Mayne rose. "I'll go with you. I'd like to speak to Lady Wingate myself."
They'd just entered the corridor when Daniel heard the front door open. Seconds later Samuel yelled to Barkley, "I must speak to his lordship at once!"
His anxious tone shivered a chill down Daniel's spine, and he took off at a dead run toward the foyer, Mayne hot on his heels. As soon as Daniel saw Samuel, his dread grew at the sight of the young man's wide eyes and pale face. His footman was breathing hard and clearly agitated.
"What is it?" Daniel asked tersely. "Lady Wingate?"
"She's gone, milord."
Daniel felt the blood rush from his head. "What do you mean, gone?"
Samuel's words poured out in a rapid flow. "I were watchin' Lady Wingate's garden, just like ye told me. After a bit Katie came outside. Seen me through the window, she had, and wanted to say hello. We got to talkin' and then she asked me what I were doin'. When I told her I were guardin' the back o' the house in case the murderer were lurkin' about, she says, 'Oh, no need to worry about that, the murderer's been caught.'"
"What?" Daniel and Mayne asked in unison.
Samuel nodded. "That's wot she said. When I asked her how she knew, she said because Lady Wingate had received a note from Lord Surbrooke tellin' her so."
The floor seemed to shift around Daniel's feet. "I sent no such note. Where is Lady Wingate now?"
"Katie wasn't sure, she only knew Lady Wingate went out. I told her to get Nelson and find the note. I ran here to tell ye."
Daniel grabbed his pistol from the foyer table where he'd left it on his way up the stairs. His gaze flicked between Samuel and Mayne. "Let's go."
Carolyn made her way along the winding path in Hyde Park and pulled her shawl tighter around her shoulders to ward off the damp, chilly breeze. Ghostly fingers of smoky fog rose from the ground, while the dismal sky, gloomy with low-hanging clouds, threatened to spew rain at any moment. As a result the park was deserted.
She hurried along, anxious to reach the spot where Daniel's note had indicated that she would meet him and Mr. Mayne. Thank goodness they'd apprehended the killer. She looked forward to giving the Runner a good dressing down for suspecting Daniel.
The path curved just ahead, which led to the small U-shaped area surrounded by a thick copse of elms and hedges where Daniel had asked her to meet them. She veered off the path and entered the break in the tall hedges. A lone figure stood in the far corner of the small fog-shrouded clearing, and Carolyn called out a greeting.
The figure approached and Carolyn blinked in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
A smile. And an odd glitter in green eyes that stilled Carolyn and raced an icy shiver down her spine.
A black gloved hand raised a pistol and pointed it at the center of her chest. "I'm here to see you, Lady Wingate."
Carolyn stared at the pistol, trying to make sense of what was happening. She drew an unsteady breath and raised her gaze back to those eyes she now realized gleamed with madness. "Surely that weapon isn't necessary."
"Oh, but I'm afraid it is. If you cooperate, only you will die. If you move or scream, I'll kill you, then make certain your sister dies next. Do you understand?"
Heart pounding so loud she could hear its echo in her ears, Carolyn managed to nod. "Yes."
Dear God. Surely someone-Nelson, Katie, Daniel, someone-would soon realize she'd been lured away on false pretenses. She just had to remain calm and stay alive until they found her. Her gaze flicked to the pistol, which didn't waver at all.
She lifted her chin. "Obviously the note wasn't from Daniel and I am to be your third victim… or have there been others, Lady Walsh?"
A cunning smile curved Kimberly Sizemore's lips. "Only Lady Crawford and Lady Margate. After you're gone, I'll have what I want."
"And what, precisely, is that?"
The smile disappeared and cold, stark hatred kindled in Lady Walsh's eyes. "I want Daniel ruined. As he ruined me."
Carolyn nodded slowly, as if that made perfect sense. "I see. And how did he ruin you?"
The hatred burned brighter. "He courted me, flattered me, seduced and charmed me. I fell madly, passionately in love with him. Just when I was certain I was on the verge of winning him, he cast me aside like day-old trash to attend a house party at Lord Langston's country estate. Oh, he was very civil about ending our liaison, but it still amounted to being thrown away."
Her glittering eyes narrowed. "I'd planned to regain his favor when he returned to London, but he came back a different man. Every time I approached him, he put me off. And I realized he'd taken another lover. All I needed to do was find out who so I could best plan how to win him back."
Her gaze raked over Carolyn with ill-concealed disgust. "I saw the two of you the night of my masquerade ball. On the terrace. I couldn't credit that he'd chosen you-a boring, timid widow who'd never be able to please him as I had. Surely you didn't think you could keep a man like Daniel satisfied."
Anger over the destruction this madwoman had caused pushed aside a portion of Carolyn's fear and she lifted her brows. "Perhaps I'm not as boring and timid as you think."
Lady Walsh's eyes turned to slits. "He would have returned to me if not for you. I tried to tempt him back, but he stubbornly refused. And turned my love to hate. That's when I decided that if I couldn't have him, no one would."
"Then why didn't you simply kill him?"
Her lips curved up in a travesty of a smile. "But that's exactly what I'm doing. Shooting or stabbing him would be too quick, and Daniel must suffer. Must be ruined. So I decided to frame him for murder. Of his former lovers."
"How did you kill them?" Carolyn asked, straining her ears, praying she'd soon hear footsteps coming along the path.
Pride now gleamed in Lady Walsh's eyes. "I lured them to their deaths by sending them the sort of time and place lover's notes that are currently all the rage. I disguised my handwriting to resemble Daniel's and asked them both to wear pieces of jewelry to their liaison that he'd given them. After you're found dead, his fate will be sealed. Especially after I plant the notes he sent to Lady Crawford and Lady Margate where the authorities will find them."
"Why didn't you just leave the notes on the dead women?"
"I'd planned to send one to you on the night you would be killed, and I didn't want you afraid to answer the missive." Her expression turned cunning. "That's if you didn't die sooner."
"You mean the shot you fired?"
A sly smile curved her lips. "Perhaps."
"Why this change in your plans?"
Lady Walsh frowned. "Because Daniel decided both you and I were in danger. Did you know he came to me last night, to warn me to be careful? I almost felt sorry for my plan to ruin him, and I might have halted it had he accepted my invitation to stay. But instead he left." She glared at Carolyn. "To go to you, I'm sure."
"Yes."
"That final rejection sealed his fate, and forced me to act sooner than I'd planned. I knew he'd see to it that you were never out of his sight." Another sick smile. "But I fooled him. And you. And now here we are. And you're going to die."
A cold fury unlike anything she'd ever known rose in Carolyn. "You already failed when you shot at me the other night," she said with a sneer.
"I won't miss this time."
Realizing it was now or never, Carolyn sprang at her attacker with a feral scream that cut through the chilled air. Shock, then profound hatred, registered in Lady Walsh's eyes as they struggled over the pistol. Carolyn fought with every ounce of her strength to keep the muzzle pointed away from herself, but Lady Walsh was demonically strong, and as determined as she. Fear and fury forced Carolyn to keep struggling. Sweat broke out on her skin, and her every muscle trembled with her efforts.