Page 56 of Death at the Dower House
“Unless he was with his sister.”
“But if he wasn’t with Laetitia, then he was alone. He could have met Johanna coming up, and noticed that she was crying, and he could have decided to console her after Crispin rejected her, and when she said no, he strangled her. Maybe he’s someone who doesn’t like to be told no.”
“It’s a good thing I didn’t reject him to his face last night, then.”
Christopher nodded. “Be very careful not to be alone with him from now on.”
“I was going to do that anyway,” I said. “I wasn’t worried about being murdered—” although perhaps I should have been, “—but I didn’t fancy being backed into a corner and mauled, either.”
“We’ll make sure that doesn’t happen,” Christopher promised.
I arched my brows at him. “Who are we?”
“Well, there’s me and Francis. And Crispin, I suppose. And Tom…”
“Detective Sergeant Gardiner is working. And Francis had better stick with Constance. If Marsden would go after women indiscriminately, she might be in danger, too.”
Christopher conceded my point. “Perhaps I’ll talk to Francis and Crispin and make sure someone is always with one of you. We can swap off.”
“What about Laetitia?”
He squinted at me. “Marsden isn’t likely to go after his own sister, surely?”
Not in the romantic sense, certainly. Unless their relationship was something quite different from what I had pictured. “I was thinking more that she’ll try to monopolize Crispin’s time now that Johanna is gone.”
“Do you really think so? After last night and this morning, he must have lost some of his luster, don’t you think?”
“He’s still the Viscount St George with the Sutherland name and fortune,” I said. “And she seems inexplicably attached to him.”
“That’s disturbing,” Christopher said. I nodded. “Then I suppose Francis and I will deal with Constance and you.”
“Or perhaps all three of you can deal with all three of us. We don’t know that it was Marsden, after all.”
“If it wasn’t Marsden, it was Peckham,” Christopher said, “and if so, I suppose he might attack Laetitia, although I have no idea why he would.”
“Maybe he’s someone who likes to strangle women.”
Christopher sent me a jaundiced look, but said, “Perhaps we should all just keep an eye on all of the women.”
“That should make Laetitia happy, anyway.”
“And Marsden less so, I imagine. I didn’t get the feeling that he likes Crispin much.”
“Hard to blame him for that,” I said. Christopher gave me a look of accusation which I answered with a tilt of my chin. “I’m not being unkind, Christopher. Think about it. St George brought Lady Laetitia to Sutherland House in January. I’m sure they spent the night together. It’s not unreasonable that a doting brother might object to that. Especially when it’s someone with Crispin’s reputation. If it had been me, wouldn’t you have been upset?”
“I would have wanted to kill him,” Christopher growled. “Although in this case, I blame Laetitia as much as I do Crispin. If anyone seduced anyone in that scenario, it was probably she.”
Not impossible at all, actually, given her behavior. “And then there’s the possibility that Laetitia herself strangled Johanna. But if she did, at least Crispin ought to be safe with her.”
“Tom will figure it out,” Christopher said. He got to his feet and brushed off the seat of his flannel bags. “Walk a bit?”
“We might as well.” I tucked my hand through his arm. “There’s nothing else to do, after all.”
“We could try to find proof.”
I glanced up at him as we meandered along the stone wall. “How do you imagine we do that? If there’s proof anywhere, it’ll be in Lady Peckham’s room, don’t you think? And if it is, Tom will be the one to find it.”
“I suppose.” He sounded dissatisfied. “It’s galling, having to sit here like a potted plant while someone else does all the detecting.”
