“It did, on my way to the morgue,” she went on. “He was wearing a coat made of burgundy velvet at dinner that night and was still wearing it the following morning when Helen was discovered missing. He entered the breakfast room in it, and atthe time, I didn’t notice his torn sleeve. But when I was going back over my memories, I saw it.”
Knowing Leo’s perfect memory would sink him, Frederick Cowper had decided, as he had with Teddy and Helen, to silence her.
“I will have his coat collected, if it is still among his possessions at Cowper Hall,” Jasper said. If Frederick defied the odds and recovered from his injuries, he would stand trial. The courts would demand irrefutable proof of his guilt.
Leo’s eyes shuttered for several moments. Jasper sat straighter, alert.
“Is it your wound? Is something wrong?”
“No, no. I’m just tired. It’s to be expected after losing a little blood,” she replied, though she did so with her eyes still shut. Jasper grinned at her stubbornness. Giving in to the need to touch her, he gently swept his fingertips over her bandaged neck. She opened her eyes and held his gaze.
“Do you think Mr. Cowper was telling the truth?” Leo asked in a hushed voice. “Did Helen feel the same for him as he did for her?”
Dora Sweeny had told Jasper that her lady had always chosen men who were wrong for her. Stephen had been below her in station, Anthony Dalton had been selfish and unkind, and then, Frederick had been a blood relation.
“I think so,” he answered. “She did give him her tear catcher.”
“But what significance could that have held?”
A lock of Leo’s hair, loose around her shoulders, drew his attention. He reached for it, curling the tress around his finger.
“Your scent,” he said. “The perfume you wear. What is it?”
Her lips broke into a bewildered grin. “It’s just cheap scent. I hardly ever wear it.”
“Honeysuckle and lemon,” he said, knowing it even though there was no trace of it now in the air. “It doesn’t matter if it is inexpensive. It’s what you smell like. And it affects me.”
He let the silky curl of her hair unwind from his finger, and reluctantly, he sat back in the chair as color blossomed in her cheeks.
“Helen’s tear catcher was filled with her perfume,” she said, understanding. “It…affected him.”
Frederick had likely been hidden on the roof, watching and listening to Helen and Stephen make love. As he’d breathed in Helen’s scent from the spout of the tear catcher, he must have imagined himself close enough to take Stephen’s place. He may even have been taking himself in hand when Teddy Stroud had happened upon him. A greasy wash flooded Jasper’s stomach when he thought of the boy’s fate. All because one man lusted after a young woman he could not, and should not, ever have.
Silence took over for several moments, until, growing predictably restless, Leo swung her legs over the side of the bed. “Let’s find the doctor so I can go home. Claude will be worried about where I am.” Jasper rose from the chair as she stood—and caught her by the shoulders as she swayed.
“By any chance, did Quinn give you laudanum before he placed those sutures?” Jasper asked.
Leo pressed her hand to her cheek. “I forgot about the laudanum drops. I wondered why I felt so lightheaded. I thought it was due to some blood loss, not opium.”
Jasper hooked her arm firmly in his, happy to have her slight weight leaning against him.
“Speaking of opium, I hear you were involved in an arrest today at Gleason’s Department Store. Care to tell me what happened?”
She looked up at him with an expression of innocence. “You might become angry, and I’m not sure I could bear it in my weakened state.”
He could only chuckle at her obvious attempt to avoid his question. “I heard it was an opium smuggling operation for their wealthier patrons.”
“Yes, and when Lydia Hailson discovered it during the course of her own investigation, she was killed.”
“Why was she investigating?” Jasper asked.
Leo pinned her lips together with a distinct expression of guilt. “You’ll be angry.”
“As you’ve already said.”
“Can I tell you tomorrow?”
He dragged in a long breath, impatient to know what she was hiding. And yet, he also did not want to become angry with her right then. Despite her injury, and the fact that they were in a hospital room, there was a cozy bubble of peace surrounding them that he didn’t wish to pierce.
