Maddy shook her head and indicated the upstairs by raising her head and gazing upward. “David told me she’s behind it all, but he didn’t explain,” she whispered.
The earl continued to question Miller, who snarled his answers. “Higgins,” he said in answer to the question Lucy missed.
“Who hired you?” David asked, obviously repeating the question.
“Higgins—I told you.”
“On his own behalf?”
Lucy’s attention sharpened.Who, indeed.David stood with his arms behind his back, a picture of studied calm.
“How would I know?” Miller growled. “I only ever talked to Higgins.”
“Who ordered the damage to the bridge?” David asked.
“What damage?”
Rob lurched forward at Miller’s smirk, but David put out a hand to stay him. Some sort of silent communication passed between the brothers. Lucy thought of the older Robert Benson, broken and battered when they carried him into Willowbrook, and her heart went out to Rob.
“Don’t be coy, Miller. You sabotaged the bridge, and Mr. Benson almost died. But we’ll leave that for a moment. The murder of Lieutenant Robbins in front of witnesses is enough to get you hanged.” The earl spoke with the same unnatural calm—the reasonable tones of a schoolmaster dealing with a disobedient boy. His words were all the more menacing for it.
When Miller’s head snapped up, Lucy saw the stark fear in his eyes. He cast a panicked glance in her direction, aware no doubt she witnessed the murder, opened his mouth to speak, and closed it again. David kept silent, watching Miller intently and allowing the man to consider his likely fate for several minutes.
“If I talk, what will it buy me?” Miller’s sly expression left Lucy cold.
“A swifter execution, perhaps. It depends on what you have to say.”
Lucy knew David must be churning with emotion, and yet he managed to infuse his words to Miller with a studied indifference.
“Higgins ordered all the damage. Little stuff. Some she didn’t even notice. He said it wasn’t enough, so I did the stable. Higgins wasn’t happy when the bast—themajorhired a crew, but it ended up a stroke of luck. He hiredme.” Miller’s cocky grin at that made Lucy’s skin crawl.
“But it still wasn’t enough, was it?” David asked.
“Higgins said the chit felt too safe with all those men around—one of them me,” he laughed. “If she wouldn’t leave, he said we had to get their attention so folks would force her to go.”
“The purpose of all this was to cause Miss Whitaker to leave Willowbrook?”
“Obvious, isn’t it? Stubborn woman stuck to the place like tar on a roof. Higgins wanted to make sure folks took notice, so we did the bridge.”
“Did you plan to harm people?” David asked it softly, but this time there was no mistaking the threat under it.
Miller shrugged. “Higgins said to make it good. To make sure it collapsed when someone went over it. The first horse and rider that went over didn’t do it. Took the second trip with a pony cart.”
“But you knew whoever triggered the collapse would likely be injured.”
Miller sobered. “I warned Higgins someone could be killed, but he said to do it.”
“And you did it anyway.” The earl stared at him until Miller dropped his eyes to his feet. “Getting paid, wasn’t I?”
“You were lucky that time. Mr. Benson was merely injured,” the earl said.
“I wanted to quit then. I did. But Higgins said if I tried, he’d make sure I was caught and transported for it.”
“But you didn’t,” David murmured.
“What did you plan to do to Miss Whitaker when you assaulted her?” Rob spoke for the first time, much less able to keep the rage from his voice than David was.
“Dint assault her. I wouldn’t have hurt a woman, even for pay. I was meant to frighten her. ‘The damned woman won’t leave.’ Higgins kept going on about it. ‘We need her gone,’ he said.”
