Pippa kept close to the wall, her eyes sharp as she and Cull passed intersecting tunnels. Built into the walls themselves and guarded by iron grates were the loculi, niches which held stacked coffins. There must be hundreds of them in the crypt. Pippa tried not to think about what lay within, the remains trapped here in the suffocating darkness. She and Cull turned a corner and found themselves staring down another corridor lined with grated niches.
Movement flashed at the far end: a slender figure disappearing around the corner.
“There she is,” Pippa breathed.
Cull took off down a parallel passageway. He was faster than Pippa, several paces ahead when a grate flung open into his path. He slammed into it, bouncing backward, his weapon skittering into the shadows. The brute who’d been hiding in the alcove attacked. He and Cull grappled, trading punches.
Pippa gripped her pistol, afraid to shoot for fear of hitting Cull. The bullet could ricochet off the walls and do unpredictable damage. Luckily, although the brute was large, Cull was stronger, smarter, outmaneuvering the other and gaining the advantage.
“I’m fine,” Cull shouted. “Go after her.”
Trusting that he had everything in hand, Pippa raced off down a tunnel parallel to the one Julianna had taken. She shifted her gaze between her path and Julianna’s trajectory, tried to listen for the other’s footsteps but could hear nothing beyond her own pounding heart. As she glanced ahead, panting, she saw the glint of a muzzle poking around the next corner. She reacted, throwing herself backward the instant before the shot rang out. The bullet whizzed by, stirring the air by her cheek.
A heartbeat later, she was back on her feet, sprinting forward.
She rounded the corner, aiming her pistol at the brunette, who was trying to reload.
“Drop it,” Pippa said.
The woman slowly let go of her pistol. Her eyes suddenly filled with tears, her expression pleading…and that was when Pippa knew.
“You understand why I had to do it, don’t you? You, of all people, understand,” the woman said in a tremulous voice. “Life is unfair to women like us. Hastings looked down upon me, used me, treated me like dirt. I had to escape my husband—I had no choice.”
“As unfair as life may be, you had a choice,” Pippa said levelly. “And you made it when you murdered Julianna Hastings.”
“I don’t know what you mean…”
The woman feigned confusion. Pippa had to admit that the resemblance between Julianna Hastings and her impersonator was uncanny.
“The jig is up, Mary,” Pippa said. “I’ve had my suspicions that it was you, not Julianna, who was behind this plot. But I knew for sure when you tried to get rid of Louis Wood tonight. Julianna Hastings was a desperate woman, driven to desperate measures…but she was no killer. If she was, she would have simply murdered her husband and been done with it.”
And Pippa finally saw the depth of Mary Brown’s talent: the other’s expression morphed with terrifying ease. One instant, she was a wronged wife. The next, she was a calculating murderess, capable of anything.
“You’re cleverer than I gave you credit for,” Mary said. “Unlike that nitwit Lady Hastings.”
Pippa held the gun steady. “Why did you kill her?”
“Because she used me.” Mary’s gaze was colder than the surrounding crypt. “She hired me to take her place, and at first, she was grateful and kind. Treating me like we were friends, taking me into her confidence. I got to know everything about her and convinced everyone Iwasher, even her arse of a husband. Bastard didn’t even know who I was when he was rutting inside me.”
Pippa pushed aside the twinge of empathy. “But Lady Hastings tired of the ruse.”
“The bitch got greedy. Decided that stealing away to meet with her lover on occasion wasn’t enough. She wanted her freedom. I told her there was an easy way to do it…but she was horrified. Refused to contemplate doing away with Hastings, even though the bastard had it coming.
“Instead, she came up with an asinine plan to fake her own death. She knew about her father’s will, you see. Plotted to get Morton his share of the money so that he and she could run off together. She hired you to throw everyone off her scent. She knew you would point to Hastings as the guilty party and wanted the focus on him until she and Morton could get away, even though she knew the codicil would surface and her husband would eventually go free. What a bleeding coward she was,” Mary said in disdain. “Playing all those ballroom games, yet afraid to dirty her lily-white hands getting rid of the real problem.”
“So you took the situation into your own hands,” Pippa said evenly.
“She left me no choice. When she made up her mind to fake her own death, she no longer had any use for me. NowIwas a problem. When she set up that final meeting with me, I knew that she intended to end our arrangement. To cut off the payments which were my livelihood and which I had bloody earned!” Rage contorted Mary’s features. “I’d played her simpering self for a year and lain beneath her pig of a husband. After what I’d sacrificed, I wasn’t going to let her take it all away.”
“You killed her. And hurt Ollie,” Pippa bit out.
“Ollie? Oh, the urchin.” Mary shrugged. “He should’ve minded his own business.”
“He’s an innocent child.” Anger sizzled through Pippa. “Did you kill Hastings too?”
“He’d started figuring out Julianna’s original plan, and I couldn’t let him unravel all my hard work. I had my associate take care of him.”
“And Wood?”
