“I did not wish her dead!” Katherine retorted. “We had our problems, but never that! I loved her and she loved me.”
“Odd ways of showing it.”
“She meant well, tried to protect me.”
“Well, she is not here to ‘protect’ you or forbid you any longer. Now you can marry whoever you like. Someone you’ve long ... wanted.” His voice sank to that low, seductive tone he’d used with Rosa. Probably with Fanny too.
“Marry as I like?” Katherine said almost dreamily. “What a notion. Could I? I’ve waited so long....”
“I know, my sweet, I know. Now you and I can marry. I know you’ve loved me since we were children....”
Marry him?Anne recalled Lady Celia’s entreaty that she warn Katherine to have nothing to do with him. Should she interrupt?
Suddenly Anne became aware of a flicker of movement in her peripheral vision.
She glanced over and her heart leapt, startled to see a figure in the shadows. Dr. Marsland. She’d thought he had left. Had he forgotten something and returned for it, or was he spying, as she had been? He turned and crept quietly away toward the side door, to let himself out unnoticed, she guessed. Or so he thought.
In the parlour, Katherine gave a sardonic laugh. “You think I want to marryyou? As a girl, I had a case of calf-love for you, I admit. What girl didn’t? But your behavior over the years snuffed out those feelings long ago. I would not marry you now under any inducement. And as far as the will, you must wait like everyone else. You deserve no special treatment. Not anymore.”
He clucked his tongue. “My, my. The cat has grown claws.”
“She has indeed, and will not hesitate to use them.”
22
The day of the public viewing, Anne rose early after too little sleep. She washed, dressed, and stepped into the corridor on her way to the water closet. She heard voices in the side passage and for a moment feared Rosa was arguing with Mr. Dalby again. But when she looked around the corner, she saw it was the housemaid, Jane, holding a rubbish bin, looking alarmed and upset.
Mr. Dalby was glaring down at her. “I’ll ask again. What were you doing in my room? Going through my things?”
“No, sir. Only made your bed and emptied the rubbish.”
“I’m missing something.”
“What, sir? If you tell me, I will help you look for it.”
He hesitated. “Never mind. And you’re sure you took nothing but rubbish?”
“Yes, sir.” She lifted the bin. “Here, see for yourself.”
“Who else comes in to clean or what have you?”
“No one, sir.”
Mr. Dalby shook his head, swore under his breath, and reentered his bedchamber through the dressing room.
A few minutes later, Anne had just returned from the water closet and begun to make her bed when Sir Herbert’sdoor burst open and Mr. Dalby stalked through the room to hers.
“Were you in my room again?” he demanded, hand on hips.
Anne’s heart clanged in her chest. “Why on earth would I go in there?”
“You’re lying. I think you’ve been in there at least twice. First, you came in a few days ago and put something in my water to make me deuced uncomfortable,Miss Nurse, with your bag of tricks.” He jerked a hand toward Anne’s medicine case.
“I did not,” Anne insisted.Though Rosa did.
“Don’t think I didn’t see you smirking at me while I was ... indisposed. And then you returned sometime yesterday and took something of mine.”
Anne raised her chin. “What did I supposedly take?”
