“Why did you ask for it in the first place?” She tucked the handkerchief in her sleeve and stared at the names scrawled on the paper.
“I had hoped it would give me some clue as to your father’s murderer and eventually lead me to the person responsible for the attempts on your life.”
“But surely these people were questioned at the time of the murder?”
“Many of them were. But there was a lot of confusion that night. I was going to seek the guests out and speak with them again. You would have been safe with Yvonne. It seemed the perfect time.”
Kenna nodded, her eyes misting again at the thought of all he had tried to do for her. She pointed to the third name on the list. “Squire Bitterpenney,” she recalled fondly. “He made the most ridiculous Roman senator that evening,” Her finger dropped to the next pair of names. “And here is Lord and Lady Dimmy. I don’t remember what he was wearing but she was one of the shepherdesses. Oh, and Lady Barthel! She was another. Here is a name that is not familiar. Michael Deveraux. Probably an émigré friend of Victorine’s. She kept in close contact with others who fled the Bonapartists. See, here is Paul Françon and the Comte and Comtesse Lescaut. My father was instrumental in helping the Lescauts leave Paris. They stayed at Dunnelly for several weeks while the Comte recovered from the ill-treatment he received in the French prisons. They live in New Orleans now so you wouldn’t have been able to talk to them.”
“What other names do you recognize?”
Kenna continued to go through the list and point out people she knew and their connection with either her father or Victorine. “It’s not been very helpful, has it?” she said when she was finished.
Rhys folded the paper and slipped it in his pocket. “At least I know a few names of those it couldn’t be. The Lescauts, for instance, since they’ve been in the United States for several years. And Lord Rilling. He left for India about the same time I went to the Peninsula. Seven of the guests have passed away which I didn’t know before this evening. It narrows the list a little.” He put Kenna’s fork in her hand. “I insist we both eat something before Mrs. O’Hare decides we don’t care for this either.”
Their dinner was cold by now but Kenna ate dutifully under Rhys’s watchful eye. “You’re not angry, are you, about what I said?”
“You mean about me being Victorine’s lover? No. I’m not angry. I wish that you had mentioned it before. I suppose I should have realized you believed some such nonsense. You’ve connected her name and mine on several occasions. I never understood why until now.”
“I couldn’t confront you with my suspicions,” she said softly. “Or Victorine. I think I was afraid of what you would tell me.”
“And now?”
“I believe you, Rhys, and feel foolish for all the times I did not.”
They shared a glass of wine later, sitting on the floor in front of the hearth in their bedchamber. The spring nights were still cool and Kenna welcomed Rhys’s suggestion of a fire in the grate. She was wearing one of the gauzy nightgowns that Rhys bought her and didn’t suspect that his offer to build the fire was prompted in part by his desire to keep her out of her less revealing robe. She sat with her legs curled to one side and Rhys’s head rested in her lap. Her fingers threaded through his hair absently as she stared at the ephemeral shapes made by the flames.
“I was not very good company at dinner,” she said. “Will you tell me about your day?”
“The lawyer had better news than we suspected. There is a large reserve of funds he had been urging my father to put back into the line. Enough to build several ships the equal of the one we saw yesterday in the harbor. My father wanted to move ahead more cautiously, waiting for the economy to strengthen. Mr. Britt was too polite to say it outright but I gather my father had lost interest in the line. His political aspirations had taken precedence in recent years and he was grooming Richard for a position of greater responsibility in the government. The day-to-day decisions concerning the business were left to Joshua Grant, a capable man by all accounts, but without any real authority to bring about change.”
“Did you meet Mr. Grant?”
“In the afternoon. He impressed me as knowledgeable and reliable but also as the sort of man more comfortable receiving directives rather than issuing them. His relief was almost palpable when I said I would be taking responsibility for the operation. I discussed plans with him to build two ships, both with large cargo holds, as well as your idea about the schooner runs to the Indies and South America. He believed both were excellent ideas.”
“Was he merely saying that because he thought it was expected of him?”
“No.” Rhys chuckled. “He must have seen that I wondered that also. He summoned all his stiff Boston pride and informed me rather coldly that he had been offered a position with Garnet Lines on several occasions. If he didn’t like what I was doing he could say so without fear of being unemployed for long.”
Kenna smiled, imagining Rhys’s response. “You increased his salary, didn’t you?”
“Of course. I was not going to let him be lured away. How did you know?”
“It’s what I would have done,” she said simply.
“I had no idea I had married such a shrewd businesswoman. Your ancestors must be appalled. Imagine, one of the Dunnes in trade.”
“My father would be proud,” said Kenna wistfully.
Rhys took her hand and held it to his lips. “Yes,” he said gently. “Yes, he would.”
In the morning Kenna went with Rhys to the harbor. The offices of Canning Shipping occupied several rooms on the second floor of a warehouse along the wharf. The odor from hundreds of barrels of cured cod being transported from the warehouse to a waiting ship permeated the office. Kenna had a scented handkerchief in her reticule but she refused to take it out and hold it to her nose.
“It takes some getting used to,” Rhys told her when he caught the pained expression on her face.
“I wasn’t complaining,” she said tartly.
“I wouldn’t expect you to.” He picked up some heavy ledgers that were lying on top of an oak filing cabinet and placed them on the desk. “Are you certain you want to go over these by yourself? I could help you with them later.”
