He looked annoyed. For a horrifying instant Amity realized he might murder Penny in order to solve the problem.
“There is room for both of us inside,” she said quickly.
Virgil came to a decision. “Very well. The gown you will wear for your portrait is over there behind the screen. Get it.”
She went around the screen and took the white satin-and-lace gown off the peg. A shiver went through her when she recognized the design of the bodice. It was the same gown that the victims had worn in the photographs.
“It’s very beautiful,” she said.
“Nothing but the best for a pure and virtuous bride,” Virgil said. “Of course you are not exactly pure or virtuous, are you? No, you are tainted. Stanbridge may not realize it but I am doing him a favor. When he comes to his senses he will thank me. After all, once a whore, always a whore. Take the gown to the cage. Hurry.”
The dress was very heavy. The dressmaker had used a vast amount of fabric in the skirts. There was so much beading on the stiffened bodice that Amity suspected it alone weighed several pounds.
Virgil motioned for Penny to step back out of the way. When she obeyed, he took a key out of the pocket of his coat and unlocked the cage. Amity carried the wedding gown inside.
Virgil slammed the door shut and locked it. He went to the workbench, picked up a knife and walked back to the cage.
“Put your hands through the bars,” he ordered.
Amity did as instructed. Virgil sliced through the bindings on her wrists. Relief swept through her. She and Penny were hardly free, but at least, for the moment, they were both unbound.
Virgil crossed the room, picked up the folding screen and positioned it in front of the cage. Amity looked at Penny, brows raised.
“Evidently Mr. Warwick has some respect for a lady’s modesty,” Penny said coolly.
On the far side of the screen Virgil uttered a guttural laugh.
“You know what they say, bad luck to see the bride in her gown before the wedding,” he said lightly.
But there was more to it than that, Amity realized.
“You don’t like to see women nude, do you?” she asked.
Virgil grunted on the other side of the screen. “Women like you are unclean. Dirty. Tainted. Their wedding gowns conceal the truth about them until the groom has been deceived into marriage.”
Penny helped Amity out of the domino and the simple gown that she had worn beneath it. They both went about the business as slowly as they dared. Trying to buy time, Amity thought. She touched the Rose Necklace that she still wore around her neck as if it were a talisman. Benedict and Logan would even now be searching for them.
“Is that why you murdered your own bride?” Penny asked, sounding for all the world as if she was making polite drawing room conversation. “Because you felt she had deceived you?”
There was a short, startled silence from the other side of the screen.
“How did you discover that?” Virgil demanded.
“This is your wife’s gown, isn’t it?” Amity asked. “How long did it take you to realize that she was not the virgin you assumed her to be?”
“I believed her to be a paragon of womanhood,” Virgil said. “But she dared to come to me pregnant with another man’s child. She tried to deceive me and for a time I believed her lies. But when she miscarried three weeks after the wedding I knew the truth.”
Amity stepped into the heavy white satin skirts and pulled up the bodice. She noticed that the gown was cut rather full around the waistline. Madame Dubois had done a very good job of concealing that feature, however.
“To be fair, you lied to her, as well, didn’t you?” Amity said.
“What are you talking about?” Virgil snapped.
“I imagine that you failed to mention the streak of insanity in your family bloodline,” Penny said casually.
“The Warwick bloodline is untainted,” Virgil roared. He slammed the privacy screen aside just as Penny started to do up the bodice of the gown. His face was splotched with fury. “How dare you imply that there is insanity in the family!”
“I had an interesting conversation with your sister tonight before you murdered her,” Amity said. “Out of curiosity, may I ask why you killed her in the middle of a ballroom?”
