“Sergeant Carter rode from London this morning.” Sir Lionel gestured to the man in the ill-fitting coat. “He wishes to question you regarding a scandalous incident that occurred last night.”
Dominic made a quick mental calculation. Whatever crime they meant to accuse him of must have happened before dawn.
Had Miss Harland left a note naming him her abductor?
Was this punishment? A warning not to cross her again?
“Scandalous incident?” Dominic echoed, noting that Carter watched him from beneath hooded lids. “If something shocking happened, I’m hardly the one to ask. Such things are common occurrences here.”
“What about murder, Mr Hawke?” Sergeant Carter spoke as if he had no patience for jests. “Is that shocking enough?”
The threat of the noose forced him to straighten.
“Not in London, no. Do I need an alibi? I have one. I checked into Mivart’s yesterday afternoon, attended Templeton’s ball, and left around ten. I returned to the hotel and remained there all night. The man at reception will confirm I left this morning, sometime around eight.”
Carter took a notebook from his pocket and scribbled with a stubby pencil. “May I ask what business you had in town?”
“Thursday’s scandal sheet will tell you everything you need to know.” No doubt it would show him with horns and hooves, standing over Harland as he burned. “I went to dance with Lord Harland’s daughter. My reasons are my own.”
Sir Lionel snorted. “After one dance with you, what’s left for the poor girl but a life of penance in a nunnery?”
Clearly, the magistrate had never met Miss Harland, nothisMiss Harland, at any rate. “I don’t know. She seemed like a resourceful creature to me.”
“There’s a suggestion she may have visited your hotel room.” Carter flipped through his worn leather book. “Her aunt found her missing from bed in the middle of the night.”
The implication that Miss Harland was his mistress pricked his temper. “No one visited me in my room. I paid a porter to guard my door until dawn.”
“Guardyourdoor?” Sir Lionel scoffed.
“You’d be surprised how many married ladies long to seduce a dangerous rogue.” He had even written a clause into the contracts for those attending his raucous events. He was strictly off-limits. “As for Miss Harland, she’s too proud to be anyone’s mistress.”
No. She’d rather scrub floors than warm a man’s bed.
She was a conundrum in a world of predictability.
“Do you know where she is?” Carter asked.
Dominic met his gaze without flinching. He could give a masterclass on deception. “Not since I left Templeton’s ball last night. I have no plans to see her again. I imagine if I did, she’d likely shoot me.”
“So you had a grievance with her father?”
“A long-standing one.” He could feel Carter circling towards the point. “Why is that your concern? Are you suggesting Lord Harland is the victim?”
The blackguard was anything but.
“He was found floating in the Thames just before dawn.” Carter spoke with the cool reserve of a man who’d seen too many corpses. “Someone struck him with a blunt instrument and tossed him off Blackfriars Bridge. A witness reported the incident.”
It took Dominic a moment to absorb the news. If thewitness had seen the perpetrator, Carter wouldn’t be standing here asking questions.
“You’re confident it’s Harland?”
“Certain, sir.”
He ought to have felt elated. Someone had saved him the trouble. But it stank of a trap. A neat way for some sly bastard to see him hanged for murder.
And yet it wasn’t anger or fear he was battling.
It was guilt. And a strange wave of sadness as he anticipated breaking the news to his new housemaid.
