Few could get the upper hand with Gray. He’d been raised by a tyrant and had a lot of his traits. His standard response was always to say a case was complex, and until today, no one had called him on that.
“Please walk me through what happened that night once more, Miss Nightingale,” he said instead of “I know exactly what I’m doing, you little baggage.”
She nodded regally and began. Gray could smell her scent, or something flowery and subtle, which was surely her, as no window was open.
“Halt!”
They both looked to the doorway. A tall man stood there, and the resemblance to the woman seated across from him suggested it was a brother. He was stalking into the room with a face that said murder would not be out of the question. Gray’s murder.
He stomped closer. The dog rose at the same time, and they collided. Lord Seddon tried to leap over the rising animal and managed it just. He then staggered slightly and came to a halt inches from the fireplace.
“Nice save,” his sister said.
CHAPTERFIVE
“You,” the angry brother stated, pointing a finger at her, “should not be alone in a room with him.” He jabbed the finger Gray’s way.
Chester, deciding to give the angry man a wide berth, wandered to Gray again and collapsed, placing his chin on one of his boots.
“Oh, for pity’s sake, Leo. The door is open, and I am merely recounting what happened the other night and nothing more. Don’t be dramatic,” Miss Nightingale said, rolling her eyes.
“I don’t want you sitting in a room with a man and no one else, Ellen. Also, I have no wish for you to be interrogated without me, Alex, or Mungo present.”
Leopold Nightingale, Viscount Seddon, stalked to his sister’s side. Long-legged and Gray thought some would say handsome. He wore the dress of the gentleman he was.
“Chester was here.”
“Chester couldn’t terrorize a mouse, as you very well know.”
Gray raised a brow at Miss Nightingale. She ignored him, so he regained his feet and bowed. “Lord Seddon.”
Miss Nightingale laughed, and the sound was like a set of bloody bells it was so sweet.
“There is no need to be amused, sister dear. The title may be worthless, but I still hold it.” Leopold gave her a small smile.
“Detective Grayson Fletcher, I believe,” the man said.
Gray nodded. They had no idea who he was. He relaxed.
“Leo, there is no need for you to be here. Detective Fletcher is simply asking me a few questions, not a threat to my virtue, and clearly, he has done extensive digging because he knows who we are.”
At the mention of her virtue, Gray had a sudden and unwelcome image of this woman naked in his bed, her golden hair over his pillow as she looked up at him adoringly. His body stiffened, and he willed the surge of lust away by thinking of his late Aunt Melinda’s jowls.
“And yet I have no wish for you to be alone in a room with a man I do not know. Any man.”
At least one of the Nightingale siblings worried about her reckless nature.
“Continue,” Lord Seddon said, which made his sister’s lips tighten.
Gray had a feeling he’d said it in that exact tone so he’d get that response. Siblings, he’d often noted, liked to annoy each other. Gray didn’t speak to his brothers, so that was not something he understood anymore, but once they’d been close enough to annoy each other.
“Please carry on with your story, Miss Nightingale,” Gray said.
Her brother sat on the arm of her chair, which highlighted how similar they were when close. He also read the subtle warning that Leopold would suffer no one upsetting or intimidating his sister because he was right there at her side.
“The two boys you encountered, Miss Nightingale,” Gray said when she’d finished. “Do you see them as being responsible for the murder of Mr. Nicholson?”
“No. They just saw an opportunity to steal what was not theirs and took it,” she said.
