A Daring Liaison(77)
“Damn it, Georgiana! Give me an answer.”
“Not until you are rational.” The servants would not come unless he rang? Well and good. She went to the outer door and shouted at the top of her lungs. “Clara! Tea, if you please!”
By the time she turned, he was gone.
Chapter Seventeen
“Thank you for coming, Hunter. I am painfully aware that I have torn you away from your charming new wife, but I thought you should hear this.”
Charles expressed no opinion about precisely how charming Georgiana had been when shrieking for her morning tea. He merely nodded and sat across the desk from Wycliffe.
Wycliffe leaned forward, resting his forearms on his desk. “Walter Foxworthy is being held for questioning regarding Allenby’s and Huffington’s deaths.”
This was surprising news. Maybe he wouldn’t have to thrash Foxworthy after all.
“I do not know how long we can hold him. The motive and possible opportunity are the only things that ring true. There is no actual proof. Alas, the Secretary was forced to act.”
“How was he forced?”
“Allenby’s father and Huffington’s nephew are insisting that something be done. Of course, they think your wife is the guilty party, but they cannot prove it any more than we can prove it is Foxworthy. Still, he is the only one with a clear motive—control and use of the Betman fortune and Georgiana. But we will need more proof if we are to get a conviction. The good news is that this development has bought us another day to uncover the truth.”
Charles met Wycliffe’s gaze and knew that there was more. “And the bad news?”
“A Mr. Hathaway has come to the Home Office and made an official report. He claims that Georgiana killed her husbands with laudanum. Perhaps—” he paused to clear his throat “—even killed her guardian.”
The bottle of laudanum in Charles’s waistcoat pocket felt like a lead weight. Laudanum and a loveless marriage had provided work for more than one gravedigger. The irony that he’d made the same accusations this morning was not lost on him. Anger tore through him like a winter wind. “Lady Caroline? Why, that’s absurd.”
“I know. But Hathaway’s claim is that she put laudanum in Allenby’s wedding cup, and that more than mere revelry accounted for his drunken behavior, and that his tumble down the stairs was a result of having been drugged with laudanum.”
“And Huffington?”
“That she put it in his toddy before he left for his daily walk about his property, and by the time the laudanum overtook him, he was too far away to make his way back.”
Charles could guess the rest. “And that she simply gave her aunt an overdose of her usual amount for sleep and no one suspected the truth since Lady Caroline was prone to taking it?”
Wycliffe nodded. “Hathaway contends that, although Lady Caroline was in a decline, the end came too quickly. Furthermore, he saw the vial in Georgiana’s bed-table drawer.”
Charles took a deep breath, hating what he was about to do. “Search for it, Wycliffe. I grant free access to Georgiana’s home and mine.”
“You must be quite certain to make such a sweeping statement.”
Damn the man! He met Wycliffe’s stare and did not flinch.
“Charles, if something is found to implicate Georgiana, you know I will have to do my duty.”
“Hathaway is a bitter former employee. He would say or do anything to spite me or her. He and I had words on more than one occasion, and it was necessary for me to expel him from Georgiana’s house. He made a threat when he was leaving. I was expecting some sort of retaliation, but this goes beyond reason. Surely you see that?”
“Nevertheless. We had been on the verge of arresting Foxworthy when Hathaway’s report came in. Foxworthy’s arrest is my ploy to buy you time, Charles. And there is not much of it. Act quickly, because the moment we release Foxworthy, we will have to arrest your wife.”
“You will find nothing to implicate Georgiana.”
Wycliffe stood and turned to look out his window. “You are certain, Hunter?”
“Positive.”
“Foxworthy is likely to be released by the end of the day. Tomorrow morning at the latest. Attention will return to Georgiana.”
“I understand.”
“Now what will you do?”
Charles sighed. “I have no idea where to go from here,” he said. Though Lord Carlington might be a good place to start.