“What then?” she asked, the words dragged from her.
A knock on the bedroom door stopped him from answering. Bella rose from the settee and crossed to open the door.
It was Aidan Nowlton and a man she didn’t know. A man in a red vest.
A Bow Street Runner.
“Gentlemen,” she said, as she stepped back and pulled the door open wider. “Please come in. Lord Candelstone was just telling me of the events last evening.
“Yes, we should like to hear those as well. Candelstone, you remember Mr. Martin from Versely Park last month, do you not?”
“The presumptuous footman. Yes, I do,” he said sourly.
Mr. Martin smiled at Lord Candelstone.
“Lady Blessingame, I’d like you to meet Mr. Lewis Martin from Bow Street.”
“Mr. Martin,” she said, tipping her head ever so slightly. She wasn’t certain if she would like him or not. He appeared too friendly to her suspicious mind.
“So, what happened last night?” Nowlton asked as he and Mr. Martin approached the bed.
“As I told Lady Blessingame, I saw her on the terrace and followed her out, but stayed on the terrace when she walked down into the garden.”
“You did not follow her into the garden?” Mr. Martin asked for clarification.
“No, I did not wish to embarrass the lady if she perhaps had an assignation,” he said archly.
Bella scowled at him. He would have her be the woman Harry led Nowlton to believe existed three years ago.
“Had you any reason to believe she would?”
“Well, no,” Candelstone admitted. “But I wished to talk to her. I went over to the side of the terrace as it was more shadowed over there.”
“So you could ambush her,” Nowlton said.
“What? No. Just to be out of the way of others,” he declared. “But from behind me I heard a man say softly,Not who I had wanted, but you’ll do.I whipped around then, right before he fired, regrettably not soon enough to see the miscreant,” he said, scowling at his failure.
“You are certain it was a man?” Mr. Martin asked.
“Yes. I hit my head when I fell, stunned for a moment. Next thing I remember is Lady Blessingame pressing down on my chest. Hurt like hell, then I remember nothing until I was in this bed and Merlin stood over me, looking owl-eyed as he stared down at me through those ugly thick glasses of his.”
“And this person, this man, said:Not who I had wanted, but you’ll do. That phrase exactly, correct?”
Candelstone screwed up his expression as he thought. “No-o-o,” he said slowly. “He said,Not who I want, but you will do,” he said.
Mr. Martin nodded and made a note on his pad.
“Is that significant?” Nowlton asked.
“Could be. Could show the man’s a foreigner,” he said as he made notes. He looked up. “For one, the shortened first part of the phrase is more active, speaking of now, and the second part without a contraction an English native might use,you’llversusyou will. These are not definitive, but imply a possibility,” Mr. Martin explained.
“Was there any hint of an accent?” Bella asked from her seat on the settee.
“The voice was too soft and raspy to determine.”
“After my experiences working with you, I can certainly imagine you as the intended victim, but not as a second choice. Who would be the first choice?” Bella asked.
Mr. Martin and Mr. Nowlton nodded at her question.
