“You have Edwina,” she said simply.
“Ah. You knew—or you hoped—that I’d take you to her.”
“I counted on it.” She studied him. “You didn’t kill Lady Westford.” It was a statement of fact. Sir Preston was too old. “Dawes didn’t kill her. He’s not ruthless or cold-blooded enough.”
“Grace’s death was unfortunate,” he sighed. “She’d learned Clarice was getting treatments, and then . . . well, that went disastrously wrong. Still, we thought she’d listen to reason when she knew what we were attempting to do.”
“You thought that because her sister died of typhus, she’d look the other way regarding murder.”
“It wasn’t murder.”
“Excuse me, a ‘failed experiment.’ If you could have persuaded her to see your point of view, she would have made a valuable ally. She had money, status—and, more importantly, the Queen’s ear.”
Sir Preston’s eyes flashed with annoyance. “As I said, it was unfortunate.”
The carriage slowed and turned down a narrow lane. Flicking a quick look out the window, Kendra wasn’t surprised to see the seedier buildings of Blackfriars. “Where are we going?”
“Andrew’s stepfather owns a considerable amount of property in this area. He was kind enough to lease one of his buildings to Andrew, with the expectation that he’ll eventually use it for his own consulting rooms.”
“That’s right,” she said. “He’s Goldsten’s landlord, as well. I suppose it was convenient for Dawes to go from there to Goldsten’s clinic. Unfortunately, you fucked up. Goldsten ran into the girl and Lady Westford saw them together.”
Sir Preston’s face puckered and turned red. “Language!”
Kendra nearly laughed. The man was responsible for unethical experiments leading to a woman’s death and was involved in a conspiracy to commit murder, and yet he was offended by her profanity.
“Why don’t you tell me about your experiments,” she said. “Why focus on syphilis?”
His mouth compressed. “It’s a scourge on humanity. I witnessed its effects firsthand when Andrew’s father died of it twenty years ago. Andrew was only four, but it impacted him. I knew he would want to be part of our research. And there’s no shortage of test subjects.”
“What you really mean is you wanted to experiment on women who held no power.”
He gave a derisive snort. “They’re hardly productive members of society. Soiled doves. How do you think they became infected in the first place?”
“They’re human beings.”
“You’re missing the point, madam. It’s not aboutthem. Those women were already dead. They were infected with the pox. We didn’t give it to them. They were willing participants in our research.” His hands tightened on the silver handle of his cane as he leaned forward, his eyes brightening with excitement. “Put aside the sentimental claptrap, andthink!What if we are able to cure the pox? And not only the pox, but all illnesses of the blood!”
His hypothesis was flawed at its core. Syphilis wasn’t a blood disease; it was a sexually transmitted infection caused by bacteria. But she could hardly tell him that. Instead, she asked, “How do your treatments work?”
“We syphon off the blood and circulate it through an electrical machine, then return it to the body. The electricity acts as a purifier, removing disease from the blood.”
Kendra regarded him incredulously. “How do expect the person to stay alive when the blood is removed?”
“Don’t be daft! It’s a closed loop. We don’t removeallthe blood. We begin the transfusion, passing it through the machine, and the purified blood is returned to the body before the rest of the diseased blood is removed.”
“What went wrong with Clarice?”
He blew out a breath. “Andrew and I were scheduled to conduct the treatment, but I was unexpectedly delayed. Foolishly, Andrew proceeded without me. The machine malfunctioned and he couldn’t replace her blood in time. She perished.” His eyebrows twitched in irritation. “The boy panicked and disposed of the body in the river.”
“Why’d you remove the eyes and uterus after you stole the body?”
“Andrew should’ve removed them before disposing of the body,” Sir Preston said, annoyance sharpening his voice. “We can learn from everything. By dissecting organs, we increase our knowledge on how the body operates.”
“You crossed a line, Sir Preston. You murdered people—”
“Not I!”
“You were part of it!” she shot back. “Lady Westford, Goldsten, Jenny . . . Dr. Thornton. I thought he was your friend.”
