“I am well aware, Lord Thorne. Lady Gregoria has a wedding coming up, does she not?” His manner turned surprisingly serious. “My job is to discover who did it. What the magistrate chooses to do about arresting that person is completely up to him. But if the clues all point to Lady Gregoria, then she had better marry Lord Allendale as soon as possible to protect herself.”
Julius well understood what he meant, for Gory would need to gain the protection afforded those of the peerage in order to avoid imprisonment or hanging. Not that the privilege of peerage extended to acts of murder, but would certainly be to her benefit if the verdict was returned as manslaughter or she argued self-defense. Any tribunal would show greater deference to a viscountess. “Lady Gregoria is not the culprit. If the clues all point to her, then someone is setting her up to take the fall. I suggest you keep that in mind as you investigate. Who gains by getting rid of the earl and Lady Gregoria? That is the question you should be asking.”
Having said that, he strode upstairs to Gory’s bedchamber to see what else he could discover. Mr. Barrow followed him and began to report what he had learned when searching her bedchamber only moments earlier. “I spoke to her maid a few minutes ago. She confirmed this gown was the one she wore to the musicale last night.”
He pointed to a pale peach confection that had bloodstains on it, too. Not as many as were found on her wedding gown that was drenched in it.
Julius knelt beside the garment. “Yes, I can also confirm this is what she wore.”
She had looked delectable in that gown.
He even remembered getting an earful from Gory months ago, complaining how her dowager godmothers, Lady Dayne and Lady Withnall, had purchased clothes for her in the sunniest colors, and was it not a ridiculous waste?
Having seen her in many of her new outfits, he determined that the dowagers were quite clever in choosing these softer colors for her. They ought to have been congratulated for their efforts to turn her into a ton diamond and fashion a brilliant match for her.
Julius certainly had fallen under her alluring spell.
He was glad they were not allowing Gory to don her old, drab gowns that sucked all vitality from her beautiful face.
There was no prettier debutante in all of London this Season, although Gory was not happy about her transformation from caterpillar to butterfly since she had never been keen on receiving suitors. For this reason, Julius had been taken aback upon learning she had accepted Allendale’s proposal.
The man had come seemingly out of nowhere and acted fast. “May I have a closer look at the gown, Mr. Barrow?”
“Yes, my lord. But carefully, please. Best not to dislodge any evidence it might hold.” The Bow Street runner gave a shake of his head. “Would you care for my thoughts on the matter?”
Julius nodded, for he had formed ideas of his own and wanted Mr. Barrow’s confirmation that they were of the same mind. “Indeed, I would.”
Mr. Barrow cleared his throat. “I think she was wearing this peach silk gown when she walked downstairs to investigate the raised voices coming from the study. I think she was then struck from behind and knocked out cold. In fact, hit so hard that the killer believed her to be dead.”
“Dear heaven,” Julius muttered. “But that mistaken belief probably saved her life. Does this mean the killer was inexperienced? Perhaps his first time harming anyone?”
“Quite possible, my lord.”
Julius went through the gowns in her wardrobe, noting droplets of red on many of them, as though the villain had sifted through them, heedless of the bloodstains he was leaving on these clothes.
Or perhaps each was tainted on purpose.
He then walked slowly around the room while conversing with Mr. Barrow. “The killer was probably left-handed,” Julius mused, uncertain what he ought to be looking for as he attempted to reconstruct the killer’s actions.
Clearly, Gory had surprised him by walking into the study as the murder was occurring or had just occurred. “She walks in…the door swings inward, so she must have made her way well into the room and was then struck behind her left ear.”
He pretended to bring a candlestick down on her head in a manner that matched the trajectory of the blow. “Yes, likely with his left hand,” he muttered to himself. “Otherwise, the blow would have been to her right temple.”
“Very good observation, my lord. It is a possibility. Do you know if her uncle was left-handed?”
“No, but Gory…that is Lady Gregoria will know. What does it matter? He was surely already dead or dying when she entered the study.”
Mr. Barrow nodded. “Aye, but it does not hurt to ask. We want to be as precise as possible, especially since Lady Gregoria seems to be worried that she and her uncle might have been the ones to do battle.”
Julius shook his head. “No. Emphatically, no. She heard the argument, walked in on it, and was struck from behind by someone who favors his left hand. We must ask her if she knows of any persons within the household or among the earl’s acquaintances who are left-handed. But the bigger puzzle is the matter of her wedding gown.”
“Aye, that does leave one scratching one’s head,” Mr. Barrow agreed.
Julius walked over to the window and peered out onto the Easton garden that was not particularly well maintained. The earl and his wife were not fastidious people, but Gory was. It showed in the tidiness of her room, a surprisingly feminine room that brought a smile to his lips. For all her brazenness and bravado, there was a traditional side to her that he found endearing.
He turned back to Mr. Barrow with a puzzled frown on his face. “Why would the villain bother to change her out of the gown she wore to the musicale and put her in the one she was to wear to her wedding? Does it not strike you as particularly cruel? A cruelty perhaps aimed directly at Lady Gregoria? It also suggests to me that more than one person was involved.”
“Yes, to all your conjectures, m’lord. It is not easy to undress and then dress an unconscious body. Why take the time and risk being discovered? Yet the killer was willing to do just that in order to make certain Lady Gregoria would be found this way and positioned beside her uncle’s body.”
