It was proving difficult for Adrian to focus on what his dinner guests were saying.With evidence of yet another murderer luring victims to their demise, his thoughts kept wandering to Polly Griffin.
Since she’d been in Ottersburg’s employ, it was possible that the footman the viscount’s friend had mentioned during their conversation at White’s had vanished in a similar way though he had yet to be found.Adrian sipped his wine and tried to focus on what Eldridge was saying.Something about his eldest son wanting to purchase a horse which the duke believed to be overpriced.
“Of course, my wife is backing him,” Eldridge said.He sent everyone a hasty look as though realizing he might have said more than he should.He cleared his throat.“She loves the boys with all her heart and wants to give them the world.”
“As any good mother should,” Wrengate murmured.“A pity we don’t see more of her.”
“Is she not at Kepwick Abbey?”asked the Duchess of Moorland.She added a pleasant smile that failed to fool Adrian.Lady Moorland and Eldridge’s wife were first cousins, so there was little doubt she knew of the duke and duchess’s marital troubles.More to the point, she probably blamed Eldridge.
“She is,” Eldridge returned the Duchess of Moorland’s smile.“The countryside suits her though it does not prevent her from having her say.Her letter-writing skills are exceptional.”
Mr.Abernathy and his wife both coughed while Samantha appeared to choke on her food.She quickly recovered and reached for her glass which she raised with a wide grin.“To the Duchess of Eldridge, whose absence is dearly missed.”
Eldridge scowled but answered the toast.
Wrengate, the sly bastard, chose to ask, “Have you even met her?”
Adrian growled in response to his disrespectful tone while Moorland looked ready to leap to Samantha’s defense.Outrage widened Lady Moorland’s eyes and the Abernathys’ gazes darted about as though they were unsure of how to respond.Eldridge merely raised his brow.
Seemingly unruffled, Samantha sent Wrengate a cool look that bordered on indifference.Good girl.She would not allow him to rile her.“I’ve not yet had the pleasure,” she said, “but if Eldridge, whom my husband and I have the highest respect for, chose to wed her, then she must be quite a remarkable woman.”
“She is indeed,” Eldridge said, abandoning whatever rift he had with his wife in favor of backing Samantha’s statement.
The comment, however, led to a lull in the conversation, allowing Adrian’s thoughts to return to Polly Griffin.He and Kendrick had discussed her with Fellowes while Murdoch went to get some fresh air.
The skin at the back of her wrists had been irritated, which could have occurred if she’d been bound.Furthermore, her lungs showed signs of asphyxiation, but the lack of markings on her neck made Fellowes dismiss the idea that she could have been strangled.
Rather, he believed the traces of laudanum found in her stomach, along with wolfsbane, cannabis, and other plant remnants, was a far more likely culprit.In which case it seemed someone had bound Miss Griffin, then drugged her.Without her resisting or the skin on her wrists would have been more damaged.
“Adrian?”
Adrian blinked and realized Samantha had spoken his name to gain his attention and that his guests awaited an answer.He frowned and tried to recall the question.Something about what he meant to do now that he’d been acquitted?
A quick glance at Wrengate provided the answer.“I intend to help Bow Street in their hunt for murderous villains.”
“Good heavens.”Lady Moorland exchanged a horrified look with her husband.“Are you saying there might be more?”
“Possibly, though it’s still too soon to know for certain.”
“In other words?”Mr.Abernathy pressed.
“Additional information has to be gathered before we can know for certain.”Adrian met Samantha’s gaze across the table and noted the fire that burned there.She was just as eager to join the hunt for Miss Griffin’s killer as he was.
“All things considered, I’m surprised Bow Street will let you interfere,” Wrengate murmured.
“They value my insight,” Adrian said.“After all, I did try to tell them Benjamin Lawrence was guilty of murdering Lady Eleanor.”
“Not just her, but two other people as well,” Eldridge said.“As much as I sympathize with his family, I’m glad Croft managed to kill him.”
“A sentiment I’ll happily second,” Moorland said with a very definitive nod.
“Perhaps that’s your calling then.”Something cold and unyielding lurked behind Wrengate’s eyes.“Avenging innocent lives by ridding the world of those who took them.”
Adrian stared at the duke without flinching.“The only life I mean to avenge is my sister’s.”
Wrengate scoffed.“Come now, Croft.The man who killed her is dead – by your hand, I’m sure.There’s nothing left to avenge.”
“I did not harm Clive Newton in any way,” Adrian lied.He would take the truth of what had occurred in his cellar to his grave.“But even if I had been given the chance to make him pay for what he did to Evelyne, it would not be enough when I know someone else engineered her death.”
