Violet came up beside her and grasped her hand. “Is it possible you’ve made some sort of mistake, Hyacinth?”
“No! Do you think I’d accuse a man of such an awful c-crime if I weren’t certain of his guilt? There’s no m-mistake. I saw him do it with my own eyes, the n-night before last.”
“I don’t recall beating a man to death the night before last. You’d think I would, wouldn’t you?” He smiled, but it was the cold smile of a thief just before he wields a blade. “You’ve made a mistake—”
“No! Y-you were in Aylesbury, at the Horse and Groom Inn, f-f-fighting with another man in the yard behind the stable.” Hyacinth’s voice rose, every syllable ringing with panic. “You beat him unconscious, and there was b-blood everywhere, and he never got back up again, and then you dragged him away, and—”
“Just look at her, will you, Lord Huntington? She’s frightened to death!” Lady Chase hurried across the room and wrapped her arm around Hyacinth’s shoulder. “Why, this man must be a cold-blooded killer, just as Hyacinth claims he is. You and Lord Dare must take him to the magistrate, and see him hanged at once, before he murders us all.”
“For pity’s sake, Grandmother, you can’t simply hang a man without a trial—”
Iris didn’t get any further, because the giant man interrupted her. “I was at the Horse and Groom Inn in Aylesbury the night before last. She’s right about that, if nothing else.”
Finn turned to Hyacinth, his face puzzled. “I didn’t see this man that night, and if a murder did take place, it was a remarkably quiet one. I never heard a thing.”
“There was nothing to hear.” The stranger muttered a curse under his breath. “She did see something, but it wasn’t a murder, and I can prove it.”
“Well, let’s see it then, man, so we can put an end to this, and I can take my wife home. She’s upset, and no wonder.” Lord Dare raised an eyebrow at Finn. “Beg your pardon for saying so, Huntington, but this is the least enjoyable ball I’ve ever attended.”
“You’ll get no argument from me,” Finn muttered.
“My brother and sister are in front of your house right now, waiting for me,” the man said to Finn. “Send a servant to fetch them here, and we’ll explain everything.”
Finn didn’t move. “Why the devil should your brother and sister be standing in front of my house?”
The giant gave Finn a tight smile. “One interrogation at a time, Lord Huntington, and I’d just as soon save my neck first, if it’s all the same to you.”
Finn hesitated, but then he blew out a breath and crossed the room to ring the bell. When the servant appeared, he murmured a few words to him, then sent him off.
Then they waited, not one of them uttering a single word.
Hyacinth sank down next to Lady Chase on the sofa, but she couldn’t keep her gaze from wandering toward the black-haired giant, who now stood in front of the fireplace, his legs spread wide, and his hands clasped behind his back. He didn’t spare Hyacinth a glance, but instead watched Finn with a strange, fixed attention—at odds with his expressionless face.
She was still staring at him when the door to the study opened and the servant ushered a slender, dark-haired young lady into the room, and behind her…
Hyacinth choked out a gasp, her blood freezing in her veins when she got a good look at the man who strolled into the room. A black mark shadowed his left eye, his lip was cut and swollen, and a large bruise covered his jaw, but there was no mistaking his face.
It was the man from the inn-yard, and he was…well, he appeared to be very much alive.
He stopped in the middle of the room, summed up the situation with one quick glance, and to Hyacinth’s astonishment, barked out a laugh. “Well, it looks as if everything is going just as we hoped it would. Well done, Lachlan.”
Lachlan—for that was presumably the giant’s name—ignored this, and pointed at Hyacinth. “This lady has accused me of beating a man to death at the Horse and Groom Inn two nights ago.”
The man blinked in surprise, but then his lips curved in a grin. “Has she indeed? How peculiar.”
Lachlan crossed his huge arms over his chest. “Tell her she’s mistaken.”
“Hmm. I wish I could, but I can’t say what happened with any certainty. I was unconscious, if you recall.”
Lachlan took a threatening step toward the other man. “I said, tell her she’s mistaken, Ciaran.”
The man gave him a wide-eyed, innocent look. “But I don’t like to lie to these good people, Lachlan, and for all I know youdidbeat a man to death, after you’d finished with me. I do remember you being quite angry.”
A low, warning growl rumbled from Lachlan’s chest. “Damn it, Ciaran.”
“Oh, no. He looks as if he might do someone an injury.” The man—Ciaran—nodded toward Lord Dare and Lord Huntington. “Perhaps you two gentlemen had better restrain him, just to be safe. Tie him to a chair, or—”
“Oh, for pity’s sake, Ciaran. Hush, will you?” The dark-haired young lady had been watching the scene unfold, but now she stepped forward and silenced the man with a single, quelling look.
