She continued looking straight ahead for a minute. Finally, she answered, “I was accompanied by a capable solicitor who has confirmed we have a good case.”
Hm. “If that’s true, I would say he is a pettifogger out for your money since the evidence is obviously conclusive.”
He could see her stiffen and wished they’d been able to simply talk about the weather.
Before he could try to steer the conversation back to a neutral subject, she asked, “Why?”
He recalled what they both knew. “Because the perfume was—”
She waved her gray-gloved hand to cut him off. “Why doyouthink Thomas did it?”
He had spent as little time as possible considering the reason because it made no sense. Even he knew that.
“I have no answer.”
“Because there isn’t one. He gained nothing,” she insisted.
“That we know of. Unless she knew something about your brother and was threatening to expose him. In which case, he gained her silence.”
She turned slightly to look at him. “Are you saying your sister was a blackmailer? Shall that come out in the court of common law, too?”
“Sophia would never—” he began, but Adelia had already turned away and was shaking her head.
“You cannot have it both ways, Lord Burnley. If she was threatening my brother, that means your sister was a shifty blackmailer. If not, we still have found no possible motive.”
He could think of no response.
“I am sorry for your loss,” she said, “but you cannot bring Lady Sophia back by destroying my brother’s life. I will prove him innocent.”
She was correct, but that was not why he’d gone after Smythe.
“I never set out to ruin your brother’s life.”
After a long hesitation, she admitted, “I know.”
They rode on in silence for a little while.
“Does anyone know, thus far, of your brother’s arrest?”
“Only the solicitor,” she answered, “unless you have told people.”
“You told Lady Jane,” he reminded her.
“That’s true. I was in such a distraught state, I’d forgotten.” She sighed. “Thus, Lord Westing knows as well as your other friend, Lord Whitely, and your parents. And they shall all tell people. No matter how it turns out, I fear Thomas’s reputation will be ruined regardless.”
He didn’t think her brother’s reputation was particularly important in the face of the sentence he might incur. But Owen didn’t dare mention the possibility that her brother would be publicly executed.
“My family and friends are not celebrating the fact, nor telling anyone of your brother’s incarceration.” Actually, Whitely might, at that very moment, be spouting off at the Carlton Club or at White’s, for all Owen knew. That was hardly his concern—except in how it affected Adelia.
And that concerned him greatly. Of all the women in England, he had to desire the sister of the man who’d killed Sophia. If Smythe were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison, perhaps it was possible Owen could convince Adelia they had a life together.
But if her brother was hanged!
For the first time, he considered whether he could save his relationship with Adelia by asking the judge to spare Smythe’s life and let him spend the rest of it rotting in prison. At least Adelia could visit him there, which was more than Owen could do with his sister ever again.
He didn’t know if the court would allow him, as the relation of the wronged party, to request leniency. Nor did he know if that would be enough to persuade Adelia he was not an ogre.
“My lady,” he said before he could stop himself, “might you ever see your way clear to let me escort you again somewhere? To the theatre, perhaps?”
