“It should have, but it wasn’t. I let about a week go by after she departed the farm before I followed her to Westmorland. Once I got there, we started meeting in secret. She was already taking reading lessons with Otis, so we’d meet briefly after her lessons. She wasearnest about her reading. She said she didn’t want to be like her father. She wanted to learn how to read so she could teach our son. I think she wanted to be on more of an equal footing with me. I told her I’d teach her, but she refused. She said it would make people even more suspicious if she suddenly came to me for reading lessons. Otis was a poet. People respected that, so it made sense for him to teach her. No one knew I was a former schoolmaster. To them, I was just a farmer.”
“And you never became jealous of Otis? He was a charming young man, and he was spending far more time with her than you were.”
“I had no reason to be jealous of Otis. Alice and I had a strong bond. We shared a child. And Otis was doing me a favor. If not for him, we would not have had the opportunity to see each other at all. His lessons gave us a chance to meet thrice weekly.”
Nate got the distinct feeling that Collins wasn’t being entirely truthful. “I can’t understand why Groby would let his wife go off with a handsome young Don Juan like Otis. Surely, people talked,” he baited Collins.
Collins shrugged. “They did. But Alice is a strong woman. She was raised by a tyrant and survived. Town gossips weren’t going to bother her. But the gossipdidbother Groby. He ordered her to end her reading lessons, but she refused. The gossip grew worse. And then came the night at The Black Horse when Rupert taunted Groby about being a cuckold. His patience must have reached its limit, and so he killed Otis.”
“You really believe that?”
“I do,” Collins said.
Nate recalled his conversation with Groby when he’d visited him in jail. The man had told him that he’d been suspicious of Collins, not Otis. He’d had his wife followed and discovered she’d been meeting Collins in secret, which Collins had just confirmed. Why, then, would Groby kill Otis? It made no sense at all. It was far more likely thatCollins had grown jealous of Otis and killedhim.
A man who spent three years laboring—for a butcher!—so he could find out where the love of his life had disappeared to would not take kindly to losing her heart a second time. And if anyone could steal a woman’s heart, it was that charming charlatan, George Otis.
*
Bridget attempted toread while she waited impatiently for Nate to return. She sat with Bijou by the drawing-room fire, foregoing the library where Rupert and Charlie worked late into the night. Most of the other guests had retired to bed, but Bridget suspected that Lady Luxton was waiting for Rupert to make a late-night visit to her room. She was doing everything in her power to make Nate jealous, but the only real power she had over him now was her son.
Bridget lowered her book and sighed. Why was Nate taking so long to return? She hated that he’d gone out in the dark after dinner. He should have met Collins during the day. If there was a connection between George and Mr. Collins, then the latter was certainly the killer. A vision of Nate’s mutilated body lying in the daffodils flashed in her mind, and she shuddered.
Bijou, who sat in his basket next to the fireplace, lifted his head. A low growl emanated from his throat. Then he stood up and let out a flurry of high-pitched barks.
“Quiet, boy.” Bridget held a finger to her lips. But Bijou could not be mollified. Something had gotten his attention. He shot out of the library, barking. Bridget grabbed her lantern and followed her wayward dog, only to almost collide with Nate, who’d caught Bijou and secured him under his arm. Her heart almost exploded with relief and happiness upon seeing him in the dim passageway.
“You’re awake,” Nate said. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten Bijou.”
“He’s excited, not frightened,” she said, taking the terrier from him. “And it wasn’t Bijou you frightened; it was me. I’ve been worried sick about you.”
They moved back into the drawing room, where Nate put down his lantern and picked up the crystal brandy decanter. Then he paused and put it down again as if having second thoughts. “Why were you worried?” He asked. “You knew I’d gone to meet Collins at The Black Horse.”
“Exactly. You went to meet a potential killer late at night.” She put Bijou on the ground, and he trotted back to his basket. Then she placed her lantern back in its place on the table.
“Bennett drove me there in my carriage, so I wasn’t alone. Furthermore, I’m not about to let Collins or anyone else, for that matter, kill me.” He gave her a teasing smile, but Bridget could not find the humor in his comments. What she’d learned from Charlie had truly frightened her and set her imagination running.
“What’s the matter?” Nate asked, glancing at Bridget’s hands tightly clasped together.
Aware of his gaze, she released her hands and went to sit on the settee. “I spoke with Charlie today, and I asked him about George. He doesn’t know much about his background—he said George was always evasive about that—but he did mention something that I found quite alarming.”
“What is it?” Nate came to sit beside her on the settee.
“He said George had gone to school in Harrogate. And I think that cannot be a coincidence.”
Bridget could see Nate’s body momentarily freeze. “Good God,” he finally said. “It’s all coming together.”
“My sentiments exactly,” Bridget said. “Did Collins confirm his past relationship with Mrs. Groby?”
Nate hesitated.
“If you withhold information from me like you did in the summer,Nate Squires, I shall never forgive you!”
Running a hand through his dark, wavy hair, Nate sighed. “Very well,” he said. “But you must promise not to do anything rash. Promise you won’t attempt to talk to Mrs. Groby or Collins without me.”
“Believe me, I shan’t go anywhere near Collins on my own.”
Bridget listened as Nate told her about his meeting with Collins. “So, after being dismissed and disowned by his father, Collins worked for Alice’s father for three years in the hope of discovering what had happened to her?”
