Mark studied her. As always, the two of them circled each other, with their banter, their thoughts, their devotion to the family. “So not because you think me incapable of killing?”
“You are a soldier. I know you can kill.”
“And not because of what the doctor said? Or my alibi, which you so calmly brushed aside.”
She shook her head. She moved to the side of his bed and slipped her hand in his. “You did not kill her because you did not love her. Nor hate her. To strangle someone takes a great deal of strength and anger. That kind of anger only comes from a deep love or consuming fear or blistering rage. You have shown none of those toward her.” She paused and looked away a moment. When she looked back at him, her eyes glistened. “I think I knew that. I was worried about your reputation with her but not your heart. For a long time now, I have thought you would never love anyone, with your insistence on never marrying.”
“Now you have seen why.”
She shook her head. “You may think so, but that is not why. You did not call out for her in your anguish. Instead, your heart belongs to another. And not Lady Sculthorpe either, even though you did ask for her in your delirium.”
Mark felt as if everything about him froze. “I did?”
Phyllida nodded. “You did.”
“I—I thought you were her.”
His mother’s mouth twitched. “Well, we will discuss that later. For now, I have a different question. About the one whose name you called out most often.”
“Which is?”
“Who is Olivia?”
*
Tuesday, 19 July 1814
Sculthorpe Manor
Quarter past seven in the morning
“Mummy!”
William dropped a wooden horse and scurried toward Judith. She knelt and welcomed him into her arms for an enthusiastic squeeze.
Behind him, Nanny sauntered toward them. “You are definitely spoiling him, my lady.”
Judith dropped a kiss on the top of William’s curls, then brushed her fingers through his hair. “Good. Then he will think of me fondly when he goes off to join his brothers at school. He will not dread coming—” Judith chewed her lower lip a moment, squinting back the tears that suddenly brimmed over.He would not dread coming home the way Daniel does.
“My lady?”
Judith shook her head—not a concern for this moment—then kissed William again and turned him back to his toys. “Go on. Go back to whatever Nanny had you doing.”
He grinned. “I was playing stable master!”
Her eyebrows arched. “Stable master?”
He nodded. “Mr. Robins was showing me. They are taking some of the cattle to the big auction place next week.”
Judith glanced up at Nanny. “They are? Why—”
“Yes!” William pointed to a row of wooden horses. “So he said they had to figure out which to keep and which to sell. So I’m looking at all my horses to do the same.”
“I see.” An odd suspicion began to build in Judith’s gut. “And how do you do that?”
William tugged at her hand. “Come see.” As she followed him, he continued to talk. “With mine, as they are not real, I’m checking for chips, breaks, and splinters and such.”
“Clever boy.”
