All eyes swung to the secretary. “Yes, I picked it up. It was just lying on that side table. But I put it back down. You saw me put it back down, Lady Mary.”
“Yes, I saw.” She tapped her lips with her knuckle. “Anyone could have come back in to grab it.”
“This is all good information that the authorities will want to hear.” Henry rubbed the back of his neck. All things considered, he wished he were back in the storm chasing dogs. “Perhaps we should wait for the constable to arrive before we speculate.”
“That won’t be happening for a while, I’m afraid.” A man stepped into the sitting room, the bottom of his legs and his collar dripping wet. He gave a slight shake to his head, water droplets flying.
Lady Mary sucked in a breath and sat up straight at the man’s entrance. Her eyes narrowed. “Mr. Ryder. What are you doing here?”
The man dipped his head, a smile curving his lips. He was tall and lean, his light-brown hair threaded through with silver and white. “I was invited.” His face went serious once more. “And I’m afraid I’m the last person who will arrive here until the rain stops. The road is washed out. My carriage driver and I had to walk the last mile.”
A footman stepped up beside him. “He’s right. I tried riding for Modbury, but turned around when I met Mr. Ryder here. I was risking a broken leg on my horse trying to ride through the muck. We’ll have to wait for the sun to dry things out a bit before getting help.”
The muscles in Henry’s back knotted. Their host had been murdered and ingress and egress from the house had been blocked.
It looked like they were on their own.
Chapter Four
Katherine
Miss Katherine Smithhad thought marriage to a man she didn’t respect the worst thing that could happen to her. A prison with a sentence of life.
Now she faced a much worse prison. A real one. Or worse. She rested her palm on the base of her throat, trying not to imagine how a hangman’s noose would feel.
Someone walked past, jostling her arm, but she barely noticed. It had all happened so quickly. One moment he had been there, grabbing at her, and the next, lying dead at the bottom of the steps. She hadn’t even pushed him. But Lord Perrin had been in his cups, slurring his words and unsteady. It hadn’t taken much to make him fall.
Katherine’s stomach twisted. She had killed a man. She hadn’t intended to, but the earl was dead just the same.
A porcelain cup was lowered before her gaze. She blinked and looked up. The attorney, Mr. Evans, held the cup out to her.
He gave her a sympathetic smile. “Hot tea will be good for your nerves. And I added a splash of a little something extra. This situation has distressed us all.”
She forced herself to smile back. No one could be as distressed as her, and she, the least deserving of feeling that emotion. But Mr. Taylor had told her how pointless it would be for the accident to destroy two lives. She’d been too shocked to disagree.
“Thank you,” she murmured. The cup rattled in its saucer as she lowered it to her lap.
Mr. Evans squatted at her side. He had the body of someone who worked hard labor, tall and strong, rather than a man who sat at a desk all day writing contracts, but his face was kind, his whiskey brown eyes warm.
It was those eyes that almost undid her, making the backs of her own burn.
He rested his hand on the armrest of her chair. “I promise, you and the other women will be safe. I’ll make sure of it.”
“Safe?” Katherine’s father frowned. He stood across from her on the other side of the low table. “Of course, she’ll be safe. Why wouldn’t she be? No one would want to harmher.”
The room quieted, all eyes turning toward her father. His voice did tend to carry. He shrugged. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. There’s no need to lionize the dead. Perrin could be a right sot.”
Katherine’s chest ached. And yet her father had intended to marry her off to such a man. When he had first approached her about the idea of marriage to Perrin, she had thought her father at least respected the earl. That he could give his daughter into the care of a man he didn’t like had never occurred to her.
Her sisters had been happily settled. While there might not have been ardent feelings toward their husbands when they’d married, they were now quite content with their stations. She had trusted her father to provide the same situation for herself.
Until Katherine had met Lord Perrin. Then she’d known she would never be content married to him.
But perhaps it had been easier to find suitable matches for her sisters. Her eldest sister was exceptionally beautiful. Her likeness had been used by a renowned painter as the face of the goddess Venus. Her other sister was exceptionally brilliant and kind, a combination that wasn’t often found together. Katherinewasn’t exceptionally anything, except perhaps exceptionally sharp-tongued.
And that was not a useful commodity in the marriage market.
And now it didn’t matter. None of it mattered. Perhaps she had deserved no better than Lord Perrin.
