“How can you speak so?” Miss Walker jumped to her feet. “Lord Perrin was lovely. Just lovely.”
Katherine’s father arched an eyebrow, dipping his chin. “He toyed with people. Made promises he never intended to keep.”
Miss Walker flushed, and suddenly, Katherine could no longer stand it. All the falsehoods. The pretense. The authorities might not be able to reach them now, but eventually a magistrate would come. And she couldn’t let an innocent person be accused.
She scooted to the edge of her seat, pressing a hand to her abdomen. “I—”
Someone squeezed her shoulder. Tightly. Looking up, she saw Mr. Taylor shake his head.
The confession died on her lips. It wasn’t only herself she’d implicate. How could she bring trouble to Perrin’s secretary when all he’d done was try to help her? Katherine dug her nails into her skirts. Though the fact that he could have taken that knife and….
She swallowed. She didn’t know quite what that said about him. She knew that Mr. Taylor fancied her, but she hadn’t realized his regard was strong enough to help her cover up her crime.
“It has been a trying night,” Mr. Taylor said. “I suggest we all retire. Sleep will help us all think more clearly.”
To rethink her confession, he meant. Katherine sighed, her shoulders drooping. If she were able to fall asleep, the oblivion would be welcome.
She looked up, and her gaze caught Mr. Evans’s. He had a curious expression on his face as he looked at her, to the handon her shoulder, and up to Mr. Taylor’s face. As unobtrusively as possible, Katherine slid out from the secretary’s grip and rose.
“Bed does sound like a good idea,” she said, looking everywhere but at Mr. Evans.
“Are you not afraid to be alone?” the attorney asked, tilting his head.
If a murderer had been on the loose, Katherine supposed she would be. Exhaustion dragged at her limbs, making her too tired to even attempt to feign concern. “It is as my father says. Lord Perrin had an enemy. I don’t believe anyone else is at risk.”
Lord Havenstone took his wife’s hand and tugged her to standing. “We also are retiring. And we will be taking the rear staircase up to the first floor. My wife doesn’t need to seethatagain.”
Lady Mary clapped her hands together. “Quite right. Everyone should use the servants’ stairs. And I would suggest that Lord Perrin be removed to the ice house until a magistrate can inspect the body. Stevens, can you direct some men to make that happen?”
The butler nodded. “I’ll have some lads clear out space in the ice house now.”
“Good.” Lady Mary patted the lace cap over her ivory hair. She had a decided air of authority, which, as the sister-in-law of the earl, she most likely deserved. “Well, then, since nothing more can be done tonight, I suggest we all go to bed.”
Chapter Five
Lady Mary
Iwaited bythe doors of the sitting room, smiling and nodding as Perrin’s other guests passed by on their way to their rooms. Either by fortune or by his own devices, Mr. Ryder was the last to exit.
I grabbed his arm and dragged him back into the room. “What,” I said, trying to keep the irritation out of my voice, “are you doing here?”
He ran his fingers through his hair, the patches at the temples just going white. “As I said, I was invited,” he replied mildly.
“You knew Perrin?” I tried to think on what occasion my proud brother-in-law would befriend the president of the London Society for Morality and Decency. Perhaps as a former attorney, Mr. Ryder had assisted Perrin in a dispute.
“The barest of acquaintances.” A loud knock upstairs indicated that one of the guests had closed a bedroom door with excessive force. Ryder poked his head out into the empty hall before returning his attention to me. “The earl’s invitation did indicate that you would be in attendance.”
My eyebrows snapped together. “And that induced you to come?”
He rubbed his jaw. “Not that it isn’t lovely to see you at any time—”
I huffed. The last time we’d seen each other, he’d been trying to get me to shut down my club. The Minerva Club was the only social club in London, probably in all of England, whose members were women. Men seemed to enjoy their time at White’s, and the more unsavory clubs; I saw no reason women shouldn’t have the same opportunity to shake out their skirts. Perhaps if Perrin had been the type of man to allow my knife-throwing demonstration, he wouldn’t have been at the receiving end of the blade.
My face heated at my uncharitable thought. My annoyance only increased at Ryder’s next words.
“—but I wondered at the invitation. Why would a member of your family invite someone to a party you were attending whose presence so obviously would perturb you? What did Perrin hope to gain by asking me to be a member of the party? It raised my curiosity.”
His dulcet baritone almost had me believing that he’d been concerned. About me. The fact that the man wanted to close my club proved that a lie.
