Page 10 of Crying Wolfe
“He didn’t hurt me, or touch me in any way untoward.” Rosaline finally stood, small fists balled at her sides. “Please, I didn’t mean to cause any trouble. It was just so late at night, and I knew Mrs. Clarkwell doesn’t ever go to the fourth floor. No one has stepped foot in that room in months, and the telescope is just sitting there. Forgotten.”
“Did you take anything from the room, Rosaline?” Morley asked.
She shook her head, wrapping her arms around her middle.
God was she a skinny thing. Waist as slender as a reed.
“Where’s the wrap you were wearing?” Eli demanded. “I’d swear you had something other than the butter knife in there.”
“Butter knife?” Prudence’s dark eyebrows creased.
“I use it to undo the observatory’s window latch,” Rosaline muttered reluctantly, padding on bare feet toward the wardrobe. She fetched the wrap from a basket, and tossed it in his direction.
Snatching it out of the air, Eli could feel by the weight of the velvety garment that the pockets were empty, but he made a show of checking them, anyhow.
If only to keep himself from doing something ridiculous like sniffing it.
What sort of witchcraft did women use to smell like honeysuckle in the middle of a smog-choked city in winter? It defied the laws of God and nature and he didn’t fucking appreciate it.
“Doesn’t mean you couldn’t have hidden it away somewhere,” he grumbled. Had he been mistaken? Could his body have pressed close to the ridges of the ladder or something? Was he losing his ever-loving mind?
“If Rosaline says she didn’t steal from you, she didn’t,” Prudence insisted. “I know her to be an honest woman.”
“Idon’t,” Eli pointed out, balling the garment up and tossing it back to the basket. He pawed the clothing aside, pressing them this way and that before opening a drawer full of dainty things he wished he hadn’t seen. “I don’t know her at all.” He moved on to a delicate dressing table topped by foreign feminine doodads and jars filled with shit he couldn’t begin to identify. “Which is why I’mnotmarrying her.”
When he reached for a floor-to-ceiling cupboard in the corner, Rosaline leapt forward, a strangled denial tripping off her tongue.
Gotcha, Eli thought. With a triumphant flourish, he unlatched the cupboard and pulled it open.
At least half a dozen fuzzy kittens spanning several colors of the spectrum tumbled out onto the ornate carpet. They seemed to sprout from another basket lined with fluffy linens placed next to a box full of fresh dirt and sand.
“Rosaline!” Prudence gasped, following her sister to the floor in order to collect the sprightly crew of cats. “Where did you get all these? Why were you keeping them in the cupboard?”
Eli looked to Rosaline, who was doing her utmost to scoop up the knavish critters and place them on her bed.
“They were living above the stables, but their mother was killed by a carriage two weeks ago. I brought them in here so they wouldn’t freeze.”
“Does Emmaline or Emmett know?” Morley asked.
Rosaline again shook her head.
“We’ve been staying at Cresthaven all week.” Prudence handed a mewling white one to her sister. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
The uncertain lift of Rosaline’s shoulder made her appear impossibly younger. “They weren’t bothering anyone. I feed them from the leavings of Mrs. Cordle’s butchery along with some goat’s milk, and I clean their box and fetch them fresh soil from the garden daily, so it doesn’t smell. I thought if someone took offense to them, I’d be compelled to give them up before they’re ready.”
A disquieting ache tugged at Eli’s chest. She’d kept a litter of kittens and performed all those tasks for them without anyone noticing…
Why did that seem so grim?
Morley stared, unblinking, at the balls of fluff stumbling around the soft covers of her bed making high-pitched, demanding noises. A twitch erupted in his right eye and a vein began to pulse at his temple.
“Prudence, darling,” he said from between clenched teeth. “Would you kindly deal with this?”
One look at her husband sobered her enjoyment of the kittens for a moment. “Of course,” she said around a ginger tabby. “We’ll get this all sorted.”
Wrenching the door open, Morley snatched up his rifle by the barrel before barking. “Eli, with me.Now.”
Eli wasn’t one to follow another man’s orders, but he realized in that moment why Morley was a leader of men. He was so in command of himself, so reasonable in the face of chaos. Unyielding in his protection of his family, his friends, his entire city.
