Page 79 of So Wild A Heart

“Why?”

“Because of the other attacks. The ones in London. The night we met, and the other time at Vauxhall Gardens. Both times, they came after me. So when the railing was tampered with, I thought they intended to harm me. The same thing when the rock came crashing down. I was in the same party, and I assumed that they were inept and had pushed it too late to hit me. I tried to watch over you because I was afraid that you might get hurt simply by being around me, as you were those two times, but I did not realize that you were the target. I still have absolutely no idea who has been doing it or why. Was I wrong? Were they really after you the other times? Or was it me they wanted to harm, and they later decided that they could harm me by hurting you?”

“But who would want to harm you?” Miranda asked.

He smiled ruefully. “Any number of people, I’m afraid. That first night, I thought they were overzealous bill collectors, frankly. Some ruffians that someone to whom I owed money had sent to frighten me into paying. The second man seemed much more intent on killing me, however, and I don’t know how that would benefit a bill collector.” He paused, looking at Miranda. “What is it? What’s the matter?”

“Nothing,” Miranda responded. “Why do you ask?”

“I don’t know. You looked quite odd for a moment.”

“Oh. Well, I suppose it was thinking of that man who came at us with a knife.”

Miranda hoped that her voice had come out normally. The truth was that when Devin had mentioned the man who had come out of the dark at them with a knife, it had struck her like a bolt of lightning: their attacker that night was the same man whom she had seen her stepmother talking to not long ago down by the old orchards!

She felt cold, as if all the blood in her had drained away somewhere. She had to struggle to pay attention to what Devin was saying. “But there are many people I have offended over the years,” he was continuing. “It could be any one of them. I have scarcely led an exemplary life. What I can’t figure out, though, is why any of them should wait until now to try to do me in. On the other hand, if it is you they are really after, then why did those men attack me the first night? You were not with me. I had never even met you. Even more to the point, why would anyone wish to do you in?”

Miranda did not answer. The answer, she thought, was sitting right in front of her. If Miranda died, her estate went to her father and her stepsister. Elizabeth would not inherit directly, but she would be giving her daughter a rather large present. And with Miranda gone, when Joseph died, Elizabeth and her daughter would inherit all of his money, not just part of it.

But she could not bring herself to believe that her stepmother had actually hired someone to kill her. Elizabeth had been the closest thing to a mother Miranda had ever known. Had Elizabeth been merely pretending to love her all these years? Had she secretly wished her out of the way? She remembered how Elizabeth had come to her the other day, warning her against Devin. What better way to throw any possible suspicion away from herself?

She could not believe it. There had to be some other explanation. Elizabeth could not be evil. Perhaps the man had been hired by someone else and he was here pretending to be a gardener so that he could be near Miranda and find an opportunity to kill her. In that case Elizabeth would have known only that he was a gardener. Or else…Well, she could not think of another possibility at the moment, but surely, if she worked on it, she could come up with something. Veronica’s mother could not be a would-be murderess. Her father could not be married to a killer. It was clearly absurd.

She sneaked a glance at Devin. She wanted to tell him her thoughts, but she knew that she could not. He would immediately assume that her stepmother was trying to kill her, and he would do whatever he had to to stop her. Miranda could not bear the idea of Elizabeth’s being exposed as a criminal and sent to gaol. It would kill her father, and the shame of it would dog Veronica the rest of her life. She knew that she would simply have to settle the question of Elizabeth’s guilt by herself.

“Until we can figure this out, we have to do something to make you safe,” Devin was saying, and Miranda agreed absently.

“You have to promise me that you will not leave this house alone,” he went on. “I intend to stay by your side every possible moment, but if I am not here, then you must not ride out alone—or even go for a walk in the garden. Agreed?”

Miranda nodded. “Agreed. I shall wait for you inside like the frailest of females.”

“I need to get you away from here. There are so many possibilities of attack in and around Darkwater. Obviously the fellow has no problem gaining entrance to the house. I think we should leave for Apworth Mountain as soon as possible. There is no way anyone can come at you without my knowing it out there.”

“But how can we find the person responsible for the attacks if we are stuck out there?” Miranda argued reasonably.

“You have a point.” He studied her, his face falling into thoughtful lines. “Perhaps…perhaps we can lay a trap for our culprit.”

“A trap?” Miranda brightened. The thought of doing something active to find the killer appealed to her much more than passively hiding out. Unless, of course, the killer they trapped turned out to be Elizabeth….

“Yes.” Devin smiled faintly, warming to his idea. “If we tell everyone that we are going on a trip to Apworth, to get away by ourselves after your ordeal in the cellar, then the killer will think that we are out there alone, vulnerable, unsuspecting, and he might come after us. Try to kill us with no witnesses around and make it look like another of his accidents. Except we won’t be alone or unsuspecting or vulnerable. We will be waiting for him. I can arrange for the gamekeeper and his son to meet us there. I trust both of them with my life. They can stand guard secretly, and when the killer comes, they will spring the trap.”

“All right,” Miranda agreed.

She only hoped that things would turn out so that they needed to use Devin’s plan. But first, tomorrow, she intended to have a little chat with Elizabeth.

19

To Miranda’s surprise, she found her stepmother waiting for her when she walked into the library the next morning. She paused on the threshold, hastily rearranging her plans.

“Miranda!” Elizabeth popped to her feet. Her face was white and set, determined. “I—I wanted to talk to you.”

“Good,” Miranda replied. “I wanted the same thing.”

Looking at her stepmother, it was difficult to believe any of the thoughts that she had entertained last night. Still, there was no getting around the fact that Elizabeth had been talking to the man who had attacked her and Devin.

“I know you will not want to hear this, but I have to say it,” Elizabeth began resolutely.

“All right.” Miranda walked over to the library table and sat down, her eyes fixed on Elizabeth’s face.