“I shall leave you to your tea and call again tomorrow,” Gray said.
“I’m sure we can find room for a member of Scotland Yard,” Bramstone added. “As long as you don’t eat all the treacle cake Mrs. Douglas recently dropped off.”
“Did she?” Ellen made a humming sound.
“He’s not staying. How do we know he believes you about that knife and is not just infiltrating the house to get more information?” Leopold said.
The man had a lot of anger, Gray thought.
“Had I believed your uncle was guilty, my lord, I would have arrested him, or at the very least questioned him further. He has alibis, and was far from London, as has been verified already by a few people we have tracked down.”
“Well, there you have it then. I am not to spend the night in Newgate,” Bramstone said.
“Leo, don’t be a goose,” Ellen said. “I wonder sometimes if the men who decided titles should only pass to other men, realized just how foolish some of you could be. The world would surely be a better place if women ran it.”
“Amen to that,” a young girl with brown hair and eyes said, appearing from behind her uncle.
“Fred, this is Detective Fletcher.” Bramstone placed the hand that was not holding the little girl on her shoulder.
“Hello, Detective Fletcher. Can you come and share tea with us so I can ask you questions about being a detective?”
“Well, I don’t—”
“Do you have somewhere else to be?” Ivy Nightingale asked him.
Gray shook his head. He didn’t lie unless absolutely necessary.
“Excellent. You will eat with us then,” Bramstone said. He then took Fred’s hand, and they walked away. “Come along, everyone,” he called over his shoulder.
Gray found his arm taken by Ivy Nightingale and was soon following the other members of the family.
Bloody hell, he could usually get himself out of any situation that did not sit well with him. However, not this one. Looking at the swish of Ellen’s skirts, he thought perhaps he knew exactly why he was still here.
Dragging his eyes from her hips, he stared at a painting on the wall of an austere man dressed in flowing robes.
“That is Chodrak. He is a monk my uncle met when he was at a monastery in Tibet,” Frederica told him, leaving her uncle’s side. “Uncle Bram learned a great deal from him. My uncle and aunt have traveled everywhere,” she added.
“That must have been exciting for them,” Gray said.
“I want to travel.”
“And you will, Fred,” her aunt said, blowing the girl a kiss.
There was love in this house. Even the grumpy Leopold cared deeply for his family with all that he had inside him. Gray thought about who loved him this passionately and came up with no one.
Why did that bother him today, when yesterday it hadn’t?
CHAPTERTWENTY
“We do not even know this man,” Leopold hissed from behind Gray to Ellen, who had dropped back to walk with her brothers. “And yet you got into a carriage with him.”
“He is a detective, Leo.” Gray could hear the exasperation in her voice. “He has been to our home and helped us the night we rescued Penny Tompkins.”
“Do you think because he is a member of Scotland Yard he is therefore above reproach, sister? Let me persuade you otherwise,” Alexander added in support of his older brother.
“I protest,” Gray said over his shoulder. But he knew the words were correct. Unfortunately, some of his colleagues were corrupt and easily bribed to sway from the path of right. He was trying not to be annoyed about Ellen’s brothers’ opinion of him. They were, after all, protecting her.
“Ignore them. They will blow themselves out. My theory on their behavior is that they were uptight and restrained for many years and did not much care for each other. They are now the opposite. The shackles were released, and they are free to speak their minds and do as they wish, which includes loving openly,” Ivy said.
