Vow of Deception (The Ministry of Curiosities #9)(62)

"We know," Seth said. "We also know how it happened."

"Do you? Do you really?" Buchanan sneered. "Then perhaps you can enlighten me, Vickers, because I don't know anything."

"She…fell and an omnibus struck her."

"She didn't fall, she deliberately stepped into its path." Buchanan sniffed then wiped the back of his ungloved hand across his nose. It came away covered in snot. "She killed herself and I want to know why."

"We don't have the answer," I said. "We're as much in the dark as you are."

"Oh, I doubt that, little miss sweetness."

"Don't," Lincoln warned.

"And you! You're the worst." He shoved Lincoln's shoulders with both hands. Lincoln didn't budge, but he didn't raise a hand to ward him off either. "What did she see in you? Charlotte, answer me that? Help me understand. What do women see in him?"

"Don't punish yourself like this," Alice said more gently than he deserved. "She's gone. There's no point going over well-traveled roads now."

Buchanan wagged a finger in Seth's general direction. "If she pined for you, I could understand. You're so god damned beautiful that I'm half in love with you." He patted Seth's cheek and gave him a slick smile.

Seth smacked his hand away. "If anyone needs me, I'll be around."

"Don't run away, dear Vickers. I'm just getting to the good part. The part where I blame you all for Julia's death."

Seth stopped and glanced over his shoulder, not at Buchanan, but at me.

"Not you." Buchanan touched Alice's face in the same way he'd touched Seth's. "I don't blame you, you divine creature."

Seth grabbed him by the jacket lapels and punched him in the face. Then he held out his hand to Alice. She took it and they left together without a backward glance.

Lincoln held the door open wide. "Get out."

Buchanan didn't look like he was going anywhere soon. He writhed on the floor, clutching his nose and pulling his knees up to his chest. "I'm bleeding!"

Gus shook his head. "If I have to clean blood off that floor, I'll punch you too." He strode off toward the service area.

Buchanan pulled out a woman's lace handkerchief from his jacket pocket, setting off another bout of sobbing. "They let me keep this."

"Who did?" Lincoln asked.

"The mortuary people. I had to identify her body. It was horrible." He sobbed and more tears and bloodied snot oozed from his orifices. "My beautiful Julia…ruined. I refuse to remember her as that bloody mess laid out on a cold table. She'll be forever lovely to me." He curled up into a ball and cried.

I sighed. "What shall we do with him?"

"The hack is still here," Lincoln said, signaling for the driver to wait. "Get up, Buchanan."

"Not until you admit you killed Julia." Buchanan swiped the handkerchief across his nose, smearing blood up his cheek. "She wouldn't have taken her life if you hadn't expelled her from the committee."

"She betrayed the committee," Lincoln said flatly. "She deserved expulsion."

Buchanan lurched onto all fours then pulled himself to his feet. "You could have treated her with kindness, considering your history together! But kindness isn't in your repertoire, is it? Only coldness and cruelty."

I stood in front of him, hands bunched into fists at my sides. "How dare you accuse Lincoln of cruelty toward her? You informed the newspapers of her past. You threatened to reveal your secret liaisons. You provoked her and manipulated her—"

"I loved her!" More tears streamed down his cheeks, and blood and snot bubbled from his nose. "No one else loved her but me. I only ever had her best interests at heart."

"You had your interests at heart. You couldn't accept her rejection so you tried to force her back into your arms by making her unhappy and desperate. How loving of you."

He folded in on himself and sobbed. I'd never seen a grown man cry so hard, and for a moment, I was fascinated by it and a little heart sick. Then I blinked and shrugged it off.

"Go home, Andrew," I said more gently. "Help your brother with the funeral arrangements. She would have wanted that."

Lincoln tried to walk him out the door but Buchanan's legs wouldn't cooperate so he tossed him over his shoulder instead.

Buchanan twisted to see me as Lincoln carried him down the front steps. "Summon her for me, Charlotte," he wailed. "Call her spirit so I may speak to her one last time."

"No."

His sobs could be heard even as the coach drove away.

Lincoln laid a hand on the back of my neck as I shut the front door. "I feel a little sorry for him," I said. "He did love her in his strange way."

"He doesn't deserve your sympathy." His fingers skimmed my neck at my hairline. "Where's your necklace?"

"My room," I said without missing a beat. "It doesn't go with this outfit so I took it off." I needed to stop talking or he'd detect my lie. Perhaps he did already.

"You should wear it always until the threat from the army is over."

I headed up the stairs to my room and shoved the guilt from my heart. I didn't regret lying to him. He had enough to worry about, and adding me to the list would only end up with him forbidding me to leave the house. I didn't want to argue with him this close to the wedding.