things right again.’
Liv rose, pulling away from her. ‘Things were never right, Margaret, and they have only got worse. Please, for both our sakes, stop trying to fix this.’ Her sister left the room, shoulders stiff as if she could no longer stand to share the space with her.
Peg sat for a moment, trying to relive the last few minutes, to glean every detail from them. Perhaps some part of David’s zeal had rubbed off on her. In retrospect, she was not nearly so bothered by Liv’s anger as she should have been. Instead, she could not stop thinking about the other woman who had been in the study before Liv. Who could it have been?
She went down the hall and paced out the distance between the rooms in question, ending in the study which was, thankfully, unoccupied. Assuming that Liv had put down her book in the library and had run to the study, it would have taken less than half a minute to arrive. It would have been awfully hard for the woman in the room to get away without running past her in the hall, or at least being seen.
Then she remembered the open window behind the desk. It was the quickest way out of the room and the only one that could guarantee leaving without running into a member of the family or staff. Considering the fuss that Liv had made when discovering the body, no one would have thought to search the grounds for some time. Someone in the back garden would have been able to leave through the gate, or return to the house by the kitchen door undetected.
She sat down in her brother’s chair for a moment, thinking. Would a woman have had the strength to kill their father? Or was she just present when the murder had happened? If she had witnessed something, it would have explained the scream. Or had she discovered the body? If she was someone that belonged in the house, a maid or housekeeper, there would have been no reason to run away. More likely she would have been screaming for help.
This meant that a stranger had been in the room when her father had died, or shortly after.
‘Is there a reason you are using my desk?’ her brother said from the doorway.
Her reverie broken, she looked up at him in surprise. ‘I was just thinking.’
‘In my office,’ he said. ‘And what, precisely, would you be thinking about?’
‘The night Father died,’ she said. At this point, there was nothing to lose by honesty.
‘I would rather that you not dwell on the past,’ he said.
She shrugged. ‘I know you do not like to talk about it. But there are things I want to know.’
He sighed and sat down in the chair in front of the desk. ‘There are things many people want to know about that night. I do not know if it is in anyone’s power to find the answers.’
That was his first lie, for she was sure he knew the truth, even if he did not want to speak of it. ‘I only want to know how you remember it,’ she said.
‘I heard Olivia scream and I came down the hall to the study, and found her there, standing over the body,’ he said. ‘She was obviously in shock, so I went out into the hall and shouted for a footman. Then I pulled her from the room.’
‘Where were you when you heard the scream?’ she asked, leaning over the desk to search his face as he responded.
‘In the library,’ he said without blinking.
That could not have been right, either. If he had been there, he would have seen Liv before she went to the study, or she would have mentioned seeing him. It was another obvious lie and Peg did not know what to do with it. ‘Were you there all evening?’ she asked at last, hoping he would tell her that he had just arrived.
‘Since supper,’ he said.
‘And at supper, you argued with Father,’ she reminded him.
‘It is not something I was proud of,’ he said. ‘But, yes, we argued on the last night of his life.’
‘And you said you would have all of his money, once he was gone,’ she reminded him.
He frowned. ‘I said many stupid things to him when he was alive. I regret many of them.’
‘But not all?’ she said.
‘He was a very difficult man,’ Hugh said with another sigh. ‘Now that I have sat in his chair, I understand him better than I did and know he had our best interests at heart. But that did not keep him from being wrong. He was miserly and dictatorial, and I was a fully grown man who did not want to be treated like a schoolboy.’
She had to bite her tongue to keep from reminding him that his sisters were now both fully grown as well and did not need him to behave to them as their father had treated him. ‘Were you sad when he died?’ she asked, trying another tack.
‘That is a hard question to answer,’ he replied. ‘I remember that it was easier not to focus on what had happened. I summoned the Runners, told the servants to search the grounds, made sure that both of you were safely in your rooms. It was not for some days that things were quiet enough to give the matter thought and, by then, I had got over the initial shock.’
‘But once that happened, did you miss him?’ she asked.
‘There were many things we should have talked about, before I became Duke of Scofield,’ he said. ‘There are still times I wish I could ask his advice. But regret serves no purpose.’
It was not much of an answer, but it was all she was going to get. He looked at her, searching. ‘And what of you? Did you grieve for our father?’
She considered. ‘When he was alive, I feared him more than I loved him. But he did not require that I love him. I was in awe and that seemed sufficient for him. When he was gone?’ She searched again for a word to describe the feeling. ‘I was frightened, more than I was sad. But then you
became Duke and I was not scared any more.’ At least, not until she had learned he’d been lying to her.
For his part, he seemed satisfied with her answer. ‘He was not an easy man to love,’ he replied. ‘I am sorry if I follow in his footsteps in regard to you and your sister. But I mean what is best for you and hope that, some day, you will understand.’ He rose from his chair and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. ‘And now, if you don’t mind, I would like the use of my study.’
‘Of course,’ she said, hopping out of the seat she’d forgotten she had usurped. ‘I will leave you to your business, then.’
He nodded and she felt the distance widen between them as he changed from being her big brother to a duke who had no time for interruptions.
She left the study, even more confused than she had been when she went to it. It appeared that there had been a strange female in the house on the night of the murder. It also appeared that her brother could not account for his actions at the time the crime occurred. Wherever he had been, it had not been in the library, reading a book.
But there was one person in the house who always knew more than she told. Being the younger daughter and not the lady of the house, Peg had barely spoken to her at all. Perhaps now was the time for that to change.
She returned to the morning room and rang for the housekeeper, doing her best to act like a proper lady and not just the youngest member of the family, whose wishes could be ignored by both family and staff.
By the time Mrs Gates arrived, Peg had taken a seat by the window and she greeted the woman with a firm, superior smile.
‘Lady Margaret?’ the housekeeper responded with a look of surprise. ‘Is there something I might help you with? A biscuit, perhaps, or a cup of tea?’
She shook her head. ‘I was just curious about something and hope you might be able to answer a few questions.’
‘Of course,’ the woman replied, probably thinking it was about a menu or a maid. ‘What is it you wish to know?’
‘What do you remember of the night my father died?’ she asked and watched the housekeeper go white.
‘We should not be speaking of such things,’ the woman said, glancing at the door as if she was afraid of being overheard.
‘I promise you will not get into any trouble for talking to me,’ she said with a reassuring gesture. ‘If you are worried about the Duke, do not. I have already spoken to him.’ Not precisely about questioning the staff, but that did not need to be discussed at the moment.
The housekeeper drew a nervous breath and said, ‘Very well, if you have spoken to His Grace about it. But there is not that much to tell. I was in the kitchen going over accounts all evening. I had no idea what had happened until your brother summoned us upstairs to take care of you and your sister.’
This was disappointing. ‘You heard nothing out of the ordinary, for the rest of the evening?’
The woman blinked. ‘Nothing unexpected.’
Now this was an interesting answer. It seemed to say that she was accustomed to unusual things happening in the house and was equally accustomed to ignoring them.
‘I already know that Liv met with Alister in the garden,’ she said and watched the woman relax a little as one of her secrets was exposed. ‘I am interested in the other woman that was in the house that night.’
At this, the housekeeper gasped. ‘No one was supposed to know about that.’
‘As I said, I have spoken to my brother,’ she said, smiling to herself as the housekeeper jumped to yet another conclusion and assumed that Peg knew most of the details already. ‘What was happening was really no secret. Please tell me what you remember of it.’
The woman shook her head as if she wished to forget the whole thing, then sighed and spoke. ‘The woman came in by the kitchen door as she did whenever she visited.’
‘Had she been there many times before?’ Peg asked, trying not to look surprised.
The housekeeper considered for a moment. ‘Several times over the month leading up to the...incident.’ She did not want to say murder, but then, who in the family did?
‘What did she look like?’
‘She was always cloaked and veiled. I could see little of her other than that she was on the tall side and could afford expensive cloth for her cloak.’
‘And what happened to her, once she was in the house?’ Peg said eagerly.
‘Lord Hugh met her and escorted her up the servants’ stairs to the second floor.’
This was interesting. It explained the obvious lie about the library, since her brother could not very well tell her he had been entertaining a lady in his room. ‘How long did she stay?’
‘On that night, I do not know. Things were all a muddle with all kinds of strangers coming and going from the house. But on other nights, she was always gone by three or four in the morning.’
‘And did she ever visit again?’ Peg asked, suspecting the answer.
‘No,’ the housekeeper replied. ‘Once Lord Hugh became His Grace the Duke, he had no more time for such nonsense.’
‘Of course,’ Peg agreed. It was either that, or he suddenly had the means to acquire a convenient apartment to entertain ladies who could not enter through the front door. She gave the housekeeper a brilliant smile. ‘That is all I wanted to know, Mrs Gates. Thank you so much for your help.’
The woman gave her a confused look before dropping a curtsy and returning to her duties, leaving Peg alone with much to think about. On the night of the murder, Hugh had been entertaining a woman in his room. It was obviously not Miss Devereaux, since she had not been Hugh’s favourite at the time of Father’s death. It was someone Hugh was willing to lie to protect. And it must have been a serious relationship, if he was willing to let people think him a murderer rather than admit what he had been doing.
A lady. He had been entertaining a gentle-born woman in his room. But if that was true, why had he not married her? He had shown no sign that he was interested in marriage, either before or after the death of their father. What had happened to her? And what might she know about the murder?
Chapter Sixteen
The next morning, Peg stared at her bedroom wall, mourning the loss of David Castell. She was quite sure that given the evidence she had recently gathered, she could prove him wrong about the murder of their father. If he was wrong about that, why not about the other murder?
If he was wrong about both, there could be no damning article about the family to spread across the front page of a newspaper. She could have her old life back without fear of impending disaster, just as her brother had wanted. In time, the gossip about Hugh would die down and he would give her a Season, just as she had wanted from the first.
Or, she could do as she truly wished and spend her life with the man she loved. If the promises he’d made in bed had been true and not just loose talk meant to seduce her... If she was brave enough to be the woman she had told him she was... If she could convince her brother that she had to follow her heart... If her brother would allow her out of the house at all...
There were so many ifs in the future she wanted. The biggest of them was Hugh, who was set against her marrying anyone. She doubted he would be happy to find that she had made her choice, and it was not to be a gentleman from an appropriate family who had been vetted and approved in advance. He would be absolutely livid to hear that the only man she wanted was the muckraker he had banned from the house.
For some reason, the thought of how angry he would be made her smile. She was done with being an obedient little girl who followed his rules no matter how nonsensical they might be. She would do as she pleased and tell him afterwards. The less Hugh knew about her plans for the future, the easier it would be for all concerned. He had his own idea about how things should go and it seemed to make him so happy that she did not want to spoil his good mood before she had to.
But that still
left the question of how to get around the obstacles he had set between her and freedom. There was no way to write a letter to David without it being intercepted. Hugh had told the servants to remove anything she added to the family post, so he might examine it for suspicious directions. She could not sneak out of the house. The front door was always guarded and he had hired an additional man to watch the back, to prevent garden meetings with Alister and midnight carriage rides by Peg. If he had his way, she and Liv would not have a moment’s freedom until they were proper spinsters who had no hope of their own homes and lives.
None of that mattered. She would find a way to escape the house, no matter how long it took. If she could not have David, she was willing to put all future plans for marriage aside. Nothing could equal what she had already found.
Why had she not told him so, when she’d had the chance? The right time to speak had been immediately after he had professed his love, to assure him that she felt as he did. But then she’d thought there would be more time. She had basked in his words as if they were a warm bath, soaking them in through her skin, answering them with her body instead of speaking the truth plainly. Then, only a few minutes later, everything had changed and it was too late.
She had not wanted to love a man who put her family at risk. Logic told her that a future between them was impossible. But, despite that fact, her heart had leapt in her chest when he’d appeared the next day for a lesson and again when Hugh had spoken of the feelings he’d expressed for her.
She had to believe that those feelings would hold true long enough for her to see him again and explain. Even if, in the end, Hugh would not let her go to him, David had to hear from her lips that it was not just some game she had been playing. Their night together had meant everything to her.
Suddenly, Liv appeared in the doorway, an expression of amazement on her face. ‘Have you looked out of your bedroom window this morning?’
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