“I should have guessed you were involved in this,” she said, doing her best to keep her voice calm. “But devil-worshippers, Sir Guy? After you accused me of using dark arts to kill your uncle, that is a trifle unexpected.”
“How better to divert suspicion than to accuse you of my crime?” he said, his teeth gleaming white in the dim light.
“Divert suspicion?” She sucked in her breath. “Are you saying you…”
“In ten years, it never occurred to you that I had a hand in my uncle’s death?”
Why would it? Her husband seemed to have one foot in the grave from the time she met him.
“He enjoyed torturing me—parading you in front of me, when he knew how much I wanted you,” he said, his voice seething with bitterness. “Then he would say you made him feel so ‘young’ that you were bound to be with child soon.”
Linnet had no notion her husband had provoked Pomeroy with such lies. In sooth, he had been a sickly man who rarely pressed his attentions upon her during their brief marriage.
“I could not risk losing my inheritance, could I?” Pomeroy said. “You should be grateful I did not poison you as well.”
“I suppose the death of a healthy sixteen-year-old would be more suspicious,” she said.
“Precisely,” he said, his black eyes gleaming. “That is what saved you, my dear, for I was very angry with you at the time.”
Her heart pounded in her chest, for she could think of no reason that would stop him this time.
“There are those in our coven who have high ambitions—exceedingly high ambitions,” he said. “To gain his assistance for what they seek, the dark angel will require a blood sacrifice of the highest order.”
“You believe in this foolishness?” she blurted out. “You have always underestimated me.” Pomeroy clenched his fist and leaned so close she smelled the onions on his breath. “Do not do so now. You will soon see that all is possible when we call upon the great Lucifer and his demons.”
He was serious. Her hand went to her chest. “Tell me you have not given your soul to the devil.”
“I hold the power of life and death in my hands,” he said, holding his hands out, palms up. “I can obtain all that I desire. First, my uncle’s lands. Then, the friendship of the powerful. But I had to be tested again and again to prove my commitment before the dark lord would grant me my last desire. The thing I wanted most.”
His eyes burned into her like glowing coals. “But now, at long last, I have you.”
Sweat broke out on her palms, her forehead, and under her arms.
“When you learn how to call upon the dark lord,” he said with a ghostly smile, “you, too, shall have all that you desire.”
“Nay,” she whispered. “I shall never do it.”
“Your pathetic tools cannot bring you the vengeance you seek,” he said. “For all your efforts, you do not yet know who hatched the scheme against your grandfather, do you?”
When she could not find her voice to answer, he leaned close again and shouted in her face, “Do you?”
She swallowed and shook her head.
“But I do.” He straightened and spoke in a calmer voice. “The man you seek used subterfuge and layers of intermediaries. While many merchants were aware of the scheme, only three knew who pulled the strings. So when you came to London asking questions, he was content to stay hidden and bide his time.”
Linnet could not help herself. “Who were the three who knew him?”
“Leggett, Mychell, and Alderman Arnold.”
No wonder the man had felt safe. Leggett was dead, Mychell hated her for driving him into debt, and Arnold would fear losing his position as alderman if his part was revealed.
“Others knew bits and pieces, but they were afraid to talk,” Pomeroy said. “Besides, you were a foreigner with close ties to the queen. Everyone suspected you both of being spies for the dauphin.”
Pomeroy’s eye twitched as he gave her a thin smile. “But when you went to Gloucester, my dear, that changed everything. Gloucester asked a few questions. Suddenly this merchant had reason to fear the hidden threads would be revealed and spun together… and lead to his door. He delivered you to me on a platter.”
Linnet licked her lips. “How… how did he know you wanted me?”
“Let us say, we have mutual acquaintances.” His eye twitched again. “But I shall turn on the man who gave you to me, as a serpent turns and bites his own tail, for your enemies shall be mine now.”
