to the estate, to view the bodies for myself before they
were interred.”
Jessica’s brown eyes widened. “That’s ghoulish. How could you
even look at them?”
He was in no mood to tread softly. “The bodies were in no fit
condition to be laid out in the house, thankfully. So the answer to your how is, with a fat bribe to the groom guarding the
remains in the stables until the interment, my extremely discreet physician
brought along for his expertise, my valet, Gibbons, holding up a lantern for us,
handkerchiefs tied around all our faces and wearing riding gloves we immediately
consigned to the waste bin.”
She folded her hands in her lap. “I believe I was asking a
rhetorical question. But thank you for that explanation. You are a determined
man, aren’t you?”
“When I want answers, yes, I go after them. They actually
didn’t die in the fire, Jessica. From what my physician could tell, admitting my
own limited contact with dead bodies, they’d both sustained pistol shots to
their skulls. Fire doesn’t melt bones, most of all, the skull. With a little
prodding at the remains, the holes were not that difficult to spot.”
Jessica had gone rather pale. “Shot. Not an accident at all. At
least they didn’t burn, thank God.”
“No, the fire was meant to obscure the wounds. The coachman,
alas, was long gone, so I couldn’t question him.”
“Had he shot them? Perhaps set the coach on fire to cover what
he was about. A robbery, I would suppose?”
Gideon shook his head, amazed at her sangfroid. She was
shocked, but she showed no signs of subsiding into a swoon; her mind was ticking
along in a rational fashion. “Anything’s possible. Am I being too suspicious,
Jessica?”
“No,” she said quietly. “My father was always tight with his
purse, so the fact he’d hired a coach rather than bring his own cattle and
servants to London isn’t surprising. Lord only knows who he hired. Their deaths could have been a result of a robbery,
but when combined with the other supposed accidents? All of the men members of
your father’s Society?”
“They wore the rose. To me, that links them. Four accidents
stretches coincidence a step too far.”
“I only wonder why he and his wife were traveling to London at
that time of year. No one can count on the roads being anything but snow-filled
or quagmires. Did your sleuthing extend to finding an answer to that
question?”
“No, but you’re right, I should have thought of that. I was in
London to settle some financial affairs for my former ward, turning them over to
her bridegroom’s man of business, or else I wouldn’t have been in town
myself.”
“Lucky for you, I suppose, and your theories.”
“Yes, I suppose so. Damn, why didn’t I think to ask myself that
question?”
“How lowering to discover one isn’t omnipotent, Gideon,” she
said sweetly, so that he glared at her. She shrugged. “I was only thinking it
would be interesting to know their reason for the journey. A fanciful mind might
even consider the notion they were on their way to a meeting of the Society
you’re so certain was dissolved two decades ago.”
This wasn’t the first time she’d alluded to that possibility.
He might as well tell her the rest.
“We’ve had some curious happenings at Redgrave Manor in the
past year. Glimpses of lit lanterns moving through the estate at night, strange
holes appearing inside the greenhouse which, when investigated, seem very much
to have been caused by the cave-in of some sort of tunnel being dug beneath it.
Oh, yes, and my father’s crypt was broken into. His remains have gone
missing.”
“What?”
Well, at last! He had begun to wonder if the woman was
completely unflappable.
“Yes, that was very much my reaction, as well. However, in the
interests of full and honest disclosure, save for the rare sightings of curious
lights at night this past month or more—possibly poachers—I can’t for certain
say when the tunnel was
were interred.”
Jessica’s brown eyes widened. “That’s ghoulish. How could you
even look at them?”
He was in no mood to tread softly. “The bodies were in no fit
condition to be laid out in the house, thankfully. So the answer to your how is, with a fat bribe to the groom guarding the
remains in the stables until the interment, my extremely discreet physician
brought along for his expertise, my valet, Gibbons, holding up a lantern for us,
handkerchiefs tied around all our faces and wearing riding gloves we immediately
consigned to the waste bin.”
She folded her hands in her lap. “I believe I was asking a
rhetorical question. But thank you for that explanation. You are a determined
man, aren’t you?”
“When I want answers, yes, I go after them. They actually
didn’t die in the fire, Jessica. From what my physician could tell, admitting my
own limited contact with dead bodies, they’d both sustained pistol shots to
their skulls. Fire doesn’t melt bones, most of all, the skull. With a little
prodding at the remains, the holes were not that difficult to spot.”
Jessica had gone rather pale. “Shot. Not an accident at all. At
least they didn’t burn, thank God.”
“No, the fire was meant to obscure the wounds. The coachman,
alas, was long gone, so I couldn’t question him.”
“Had he shot them? Perhaps set the coach on fire to cover what
he was about. A robbery, I would suppose?”
Gideon shook his head, amazed at her sangfroid. She was
shocked, but she showed no signs of subsiding into a swoon; her mind was ticking
along in a rational fashion. “Anything’s possible. Am I being too suspicious,
Jessica?”
“No,” she said quietly. “My father was always tight with his
purse, so the fact he’d hired a coach rather than bring his own cattle and
servants to London isn’t surprising. Lord only knows who he hired. Their deaths could have been a result of a robbery,
but when combined with the other supposed accidents? All of the men members of
your father’s Society?”
“They wore the rose. To me, that links them. Four accidents
stretches coincidence a step too far.”
“I only wonder why he and his wife were traveling to London at
that time of year. No one can count on the roads being anything but snow-filled
or quagmires. Did your sleuthing extend to finding an answer to that
question?”
“No, but you’re right, I should have thought of that. I was in
London to settle some financial affairs for my former ward, turning them over to
her bridegroom’s man of business, or else I wouldn’t have been in town
myself.”
“Lucky for you, I suppose, and your theories.”
“Yes, I suppose so. Damn, why didn’t I think to ask myself that
question?”
“How lowering to discover one isn’t omnipotent, Gideon,” she
said sweetly, so that he glared at her. She shrugged. “I was only thinking it
would be interesting to know their reason for the journey. A fanciful mind might
even consider the notion they were on their way to a meeting of the Society
you’re so certain was dissolved two decades ago.”
This wasn’t the first time she’d alluded to that possibility.
He might as well tell her the rest.
“We’ve had some curious happenings at Redgrave Manor in the
past year. Glimpses of lit lanterns moving through the estate at night, strange
holes appearing inside the greenhouse which, when investigated, seem very much
to have been caused by the cave-in of some sort of tunnel being dug beneath it.
Oh, yes, and my father’s crypt was broken into. His remains have gone
missing.”
“What?”
Well, at last! He had begun to wonder if the woman was
completely unflappable.
“Yes, that was very much my reaction, as well. However, in the
interests of full and honest disclosure, save for the rare sightings of curious
lights at night this past month or more—possibly poachers—I can’t for certain
say when the tunnel was
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