Page 35 of House of Furies
“She complained to me of headaches for days,” he agreed. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she was simply ill with some unknown malady of the brain. Even curative waters cannot help such things.”
Like greed, for example, or evil.
“Then you will speak in my defense?” I asked, although really it would make no difference. Who would they report me to? The master of the house? He could hardly turn me overto the authorities, knowing, as he did, that this murder rested on his shoulders. But they might search my room and find the stolen books I had put for safekeeping under the bed. Then they would know that I intended to steal from them. What would Mr. Morningside do to a person who tried to take from his precious collections?
“Quite readily, as soon as these two fools calm down.”
He smiled at me, rather intently, too intently for my liking. His hand remained on my thigh, and the heat of it there made me feel ill. Nobody had ever touched me in this manner, and while I generally trusted physicians, there was the not so small matter of this man being a guest here. What had he done to land himself in this cursed place? Now I was watching him back, and he flinched, suddenly taking great interest in the patterns on the carpets. What was inside him? If I looked hard enough, would I see whatever black mark stained his character?
The argument raging on next to us reached an abrupt peak, and Dr. Merriman shot up from the sofa, tangling himself in the two men, who had now come to blows over the widow’s honor. It would not surprise me in the least if the afternoon ended with a duel.
While the three of them slapped lamely at each other I took a deep breath, watching as Lee burst through the door, Mrs. Haylam not far behind with tea. Lee spared the quickest glance at the men before joining me on the sofa. He looked as pale and drawn as I. I needed no mirror to know we hadbecome reflections of each other’s fear.
“Are you all right?” he whispered, searching my face. “You... You were the one to find her?”
“It’s all as I said,” I replied, putting equal weight on every word.
He took my meaning at once.
“How dreadfully, dreadfully awful,” he murmured, the very last of the blood in his face draining away. His eyes roamed to the squabbling men, but he didn’t really look at them. He was gazing beyond, thinking, and it was the same for me. What were we to do now that the scant words of warning I had given him proved prophetic?
“Gentlemen, I must insist that you stop this barbarism at once!” Mrs. Haylam bit out sternly. It was a schoolmarm’s voice, a mother’s voice, the sort of soft but steely tone that brought all three grown men instantly to heel, as if they were naughty children. “There is tea here, yes? Drink it. Sit down. There has been enough upset in this house for one morning.”
The men broke apart, each taking a separate piece of furniture and claiming it as his own.
“Now then,” she added, surveying the room and landing at last on me. She did not miss, of course, the close way Lee and I sat together. Her tight expression only became that much more strained. I had forgotten the stark, skewering power of her gaze. For a moment I remembered the crone who found me in Malton, and, as she glared at me now, I could see that spirit again withinher. She had changed her clothes and hairstyle, but nothing could perfectly mask her nature. “I’m told our young maid here was the first witness to the tragedy, is that correct?”
The men piped up, but she only watched me as I nodded once.
“As such,” Mrs. Haylam continued, folding her hands together and approaching me, “I must ask that she come along now and give a statement to the master of the house. He will deal directly with the village constable. And if it would not be too much trouble, Dr. Merriman, might you examine the body and prepare an official write-up of what you find? It will make the difficulties to come that much easier to face.”
The doctor stood and brushed off his sober, simple suit. He was taking a deep breath as if to agree when Colonel Mayweather popped back up like a weasel jumping out of a burrow.
“Just a moment,” he said, twirling the ends of his mustache, agitating them until they were perfect circles. “You cannot expect us to stand idly by while nothing is done with this girl! Not only my sense of duty but my sense of logic demands that she be questioned most thoroughly.Mostthoroughly! Why was she the very first to come upon poor Mrs. Eames? Why did she not call for aid? Mr. Bremerton claims he found the chitlurking, and I for one will have this lurking behavior explained.”
“For once we agree,” George Bremerton chimed in. He propped his elbow up on his knee, shaking one finger in my direction. “Why, the local constable should do the questioninghimself. It’s intolerable to consider staying another moment in this place with a killer stalking the halls.”
I couldn’t feel my hands. They had gone numb with cold horror. What could I say? That they were not at all in danger? That was a lie, and while they had nothing to fear from me, I knew even now the machinery of their own demise was somewhere in motion. To lie to these men did not bother me, but in that moment, flustered and afraid, I could not conjure a single word of defense.
“There was no instrument of murder found in the room,” the doctor pointed out reasonably, unbuttoning and rebuttoning his coat. “And again, I recall the woman complaining of severe headaches—”
“She said nothing of the sort to me!” Colonel Mayweather huffed, rounding on the doctor.
“Or me,” Bremerton agreed.
I could feel Lee fidgeting helplessly beside me. Even Mrs. Haylam looked a little nervous, stranded as she was in the middle of the room, the Colonel on one side and Bremerton on the other. No matter how sincerely I silently implored the doctor to speak up again, he remained silent, shifting his eyes between the two men as he fussed with his coat.
“There! You see? No objections.” Colonel Mayweather wrinkled his nose at me, grinning, as if accusing me gave him supreme pleasure. “The girl shall be turned over to the constabulary at once.”
“And yet we will do no such thing.”
The Colonel’s smugness melted away immediately. He and everyone else turned to regard the tall, handsomely cut figure in the doorway. Mr. Morningside had arrived, and he did not appear at all pleased.
Chapter Twenty-One
“When if ever did I sign over ownership of this establishment to you two gentlemen?” Mr. Morningside was dressed impeccably in indigo with a pale green cravat. The room seemed to shrink at his presence, and my eye went at once to his feet; they appeared normal, sheathed in glossy black boots.
“Really, sir, please, nobody is suggesting—”
