“Look,” Vanessa said, sweeping her gaze about the room, “I know Mama can be difficult, even cruel. Certainly she was horrible to Grey. But to murder two people and arrange the murders of two more? The impracticality of it alone rules out Mama. Why, she couldn’t even manage my debut ball by herself—she had to get Grey to help her. Trust me, my mother could never be a master criminal of the sort you’re describing. That would require far too much effort.”
The dowager duchess nodded. “That is more in line with the Cora I used to know. Her wickedness was always borne of weakness.” She turned grim. “She preys on children who can’t defend themselves and her own daughter who only wants her love. But murder three powerful dukes and a newly minted one? I’d be shocked to find out she would risk it. And for what? Why would she keep killing dukes, anyway?”
“Because she was hoping to have her husband inherit the dukedom?” Joshua said.
“That only works for the first murder.” Sheridan frowned. “Although we honestly don’t know if she poisoned baby Grey as well. He was sick at the same time as his father.”
“But if Mama had given him arsenic,” Vanessa pointed out, “wouldn’t he have died? I can’t imagine an infant surviving such a poisoning. Even if he had, even if Mama was responsible for the former Greycourt’s death, what reason did she have for killing Thorn and Gwyn’s father?”
“To be honest,” Joshua said, “we’re still a bit fuzzy on the motive or motives for the two earlier murders. The only thing we seem to agree on is that it involves the dowager duchess.” Everyone looked at him in outrage. “Not as a suspect, mind you, but as a victim in some way.”
“There’s at least a motive for Lady Eustace to have murdered Grey’s father,” Olivia said. “But my mother has no motive for any of the murders. Access without a motive doesn’t prove much unless you can put the arsenic in her hand.”
The dowager duchess looked at Olivia. “And the second murder—if it was one—was made to look like a carriage accident. I cannot see your mother sabotaging a carriage. Can you?”
“Of course not,” Olivia said. “She wouldn’t even know how.”
“Are you saying the villainess must be Lady Hornsby?” Joshua glanced at Olivia. “Or one of the personal servants of the three women?”
“I wouldn’t put it past Lady Hornsby,” Gwyn grumbled. “She keeps avoiding me. It’s almost as if she knows what I’m after.”
“She did leave the wedding before I could even so much as speak with her,” the dowager duchess said. “Although it’s not unusual for her to leave events early. She has quite a busy social life.”
After another quick sip of brandy, Vanessa jumped in again. “And what would be her motive?”
“She wanted my first husband,” the dowager duchess said. “And our marriage thwarted her in that.”
“She was also rumored to have been meeting our father behind your back,” Thorn said quietly.
“I told you,” the dowager duchess said, “that is ridiculous.”
Vanessa took another, bigger sip of her brandy. Olivia was right. It was rather delicious when one sipped it.
“You also told us that Lady Hornsby’s husband died of an ague,” Olivia said. “Like your first husband? Is it possible she poisoned her own husband?”
“I suppose it’s possible but it’s highly unlikely,” the dowager duchess said. “And if it were done so she could gain Thorn and Gwyn’s father, then why not kill me instead? Why kill my second husband? It makes no sense.”
“It really doesn’t,” Gwyn said. “She has no good motive. The only person she might have had a reason to kill was her late husband.”
Sheridan nodded. “And he was old, so she could have just waited until he died.”
“Or perhaps she has a maniacal dislike of men and merely sought to eliminate them for herself and her closest friend where possible,” Thorn said.
Vanessa found Thorn’s remark so ridiculous that she sipped more brandy. As she did, she noticed Sheridan wearing a skeptical expression. At least she wasn’t the only one who thought Thorn’s statement was absurd.
“Let’s leave motive aside for the moment,” Joshua said. “We simply don’t know enough yet to determine what that might be. First we need to establish whether they had anything to do with the murders. We suspect that Sheridan’s father was lured to the home my sister and I used to share so he could be pushed off that bridge, possibly by Elias. I showed a forgery expert both the note used to summon the duke and the letter Elias wrote to Lady Norley. The expert said they might have been written by the same person, but he couldn’t swear by it.”
“Speaking of Elias,” Thornstock said, “do we have any idea who poisoned him in prison?”
“Unfortunately, no,” Joshua said. “I questioned every guard and every individual who worked in the kitchen. Either they don’t know or they’re not saying. The prisons are notoriously corrupt, so those who work in them are more afraid of their superiors than of someone like me, who is merely with the marines and not an official employee of the courts. In time I could perhaps learn the answer—with more thorough research into each individual’s connections—but at the moment that line of pursuit will have to be tabled. However . . .”
Joshua walked over to where a stack of papers sat atop a writing table. “I fortunately had the forethought to have a sketch made of Elias at the morgue. Gwyn drew up copies for all of us.”
“They don’t look like buildings, do they?” Thorn quipped. Apparently Gwyn had a love for anything involving architecture.
“Very amusing,” Gwyn drawled. “You’re merely jealous that I know how to sketch whereas your only talent is . . .” When Thorn stiffened, she paused. “Being insufferable.”
Joshua rolled his eyes. “In any case, only Thorn, Olivia, Gwyn, and I have even seen the fellow, so one of you might recognize him from another context. I also figured that Sheridan could show them around in Sanforth to see if anyone recognized the lad. Because if Elias had been close by at all—”
“Then he might have been the one to kill both men,” Heywood said.
“Exactly,” Joshua said.
“I don’t know,” Thornstock put in. “Elias didn’t strike me as the sort of fellow to commit murder at anyone’s bidding. He was careful not to blow up the laboratory until he was certain Olivia wasn’t in it.”
“Ah, but she’s a woman,” Joshua pointed out. “He might have felt differently about killing two aging dukes. Especially if he was being paid well to do so.”
“True,” Sheridan said. “And I agree that the sketch should be shown around town. But I can’t be the one to do it. Someone else will have to.”
“Planning on an extended honeymoon, are you?” Thorn asked.
“Are you?” Vanessa repeated. She was finding this whole discussion fascinating. Or perhaps it was merely the brandy.
“Unfortunately, no.” Sheridan was avoiding her gaze now. “I’m meeting with Bonham in London to discuss some questions I have concerning the books for the estate. I need to go over the accounts before my meeting, so Vanessa and I and her mother leave in the morning.”