A Murder in Time(99)
Even though she knew what she’d find, she opened the book and scanned the inside page.
Pride and Prejudice
A Novel
In Three Volumes
By The Author of “Sense and Sensibility”
Nowhere on the cover or in the book was the name of the author.
Lies had a way of catching up with people, she knew. In the FBI, she’d always counted on it. Still, she’d never figured it would be something as innocuous as Jane Austen that would be the thing to trip her up. She lifted her gaze to Alec’s eyes. “I can’t explain.”
“Cannot . . . or will not?”
She sighed and looked away. His hands came down on her shoulders, surprising her into swinging her gaze back to his.
Too close, was all she could think.
His green eyes bored into hers. “Do you fear someone, Miss Donovan? Are you in hiding?”
He was giving her a way out. She only wished that she could take it, spin a believable tale, but her mind was blank.
“My uncle shall protect you, Miss Donovan. I shall protect you.”
“You thought I was a thief and a liar.”
He frowned. “’Twould appear I was correct in half of that assumption.”
Kendra realized that she had no right to feel insulted at his words. Or hurt. But she did.
“I will not judge you, Miss Donovan.”
You say that now, Kendra thought. Regretfully, she shook her head and handed him back the book. “I’m sorry . . .”
He drew in a sharp breath. “You ask us to trust you with your unorthodox theories, and yet you cannot extend us the same courtesy.”
“It’s not the same.”
“I do not agree with you, Miss Donovan. I believe it is very much the same.”
The silence pooled between them again. He looked at her, and then his eyes dropped to her mouth. When he lifted his gaze, her heart was thumping with an awareness she didn’t want to have. Deliberately, she took a step back.
“I should go to the study. Review my notes again.”
“Escaping?”
“I need to work,” she said, but they both knew it was a lie. Still, he didn’t try to stop her as she walked to the door. She didn’t run, even though she wanted to. It probably took five seconds for her to leave the library, but it felt like an empire could’ve risen and fallen in the time that it took her to reach the hallway.
She was half afraid that he’d come after her. Her heart raced. It continued to race when she reached the study alone. Her hand shook as she went about the task of lighting candles. She finally had to stop and do a couple of deep-breathing exercises to calm down. She had to focus. She didn’t know how she’d come here—vortex, wormhole, whatever. But she’d begun to believe in the why. She was here to catch a killer. This was her purpose.
Catch the killer. Go home. The two had become firmly interwoven in her mind. She couldn’t afford a distraction like the Marquis of Sutcliffe.
38
“W’ot’s wrong, miss?”
Kendra was sitting on the bed, allowing Rose to practice her hairdressing skills by pinning up her hair. But her mind was replaying what had transpired the night before when Alec had neatly trapped her through her own words, and revealed that the Duke was aware that she’d lied to him. Odd how that bothered her the most.
He was hoping you’d come to him, trust him enough to tell him the truth.
Kendra recalled Alec’s words, and felt the same stirring of dismay, guilt, and defiance that she had then. The last time she’d truly trusted anyone was when she’d told her parents that she wanted a say in her own future. And look at how well that had turned out. They hadn’t even argued with her. They’d simply abandoned her.
She thought of the Duke’s gentle blue-gray eyes. He wouldn’t abandon her, she knew. But he might help her all the way into an insane asylum.
“Miss?”
“I’m sorry, Rose. I’m a little distracted.”
“You seem a bit blue-deviled—” Rose broke off when the door flew open and Molly came running in. The tweeny was flushed, her eyes bright as she came to a halt, clutching the door.
“Lud! W’otever are you doin’, Molly Danvers?” Rose exclaimed. “I could’ve skewed miss ’ere with the ’airpins if I ’and’t been done!”
“Where’s the fire, Molly?” Kendra echoed.
Molly’s face went blank in confusion. “Oi dunno anythin’ about a fire . . . but ’is Grace asked me to fetch ye!”
Kendra went still. Alec must have told the Duke about her deception, and Aldridge had finally decided to put an end to the charade. What, she wondered, could she possibly tell him?
“All right.” She stood up slowly, and wiped her suddenly clammy palms on her skirt. “I’ll meet the Duke in his study. I just need a moment—”
“Nay. Not the study, miss. The woods. That’s where the Lady is.” Molly’s eyes were wide as she gave an exaggerated shiver. “She’s dead, miss! Dead in a most ’orrible way!”
The woman was most definitely dead; Molly had been right about that. And how the woman had gotten into that state had indeed been horrible. She lay sprawled, faceup, eyes open, across one of the narrow paths, just inside the cool dappled green of the forest. A handful of men dressed in rough tweeds stood five steps away, staring down at the body. As Kendra approached with Alec and the Duke of Aldridge, the men doffed their hats—a courtesy that Kendra wasn’t entirely sure was directed at her, or at the men.