“Fine,” Mr. Lioncroft said at last.
Evangeline opened her eyes. His level stare contained more mistrust than curiosity. Splendid. As her mother before her, Evangeline strived to keep mistrust out of other people’s eyes. Especially since such an emotion tended to accompany threats of violence or demands to perform on command. In the case of her stepfather, she’d suffered both.
“F-fine?” she croaked. The last thing she wanted to do was touch the earl’s dead body. Her mother had been the first and last victim of violence Evangeline had touched with her bare hands, and that episode—that episode was one she had no desire to relive. She still bore the marks of that folly. “Truly,” she managed, “I don’t mindnottouching him. In fact, should I be given the choice, I’d have to say I—”
Mr. Lioncroft pinned her with the intensity of his gaze. “Far be it for me to prevent the good Lord from speaking to devout disciples like yourself, Miss Pemberton. And sinceI didn’t kill him,what do I have to lose?” He glared around the table. Evangeline gulped. No one spoke. “In fact,” he said, “I’ll take you there myself. Right now.”
Susan jumped up, eyes shining. “I’ll go, too.”
Lady Stanton snapped open a painted fan. “You’ll do no such thing, young lady. You’re coming to my quarters with me, where we’ll have a nice chat about appropriate decorum.”
“I thought you wanted me to take advantage of any opportunity to—”
“Notnow,Susan. Use your head for once.”
“But, Mother…” Susan glanced about the breakfast room as though searching for a logical reason to revisit the late earl. “I—I don’t want to leave Evangeline alone. Like you always say, proper young ladies cannot gad about unchaperoned. And withLioncroft,at that. Who knows what could happen?”
Mr. Lioncroft’s voice tightened. “I am not going to kill her.”
“Plenty else you can do with an unchaperoned chit,” Edmund said with a grin.
“For the love of God,” Mr. Lioncroft exploded. “I’m not going to kill her and I’m not going to ravish her in the same bed as my dead brother-in-law.”
Edmund snorted. “Some other bed, perhaps?”
Despite herself, Evangeline blushed. And dared not meet Mr. Lioncroft’s eyes. If only he hadn’t touched her.
“Most ladies,” Francine Rutherford put in as she got to her feet, “don’t go about feeling corpses, chaperoned or otherwise. The very thought makes me nauseated.”
“Nauseated a lot lately, isn’t she,” Susan muttered to Evangeline.
“Susan!” Lady Stanton snapped. “Come now. This conversation is not for your ears.”
With a groan, Susan pushed away from the table and reluctantly followed her mother out the door.
Francine touched her throat. “I, for one, have no wish to lay eyes upon Heatherbrook again.”
“Nor I,” Benedict said with a shiver, rising to join his wife. “True gentlemen are equally as averse to such morbidity as the ladies.”
“Agreed,” Mr. Teasdale quavered. “Besides, servants crawl over every inch of the property. We’re never truly alone, nor would Lioncroft and Miss Pemberton be. Surely a maid or two could be present?”
Mr. Lioncroft nodded. “Of course. An army of them.”
Edmund slammed his empty wineglass to the breakfast table and lumbered to his feet. He clutched the back of his chair with both hands.
“It’s settled, then,” he said, swaying slightly. “You two run along, feel Heatherbrook’s dead body all you like, and meet us later to fill us in on God’s message.”
Evangeline stared weakly as the breakfast room emptied of its last few occupants, save for she and Mr. Lioncroft.
“Well, Miss Pemberton?” came his low, deep voice.
She turned to face him, but words failed her. For a moment, the tortured expression darkening his eyes was so fierce, she could believe him innocent of the crime. But wasn’t that what shewantedto believe?
Her stepfather had mastered the art of appearing blameless despite his culpability. Her mother had married him and lived to regret it. No matter how much Evangeline hoped Mr. Lioncroft had not murdered his brother-in-law, his innocence had yet to be proven.
Mr. Lioncroft’s gaze was equally unreadable as he said, “I must admit the truth.”
Evangeline blinked. He would admit to killing Lord Heatherbrook?
