“You’re welcome.”
“Good, I’m glad that’s done with. Now, what’s happening with George’s murder?”
He was fairly sure he’d missed something in that entire exchange, but as it hadn’t ended with Leo wanting to maim him, he left it alone.
“Has Ellen talked to you?”
“She has spoken about the tattoo and the Baddon Boys. It makes my blood run cold that one of them confronted her.”
“And mine,” Gray agreed. He then had perhaps the first amicable discussion he’d ever had with the eldest Nightingale sibling.
“I’ve been giving the matter of Olivia and George Nicholson arguing some thought,” Leo said.
“It seems everyone is now up to date on the case, even though that information should really not be common knowledge,” Gray said.
“As I was saying, I’ve been mulling it over, and I have a theory. Would you like to hear it?”
“By all means, let’s hear it,” Gray said.
“I had a friend. His name was Linden Rothersham.”
Gray knew the Rothershams were a well-to-do family who walked in society. He wondered if Leo had lost the friendship after his father had plunged the Nightingale family into ruin.
“He had a sister. He was unsure how they had met, but she became enamored with the man.”
“Was he of noble birth?”
“He was a blacksmith and therefore totally unacceptable for a woman of my friend’s sister’s standing.”
“How did they know about the blacksmith?”
“Lord Rothersham saw the man and his daughter together one day quite by chance. He was riding, and his horse threw a shoe. He walked into the blacksmith’s shop and found her there. She was alone with a man.”
“I see.”
“The point I’m trying to make, Gray, is that perhaps Olivia Nicholson is doing something she shouldn’t, and her brother found out. Perhaps the money was for that?”
“Is there nothing you Nightingales don’t share?”
“No. We are very close now.”
“But you weren’t?”
Leo looked at Gray, and he saw pain in his eyes.
“No, I was a cold, arrogant bastard who completely ignored my family when they needed me. I will never be that again, which can make me appear overprotective.”
In that moment, Gray went from tolerating the man to respecting him. “I will never be a threat to your family, Leo.”
“I’m not sure about that, but thank you just the same.”
On those cryptic words, they rode into the park.
CHAPTERTWENTY-NINE
“Why did I let you convince me this was a good idea?” Ellen asked as she tugged the hood of her cloak forward.
“We have been attending the theatre for months, but you have not. It is time, sister,” Alex said.
