Part 31 (1/2)
”Gavin?” Lady Hetherington emerged from the next intersection and gasped when she saw the milieu. ”Gavin. Unhand Edmund at once!”
”Precisely what I'm talking about,” Mr. Teasdale agreed as he gestured toward Mr. Lioncroft with his cane. ”Yet another perfect example of impropriety.”
A beat of silence pa.s.sed before Mr. Lioncroft stepped backward.
Edmund fell to the floor clutching his neck. No sooner did he land than he sprang back up, swiping at his backside. ”My whiskey! You spilled my whiskey!”
Mr. Lioncroft shrugged. ”It's no doubt my my whiskey.” whiskey.”
”But over a chit? You would spill good whiskey over a chit?”
”I would spill your blood if it wouldn't stain my carpets.”
”Gavin,” came Lady Hetherington's strangled voice. ”Please don't speak like that. What happened?”
”Nothing. Except this pup was about to give Miss Pemberton an apology.”
”For what?” Edmund burst out. ”Admitting I find her attractive? You're the one about to ruin her by dangling after her every chance you get.”
Mr. Lioncroft's arms crossed. ”I won't ruin her.”
Edmund snorted and bent to retrieve his empty flask. ”Whether you touch her or not, she's already marked. No female reputation can withstand being linked to yours. The maiden and the murderer? If we were in London, the scandal sheets would have a field day.”
Mr. Lioncroft's eyebrows lifted. ”In case you haven't noticed, we're not in London.”
”Nonetheless,” Mr. Teasdale put in, ”I for one offer to withhold any whisper of untoward familiarity between Miss Pemberton and Lioncroft.” He turned his wrinkled face toward Evangeline. ”I'll not discuss his reprehensible behavior toward you, my dear, if you discontinue making a spectacle of yourself by encouraging a killer's affections.”
Evangeline's shoulders straightened. ”He's not a killer.”
Mr. Lioncroft stepped to her side, the back of his hand caressing the back of hers before he crossed his arms over his wide chest and glared at Mr. Teasdale.
Neither action escaped Mr. Teasdale's notice. ”How do you know he's no killer?”
”How do I know it's not you?”
”Me?” Mr. Teasdale gaped at her. ”Haven't we already agreed I could not have snuck up and clobbered him on the head?”
Edmund tipped back his flask to swallow the last few drops. ”That may be, but despite your advanced age, I'm sure you're capable of lifting a feather pillow.”
Mr. Teasdale harrumphed. ”I thought you didn't believe she spoke to G.o.d.”
”I-” Edmund paused, capped his empty flask, stowed it back in his pocket. ”I believe we'll never know what did or didn't happen.”
”We might,” Evangeline said. ”If everyone is honest.”
Mr. Teasdale leaned forward on his cane. ”It's honesty you want, is it? Very well, then. I'll clear my name right here and now. And since you asked for honesty, don't get angry with me for speaking my piece.”
All eyes were on him in less than a second.
”I didn't go straight to my room that night. I'll admit it. I wanted to have a word with Hetherington about his daughter. I knew she was young, but I hadn't realized she was practically a child. And not the least bit interested in me, I might add. I thought to discuss my concerns with Hetherington before signing any contracts. He said love was of even lesser importance than her age. That she fancied herself in love with a French tutor, that the rumors of the two of them being caught kissing were true, that she needed to marry straightaway, and what more did an old man like me want than a pretty young chit like Nancy Rutherford? Well, I'll tell you. Not to take a French tutor's leavings, that's what. I refused to sign the contract.”
Lady Hetherington swayed as if suddenly nauseous. ”My daughter is, as you intimated, young and impressionable. She was not happy when we sent Monsieur Lefebvre away. But all that you have proven is that you had more motivation to harm my husband than any of us could have supposed.”
”I haven't finished.” He tightened his grip on his cane. ”As I quit the office where I found your husband, who should I glimpse prowling the halls but Lioncroft? Upset as I was, I didn't wish to make small talk with anyone, so I stayed in the shadows. He entered the same office I'd just left.”
”Is that true?” Evangeline murmured to Mr. Lioncroft under her breath. A heartbeat pa.s.sed before he nodded tightly. Evangeline tried not to think what that might mean.
Mr. Teasdale's shaky voice went on. ”I would have continued on to my chamber, had their voices not risen to a crescendo. The subject of their conversation, my lady, was you. Hetherington stated, and here I am quoting the precise words used, 'Whatever you do to me, Lioncroft, I can do to Rose.'”
Mr. Lioncroft's muscles tensed.
”Re-e-e-ally,” Edmund drawled. ”And how did our host respond to that?”
”With his usual charm.” Mr. Teasdale's gnarled hands pulled his cane against his chest. ”Lioncroft said, 'Not if I kill you first.' And then I heard a crash.”
”Gavin,” Lady Hetherington begged, her expression horrified. ”Please tell me you didn't...”
Evangeline stayed silent, though she felt much the same way.
”Tell you I didn't what? Didn't order him never to strike you again? I can't make that claim. Nor did he agree to follow my command. A man like that doesn't deserve to live. But I didn't kill him.”
Edmund snorted. ”Teasdale heard you threaten Hetherington with just that.”
A muscle twitched near Gavin's temple. ”So I did. But that doesn't mean I killed him.”
”It sure doesn't mean you invited him out back for a round or two of pall-mall,” Edmund scoffed. ”Sounds like we've wrapped up the case to me.”
”I did not kill him,” Gavin repeated.
”That right? I'll believe that when you prove it.” Edmund turned and tossed a suggestive smirk toward Evangeline. ”Maybe your bit of fluff can ask G.o.d for help with that trick, too.”
Evangeline managed to grab the back of Mr. Lioncroft's jacket before he launched himself at Edmund a second time.
”I don't need to,” she said softly. All four of them turned to stare at her. ”Mr. Teasdale said he overheard them arguing in Mr. Lioncroft's office, that he overheard a crash. An office is not a bedchamber. And pillows do not crash.”
Mr. Teasdale gaped at her. ”You're defending the honor of a violent man who fully admits to having threatened the life of a man who subsequently turned up dead?”
Evangeline nodded. ”I am. There were no pillows in that office for Mr. Lioncroft to smother Lord Hetherington with. And even if there were, he would've had to carry his body down one wing, up the stairs, through the guest quarters, all the way to the Hetherington bedchamber without being seen by anyone. Pardon me if I find that scenario unlikely.”
”Unlikely,” Edmund scoffed, ”but not impossible. How do you know whether or not there were pillows in Lioncroft's office that night?”
”I-”
”Miss Pemberton,” Mr. Lioncroft interrupted, latching his long fingers around her elbow. ”May I speak to you alone for a moment?”
”No.” Mr. Teasdale shook his cane at them. ”Of course you may not. This is exactly the sort of inappropriate behavior I mentioned earlier. You expect us to just continue walking to supper while you slip into an unchaperoned room with Miss Pemberton to have a little 'discussion'?”
Mr. Lioncroft kept his hand tight around Evangeline's arm. ”Yes.”
”I am going to have to put my foot down at that nonsense.” Mr. Teasdale slammed his cane against the floor. ”I am going to have to-”