“On our own,” Lady Gwyn said, “since none of us knows whom to trust outside the family.”
“Although we’ve narrowed our suspects to three possible villains,” Joshua said.
“You mean villainesses, don’t you?” Sheridan’s gaze fixed upon her now.
It took Vanessa a moment to comprehend why. Then she scowled at Sheridan. “You think Mama had something to do with this?”
“Grey certainly thought so.” Sheridan dragged in a deep breath. “He was supposed to be the one to question your mother. But given your mother’s dislike of him and with Beatrice so close to having her child delivered, he wanted to be with her, so—”
“He asked you to do it,” Vanessa finished for him. Her heart sank. If Mama proved to be a murderer, how could she bear it? Granted, her mother wasn’t the easiest person to live with, but Vanessa didn’t want to see her jailed, or worse yet, hanged. She could see why Grey would think Mama capable of it, but he was wrong. He had to be wrong.
Something else occurred to her. If Grey hadn’t asked Sheridan to do the questioning of her mother, Vanessa wouldn’t be married to Sheridan at all. Although at the moment, she wasn’t sure her cousin did her any favors. “Wait,” she said as the word villainesses sank in, “you suspect three women?” Clinging to the possibility that it was one of the others, she met Joshua’s gaze. “Mama and who else?”
Olivia said tartly, “My mother and Lady Hornsby.”
Good Lord. All were respected women of rank. “I assume you don’t suspect them of colluding with each other to do this.”
“No, of course not,” Joshua said. “Although they did have their coming outs together. Along with the dowager duchess.” He paused. “And yes, we eliminated my mother-in-law first. For one murder she was in labor, and for Uncle Armie’s she wasn’t even in the country. Although we believe that the individual who committed the first two murders probably hired someone to commit the second two—perhaps Elias—we don’t think anyone could have arranged that from afar. The dowager duchess’s family was in Berlin at the time, at too great a distance to do so.”
Vanessa tried to think through what he was saying, but she couldn’t make sense of it. “Why on earth would this . . . ‘villainess’ wait decades to again murder someone—or have him murdered, for that matter?”
Joshua shrugged. “We think Uncle Armie was murdered to bring Sheridan’s father and mother back to England so that Sheridan’s father could be murdered.”
That sort of made sense. Except for one thing. “Yes, but why then? There had to be a reason your uncle Armie wasn’t murdered ten or twenty years ago instead of last year.”
“Well,” Joshua said, “his death wouldn’t necessarily have brought Sheridan’s father back unless Uncle Armie had already inherited the title. If Sheridan’s grandfather had still been alive, it might not have made as much difference. And Uncle Armie’s wife dying could also have set everything in motion, since there was always a chance she might bear him the heir.”
“Yes, but that was ten years before Uncle Armie was murdered,” Sheridan put in. “Admit it, Joshua, that’s the one flaw in our tidy assumptions. Why did the killer wait so long? She had to have had a reason.”
At the word She, Vanessa stared at Sheridan. “And I still don’t see why you’re suspecting women in the first place. I mean, wouldn’t it make more sense to suspect men? Surely men commit more crimes than women.”
Joshua nodded. “True. But whoever committed the first two murders had to have access to Grey’s father and Thorn’s father. There were house parties going on for both murders, and the only guests who were present for both were those three women.”
Vanessa frowned. “I don’t understand. Why do you assume the killer was a guest?”
“The servants were all attached to the houses where the parties were,” Thorn said. “They wouldn’t have been at both parties.”
“Unless they were personal servants,” Vanessa said. “I’m sure Lady Hornsby travels with a lady’s maid and a couple of footmen, don’t you think? I know Mama generally insists on having our family physician travel with us. She has all sorts of ailments, you know. The only reason she didn’t bring him this time was he wasn’t in town for her to ask him.”
The dowager duchess leaned forward. “Lady Norley said she always brings her lady’s maid as well. Did any of you consider the personal servants?”
The men looked at each other.
Vanessa shook her head. “You didn’t, did you? Men. They never consider the domestic staff.”
Joshua straightened, clearly annoyed at having this oversight shown to him. “You have a point. But we can’t be sure those same servants were working for their employers during both parties. Besides, we have to rule each woman out before we can even look into their servants.”
“True,” Thorn said.
Joshua went on. “And perhaps now that Vanessa is caught up on everything, we can proceed to covering more recent events. Sheridan, did you learn anything from Lady Eustace?”
When he glanced at her warily, Vanessa merely tapped her fingers on one silk-clad knee and tried to ignore him. She did wish women had wrappers like these banyans. They were much less revealing. But she also wished this particular banyan didn’t smell so temptingly of her husband’s favorite spicy cologne. It reminded her of how tenderly he’d deflowered her.
Blasted man. Every time she wanted to stay angry at him, she remembered some . . . some nice thing he’d done. Perversely, that made her glare at him. “I suppose you got Mama to admit to murder while I wasn’t around.”
“Hardly,” Sheridan grumbled. “I can’t even get her to talk about those two house parties.”
“That’s because you’re going about it all wrong,” Vanessa said. “Mama only lapses into memory if the memory reflects particularly well on her. You need to appeal to Mama’s belief that everything is about her. Better yet, you should let me question her.”
Sheridan narrowed his gaze on her. “Not a chance. She’s your mother. How could we trust you to be objective?”
She sniffed. “I can be plenty objective about Mama, which you would learn if you’d just let me wheedle the truth out of her.”
Olivia straightened in her chair. “If Vanessa can question her mother, I don’t see why I can’t question mine.”
Joshua cast her a stern look. “Does that mean Thorn hasn’t questioned your mother yet?”
“Well, no.” Olivia shot her husband an apologetic glance. “But he and I both will make sure to find out from her what we can. She’s really quite reasonable once you get to know her.”
“She is, actually,” Thorn said. “Putting aside her attempt to blackmail me into marriage nine years ago, that is.”
“Thorn!” Olivia protested.
“I deserved it, sweeting. It’s fine.”
“Hmph.” Olivia turned to the group. “Grant you, Mama will do almost anything to protect her family, but I can’t see her killing anyone with no purpose, and I wasn’t even born when the first two murders happened, so she would have had no reason. Whereas Vanessa’s mother . . .” She trailed off, as if realizing she was about to say something rather condescending. Vanessa didn’t mind, having learned, in the short time she’d known Olivia, that the woman was generally blunt.