Her spirits dipped the slightest bit. Was she utterly reprehensible for being so bold, for going against Society’s measure of what was proper and telling a man who was promised to another that she would gladly be his? She hoped Mama in heaven had briefly looked away and wasn’t watching—at least until everything was sorted and proper.
*
Hands clasped tothe small of his back, Wolfe slowly walked back and forth in front of the servants he’d summoned to the wide entry hall, studying each of them closely. How could they turn a blind eye to alarming threats against his young brother and sister? Why had they not come to him?
Some of them nervously shifted in place. All of them stared straight ahead as if waiting to be shot. The thought had occurred to him.
“I wish to speak with each of you,” he said after tormenting them with a long, purposeful silence. “Privately. In the library. Ishall start with you, Miss Hannah. The rest of you shall remain here and wait your turn.”
He gave them a curt nod, then strode down the hallway, not bothering to wait for the young maid he had assigned to watch over his precious brother and sister. She would follow or find herself unemployed without benefit of a recommendation letter. Once seated behind his desk, he allowed her to stand in front of it for another uncomfortably long pause before nodding at the chair beside her. “Be seated.”
Hands clasped in her lap and her head bowed, the girl hesitantly perched on the edge of the cushion.
“When you leave this room, you will not speak of anything said in here or you will be immediately dismissed without reference. Is that understood?”
“Yes, Your Grace.” She added an almost imperceptible nod.
“Tell me what you know about the plans Lady Margaret and Lady Longmorten had for Master Connor and Miss Susannah.”
The maid raised her head and blinked at him as if stricken with something in her eyes. “Plans, Your Grace?”
He nodded, refusing to speak in order to give the girl enough rope to hang herself.
She gave a cowering shrug. “I know they wished Master Connor sent to boarding school and Miss Susannah sent to travel with Lady Longmorten’s cousin, but I fear I can’t remember that cousin’s name.”
“And what else?”
She angled an ear toward him. “What else, Your Grace?”
“Yes.”
The maid’s befuddlement worked in her favor, granting her an air of innocence. “Forgive me, Your Grace, but I’m not certain of anything else you might be asking about. Lady Margaret did tell me once to make sure I never brought the children around her.” She cowered lower, adding a respectful nod. “I tried mybest to keep them out of the same room or the same garden as her. The only time I know they got into the same room with her was at meals. Was I supposed to keep them in the nursery? It was my understanding you wished them to join you at mealtimes. Was I wrong, Your Grace?”
“I did wish them to join me at mealtimes, Miss Hannah.” Wolfe leaned back in his chair, propping his elbows on the leather armrests and steepling his fingers in front of him. “What if harm were to come to Master Connor and Miss Susannah?”
The girl looked satisfactorily horrified. “Oh, Your Grace—” She choked on the words and clutched a fist to her chest. “Are they…are they gone?”
“You may go, Miss Hannah. Return to whatever duties Mrs. Havarerry has assigned to you, since the children are no longer here. Send in Feebson.”
The maid rose and managed a quick curtsy, then ran from the room, swiping at the tears spilling down her cheeks.
At least she appeared to be innocent and would have had the closest access to the twins. And neither Connor nor Sissy had ever complained about the maid’s behavior toward them. She might have been firm and lacked emotion, but they never mentioned her being mean-spirited or cruel.
A soft tapping pulled him from his internal assessment of Miss Hannah. “Your Grace?” Feebson quietly said through the partially opened door.
“Come in, Feebson.” Wolfe very much doubted the butler to be the culprit but didn’t wish to be careless and fail to identify the traitor who believed wrongdoing toward his brother and sister could be ignored. In fact, it bore remembering that Feebson was the one who had reported their last governess for disparaging Sissy. The tiny old man had appeared quite incensed when the woman told the child she would be nothing more thana lightskirt, just like her mother. Wolfe nodded at the same chair he’d had Miss Hannah use.
“Forgive me, Your Grace, but I would rather stand if you can see to allow it.” Feebson stood ramrod straight, unsmiling as always, but a shimmer of emotion, a sadness, filled his eyes. “Mrs. Havarerry excused Miss Hannah for the next hour or so, what with her being so overwrought. The girl refused to speak of what you told her, though. She said she wasn’t allowed.” The stoic little man bowed his head. “Aught it be something to do with Lord Connor and Lady Susannah?”
“I am afraid so, Feebson.” Wolfe studied the butler who had served his father for many years before serving him. He took note of his raspy, sorrowful tone.
The older man nodded while keeping his gaze locked on the floor. “I feared as much, Your Grace. When you came home without the children, I knew it had to be something terrible.”
“There are those who would celebrate something terrible happening to my brother and sister,” Wolfe said, baiting the servant to gauge his reaction.
“Then a pox on them for their cruel hearts!” Feebson clamped his mouth shut and shook his head. “Forgive me, Your Grace, but I can’t abide anyone wishing something bad on those two. Those children have not had an easy way of it.” He gave a more formal bow. “Begging your pardon again, Your Grace.”
Feebson was not the traitor, and Wolfe was glad of it. “Repeat nothing said in this room, Feebson. You may go and send in Mrs. Havarerry.”
