Page 82 of What Cannot Be Said

“It sounds unbelievable because it is! You also don’t know that the ‘nob’s get’ asking Cato Coldfield about the murders was Percy.”

“No. Although Percy told me himself he’s fascinated by murders and murderers.”

“That doesn’t mean he is one himself!”

“No. But it might suggest why he would kill someone: to see what it feels like. And to see if he could get away with it.”

“Surely a little boy couldn’t be so... evil.”

Sebastian looked over at her. “At what age do you think it starts? That lack of caring for others, I mean.”

“I don’t know. But not at thirteen! Surely?”

“Actually, I suspect that fundamental lack of human feeling only makes sense if it’s never there—unless it’s destroyed by the kind of brutal hardships a pampered viscount’s son is unlikely to have experienced.”

She turned her head away, one hand coming up to hold back her windblown hair as she stared out over the choppy, sun-sparkled expanse of the river beside them. She was silent for a long moment, then said, “Even if we should somehow discover that the boy who spoke to Coldfield that day was Percy, it could still be a coincidence.”

“It could be.”

“And Arabella could have bloodied her gloves by cutting herself on something, and decided to hide them rather than risk a scolding. Or perhaps she shoved the gloves into the hollow of that tree intending to go back for them, then forgot. Given what happened that day, it would be totally understandable.”

“Yes.”

She drew a deep breath, her features composed in troubled lines as she watched Simon pick up a rock and throw it awkwardly into the water. “What about the attack on Percy in the park? If the children are the killers, then how do you explain that?”

“The only witnesses to the first supposed attack were Arabella and her abigail, remember? And the abigail is now dead.”

“You’re seriously suggesting the children—what? Tricked their governess into eating something that would make her so ill she wouldn’t be able to accompany them on their morning walk in the park? And then fabricated the entire incident? And that’s why the abigail was killed? Because she was threatening to tell someone the truth?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know how unbelievable that sounds?”

“Yes.”

“And Gilly Harper? Why kill her?”

“I’ve no idea. I never have been able to understand how Gilly’s death fits into any of this.”

Hero resolutely shook her head. “No. It can’t be. They’re children!”

“Think about this,” said Sebastian. “Who sent us after first Pitcairn and then Finch? The children. And when I was careful not to tell Lovejoy about Pitcairn, Percy made sure he knew.”

“You’re suggesting they were deliberately trying to throw suspicion onto Finch and Pitcairn?”

“I am. And then, when those misdirections didn’t seem to be producing an arrest, Percy evaded his father’s restrictions in order to come to Brook Street and tell me about the chimney sweep Hiram Dobbs.”

“Surely you don’t see that as suspicious?”

“At the time I didn’t, no. But now, in retrospect? I do.”

“But Percy couldn’t possibly have traveled all the way out to Richmond Thursday night to kill Cato Coldfield.”

Sebastian was silent for a moment, his eyes narrowing as he turned to look back at the grim walls of the new penitentiary being built farther downriver, in a low marshy area that critics warned would surely turn the prison into a death trap. “That’s the one part of this that makes me think I’m seeing a pattern where nothing exists except happenstance.”

“That’s the only thing that makes you suspect you might be wrong? Seriously?”

Sebastian gave her a crooked smile and reached out to take her hand. “Think about this: Thisbe was supposed to go on that picnic, but her mother made her stay home as punishment for something the girl says she didn’t do. I’d like to know what that something was.”

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