She fisted her hands in her lap. “You are wrong about Thomas. You will see.”
All she could do was remain calm and pray for a miracle.
When they arrived at her family’s townhouse, it seemed her prayers were answered. According to their butler, her brother was out, and Mr. Lockley had no knowledge where. For once, Adelia didn’t mind.
“We can wait,” Owen proposed. “Or I could go fetch Detective Sergeant Garrard. Or we could go looking for your brother.” He stood in the foyer of her home, arms folded, dominating the tiled space.
Adelia considered all those options. “Or you could go home, and when I see my brother in the morning, I shall tell him you wish to speak with him.”
Owen shook his head. “I think not. Next time I hear of him, he will have vanished to the Continent without a trace.”
“He would not do that,” she insisted. “He would never leave me here.”
“Maybe you will flee with him.”
How outrageous!“We have nothing to flee from.”
“Then let’s go find him, shall we? If he were going to the theatre, he probably would have told you. We can stop off at a few of the clubs, I suppose. Does he frequent Whites?”
She nodded, though more often he would be at the Reform Club, but she wasn’t going to tell the viscount.
Owen fired his next question. “Does he gamble?”
“No.” Adelia didn’t see how that mattered anyway.
“Does he have a mistress he visits or keeps somewhere?”
She recalled the dark-haired woman.
“No,” she repeated.
“Your face says yes,” he insisted.
She shook her head. “To my knowledge, no, but I did see him with a woman the night of the play. I told you that.”
His eyes widened. “I think I saw them together. I’d all but forgotten. Too much whiskey,” he muttered.
“Where did you see my brother? When?”
“A few nights back, maybe a week,” he clarified. “I was hunting in the East End for the murderer, thinking he might be someone who didn’t belong, just as my sister hadn’t.” He shook his head. “Lo and behold, I sawyourbrother! Moreover, he was dressed in the clothing of a tradesman. When I called out to him, he ran out the back door with that woman.”
Odd!she thought.Yet Thomas did take his privacy surrounding his new lady friend quite seriously.
“Somehow, I doubt he would go back after I spotted him so close to the scene of the crime,” Owen pondered.
She rolled her eyes. “I tell you, he is innocent.”
“Lockley, did he take his carriage and driver?” Owen asked.
The butler looked to her first prior to answering personal questions about his master. She nodded for him to respond.
“His lordship takes a hackney most evenings when he goes out.”
Adelia hadn’t been aware of that. She supposed with traffic and lack of parking, it was easier.
“The night we saw him at the theatre,” Owen persisted, looking at her, “it was last Wednesday, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.”How could she ever forget one of the few wonderful nights of her life?
