“Then do so,” Gabe growled.
“Brothers.” Michael sighed. “Come, we shall take tea and talk. Miss Carlow and Miss Blake can then fill in the parts you don’t remember, Nathan. But first I’m sure they wish to wash and be refreshed.”
“Thank you, we would,” Beth said. She and Mary followed Michael from the room.
Nathan hurried to wash and change, then returned briefly to check on Walter and found Dimity there with Forrest and Ella.
“How is he?”
“Sleeping.” She sniffed, eyes red. “Thank you.”
“For what? Had I not taken him walking, he would not have been shot.”
“You made sure he came home to be cared for.” She came to stand before him and leaned in to kiss his cheek. “I have seen your Miss Carlow. She is scared, Nathan, and I know she hurt you, but please remember there is usually another side to every story. Perhaps it is time you learned hers.”
With Dimity’s words ringing in his ears, he found the parlor Mary, Beth, and his brothers were in. Zach and Mary were still arguing.
She sat in a chair with a cup clasped in her hands as if to warm them. Her hair was pulled back from her head in a smooth bun. Her dress was smeared with Walter’s blood, she looked small and vulnerable, and pain stabbed at him as he thought about the gunman putting a bullet through her.
“Start at the beginning, Nathan,” Gabe said when he’d settled in a seat near Beth.
“I left the house with Ella and Walter—”
“I know that part.”
“You said start at the beginning.” Nathan took the cup Fairfax handed him. It was laced liberally with sugar, but he felt the urge for something stronger than tea. “There is actually not much to tell.” Nathan shrugged. But he explained everything he remembered in detail.
“Did any of you see the gunman?” Michael asked.
They shook their heads.
“Do you believe it was a random attack?” Gabe asked.
“I—ah, I’m unsure why it wouldn’t be,” Beth answered, looking nervous. She was hiding something Nathan was sure of it.
“Mary and I need to return home.” She got to her feet when the questions had stopped. “If there is nothing more you want, Lord Raine, I will say good day to you.” She started for the door. “Come along, Mary.”
Mary dropped a quick curtsey and followed after shooting Zach a glare.
“Where are you going? I said I’d accompany you both.” She ignored Nathan and walked out of the room without a backward glance with her friend on her heels.
He looked at his brothers, who all wore differing expressions he had no wish to decipher.
“Well, go after her and that she-devil, or they’ll likely walk home and get into more trouble.” Zach made a shooing motion. Nathan left.
“What do you think you are doing?” He walked around Mary and caught Beth as she began to descend the stairs to the front entrance.
“Leaving.”
“Your stupidity knows no bounds,” he muttered.
“I am not now, nor have I ever been stupid,” she stated. “Perhaps once I may have given you that impression, but I assure you that is no longer the case.”
“Why did you give him the impression you were stupid?” Mary asked.
Beth waved her friend’s words away.
“You contemplating walking about London alone is stupid. But doing it twice in one day after what transpired earlier is doubly so.”
