From Governess to Countess (Matches Made in Scandal #1)(63)

‘Vezuchiy,’ Aleksei said. ‘It means lucky.’

Allison frowned. ‘You mean this lock of hair was meant to bring luck? It did not come from one of the children. In fact it looks like yours, though why Elizaveta...’

‘Michael’s hair was the same colour. It is a trait in the male line of my family.’

‘I’m not sure where this is leading.’

‘I have a male relative with similar colouring.’

‘Your cousin Felix? But why—?’ She broke off, staring at Aleksei in horror. ‘Felix. It is from the Latin, isn’t it? It means...’

‘Lucky,’ Aleksei said with a pronounced sneer. ‘And well named! It is extremely lucky for Felix that I did not call him out when I confronted him earlier this afternoon.’

‘Aleksei, you did not hurt him?’ Allison said urgently.

‘There was no need. The pain was self-inflicted and he is a broken man. I doubt he will ever recover.’ He took the keepsake book from her, closing it over. ‘Felix is not a murderer, Allison, but he was, inadvertently, the cause of my brother’s death. I will explain, but for once, I feel the need to fortify myself with something stronger than tea.’ He took the stopper from the decanter which was set on the desk, with two glasses. ‘Will you join me in a cognac? You need not fear, it is the proper French vintage, not gut-rot from Michael’s cellar.’

‘Thank you. Since you seem to think I will require it, then I will.’ She took the heavy crystal glass, holding it in readiness, watching with a sense of dread as Aleksei, who seemed to be almost as abstemious as his brother had been reputed to be, swallowed a large measure, and immediately poured himself another. Her mind was wanting to race ahead, but she forced herself to stay calm, for it was clear that was what Aleksei needed most from her.

‘Where to start?’ he said, twisting his glass around and around on the desk.

She articulated the terrible, shockingly obvious conclusion, to save him the pain of saying it aloud. ‘Felix was Elizaveta’s lover?’

‘My first cousin! The man Michael would have entrusted with the care of his children. The change of the will is explained now. It proves that Michael must have known about their treachery, though my cousin...’ His jaw clenched. ‘The man whom I used to call my cousin, Felix Golytsin, believed Michael was oblivious. He ended it, he tells me, precisely because he was terrified that Michael might find out. The night before my brother died, Golytsin told Elizaveta that their affaire was madness, that it could not continue. The guilt was eating him up, he said. Though I suspect he was more concerned about saving his scrawny neck.’

‘So on the night she was absent from the palace, Elizaveta had been with her lover, just as Anna Orlova suspected and we concluded. He summarily ended the liaison, which would explain her highly distressed state of mind the next day.’

‘She did not recognise her mistress,’ Aleksei said. ‘you remember, that’s what the Orlova woman said, and Golytsin said the same. Elizaveta was like a madwoman, he said, talking wildly about them eloping and taking the children with them, and when he pointed out that the outcome would be to destroy all their lives, she simply wouldn’t listen. He went to Peterhof, he says, to give her time to come to her senses, to realise that there was no future for them, to accept it was over. I’ve never seen a man so broken or so consumed by guilt. There is no doubt I think, no matter how wrong it was, that he loved her. Her death added to the remorse he felt, for cuckolding my brother, his nearest relative.’ Aleksei thumped the desk with his fist, but with a supreme effort regained his self-control.

‘Do you think he suspects foul play?’ Allison enquired tentatively.

‘He concedes that Michael must have found out somehow, there is no other explanation for the change of will. As to whether he suspects Elizaveta took Michael’s life—no, I don’t think so. He confessed that he had considered the possibility that she had taken her own after Michael’s apoplexy, a case of severe guilt and repentance, but like me, he dismissed the notion. Whatever else Elizaveta was, she loved her children. They had already lost their father...they would need their mother more than ever.’

Allison set down her untouched drink, letting her hand lie on the keepsake book. ‘So when she murdered Michael, she was not thinking that she was taking their father from them.’

‘No. She was deluding herself into thinking that Golytsin would take Michael’s place.’

‘And her death—it seems it was an accident after all.’

‘It seems so, just as you surmised.’ Aleksei finished his cognac. ‘One thing we need not fear, is that Golytsin will talk. My discovery of the affaire was the final straw for him. He intends to resign all his positions at court and retire to the countryside. I can think of no better punishment for a man whose life centred around the Imperial court, than to be exiled from it because of his own actions. It’s ironic, isn’t it? I knew that such a murder must have had the strongest of motive. I knew that custody of my wards was the strongest of all motives. But I never guessed that love rather than money or power could be at the root of it. A warped kind of love it was, but there is no denying that is what it was all the same.’

‘Oh, Aleksei, I don’t know what to say.’

He leaned across the desk to clasp her hand. ‘You don’t have to, Allison, I know your thoughts without you having to speak them.’