Page 22 of Silence of Deceit
“She can barely string two coherent words together.”
She nodded, blinking and shaking her head at the same time. “She was to be married…” Her voice caught and trembled. “Where is she?”
After sending Sir off with his task, he had tried to think of a way to deflect the duchess’s certain desire to view the body. She was not afraid to set eyes upon the dead, that much he knew. Hell, she’d once broken into a death inquest.
“They laid her out in her bed. But I cannot allow you in.”
She peered at him, a strange fire lighting her eyes. The tremulous emotion of sadness flashed over to irritation. “Why on earth not? I have seen dead bodies before.”
He gritted his teeth, wishing to hell he’d found a good enough reason to keep her out of Miss Simpson’s room. It wasn’t the murder scene, after all, and so unfortunately, the best excuse he had was that it would be unseemly. Audrey was sure to bark laughter if he attempted to say that. The duchess was long past caring whether she appeared unseemly. And there was no one about but the servants anyhow.
Hugh gave in and shoved open the door closest to them. The coming evening light had dimmed Mary’s bedchamber to a putty gray. The drapes had been drawn all afternoon and now, shadows drenched the room.
Audrey stepped inside, her attention landing directly upon the bedstead. Mary’s figure lay there, a single thick plait of dark hair standing out against the white pillow. The bodice of her dress was soaked with blood, darker crimson now that it had dried some.
“The attack on her is no coincidence, is it?” Audrey whispered.
“No.” He watched her as she approached the side of the bed. Any other woman of the peerage would have likely dissolved into a fit of the vapors, but Audrey had an uncanny steel spine when she needed it. Hugh had seen her vulnerable side too, on more than one occasion. In those moments, he’d wanted only to whisk her into his arms and protect her from harm. Yet moments like this, he admired her strength.
“Poor Mary,” she said, moving from the bedside toward the window. “This must have something to do with Delia’s death. The blackmailer? But…why would the blackmailer want her dead? He had only been interested in revealing her secret about Shadewell.”
“She might have known something more about him,” Hugh guessed. “Perhaps Delia confessed a secret to her, and the blackmailer found out.”
“But what secret? His identity?”
He shrugged, still as flummoxed about the blackmailing case as he’d been before. “Possibly.” He stepped closer to her. “Your Grace—”
“Please,” she interrupted, then turned to him. “I’ve given you leave to address me as Audrey.”
He wished to light a candle. The evening light and shrouded windows made it difficult to see more than the darkened lines of her figure.
“Audrey,” he continued, his voice huskier than he intended. “This makes two former Shadewell residents who have been killed.”
If that concerned her as much as it did him, she didn’t let it show. All she did was turn to gaze upon Mary’s disturbingly still form.
“I’ve been thinking that the blackmailer must be connected as well,” she suggested. Hugh thought it likely.
“You went to see Lady Rumsford.”
She stiffened but didn’t look back at him. “I did.”
“She turned you away.”
“Yes.”
“And today?” he pressed. The duchess would not have given up so easily.
“May I open a drape?” she asked instead. Hugh assented and a moment later, gilded sunset light brightened the corner of Mary’s room. It brought the individual features on the young woman’s body into view: slack, ashen lips, ruined neck. Grief radiated over Audrey’s expression, but then shuttered as she no doubt tried to remain impartial.
Hugh crossed his arms. “Did Lady Rumsford turn you away again today?”
“No. I waylaid her on Rotten Row. It’s why I wasn’t able to meet Mary at four o’clock as she’d requested. She was going to come to Violet House at six...”
Her eyes were distant as she peered through the window’s glass, her expression more than just pained.
“What did you learn from the viscountess?” he asked. As he’d offered to, Thornton had sent along a recommendation, and Hugh had planned to call that afternoon, but then he’d been summoned here. It would have to wait for now.
“Why have you sent for me?” Audrey countered.
