Louisa nodded numbly. “I must lie and say I liked him, because otherwise no one will believe the truth that I didn’t kill him.”
“You had the best opportunity. Easy for you to slip poison into his teacup while you poured out for him, then slide the bottle into your pocket so deeply a cursory examination wouldn’t reveal it. Most policemen would balk at putting their hands very far into an earl’s daughter’s pocket.”
“But not you.”
Louisa saw him draw one quick breath, but his reply was as hard as ever. “This is life-and-death, Louisa. Behave as though you liked him, and spare yourself the noose.”
Louisa looked at him for a long time, Fellows staring back at her. Finally, she nodded.
“Good,” he said. She saw the smallest flicker of relief in his eyes, but nothing more. “Stay here. I’ll tell Isabella to come to you.”
Louisa nodded again, tears burning. Through the blur she saw Fellows’ face soften, then he lifted his hand and brushed her cheek.
Louisa thought he’d say something to her, maybe go so far as to apologize for upsetting her, giving her a gentle word to make her feel better. But no. Fellows caressed her cheek with callused fingers, the sensation sending heat through her body. Then he withdrew his touch and walked stiffly past her and out the door. The sound of it closing behind him was as hollow as the pain in Louisa’s heart.
Fellows made Sergeant Pierce clear everyone out of the tea tent. Too many people had trampled in here after he’d gone, the grass and dirt even more of a mess than it had been before. Someone had knocked over a small table, spilling yet another set of teacups to the ground.
Once he and Pierce had convinced them all to go, including Mrs. Leigh-Waters, who wanted to linger, Fellows went over every bit of the tent on his own.
He ended up on his hands and knees on the far side of the tent, looking for signs that someone actually had crawled in the other side. But the stakes that held the tent were driven firmly into the ground, and the dirt here hadn’t been disturbed.
Fellows disturbed it. He tugged up one stake and gouged the area with his boot.
He was aware of the magnitude of his actions. Misleading the police or covering up a crime could have him arrested, possibly convicted and sent to Dartmoor to break rocks alongside the men he’d helped put there.
He didn’t care. Louisa was innocent, and he wouldn’t let her go down for this crime. Fellows had been a detective long enough to know when a person was guilty and when he or she was not. His instincts were never wrong. The only time he’d been wrong had been in a case involving Ian and Hart, and in that instance he’d let his hatred for the Mackenzie family override his instincts.
Wasn’t he letting his emotions do the same now? some niggling part of him asked.
No.
He’d made an error of judgment when he’d thought Hart and Ian Mackenzie had committed a few murders, but at the same time, Fellows had known those men to be capable of it, Hart especially. Fellows himself was capable of murder as well.
Not Louisa.
Few truly good people existed in this world, and Louisa Scranton was one of them. She had a fiery temper—he’d seen that a time or two—but she also possessed a vast kindness and generosity that made her beautiful. She was like a firefly, bright and energetic, lighting up those around her.
Fellows would do everything in his power to keep her safe.
He finished arranging the scene of the crime as he wanted it, took a few more samples from the smashed tea things, and departed the tent.
The Bishop of Hargate’s funeral two days later was well attended. Louisa went with Isabella and Mac, the three of them standing a few feet behind Hargate’s family and friends.
Rain trickled down, spotting the black umbrellas, which had opened like dark flowers as soon as sprinkles began. The tiny drumming on the canvas made Louisa’s already tight nerves stretch tighter.
Mac held an umbrella over Isabella, his arm around his wife’s waist. He was never embarrassed at displaying that he’d married for love, which Louisa had always found rather sweet. The Mackenzies were volatile, emotional men. She didn’t think they knew how to hide their feelings.
The other Mackenzie who stood at the very edge of the crowd was volatile and emotional too, but he kept a tight rein on himself. Lloyd Fellows wore severe black today, his hat in his hand as he bowed his head for the prayers. Rain darkened his hair—no umbrella for Chief Inspector Fellows.
Three days had passed since the bishop’s death. Louisa had followed Fellows’ dictate that she remain inside and away from the Season’s social whirl. She understood why, but the confinement chafed. Though Isabella’s house was cheerful and full of children, Louisa had been happy even for the excuse of the funeral to come out into open air, as chilly and dank as it was.
The churchyard contained many prominent people—both above and below ground—Hargate being no less prominent. Hargate’s father was an earl, and marriages had made him cousin to a marquis, another bishop, and a few baronets. The crowd at the burial ground today must encompass several pages of Debrett’s.
The two Scotland Yard detectives stayed well back, being respectful of the family’s grief. But Louisa knew Fellows was watching, looking for signs of feigned sorrow among the guests, a betrayal of glee that Hargate was gone.
The bishop who conducted the service finished with the usual prayers about man being dust and his life on earth nothing. The casket was lowered, and Hargate’s family sadly bade him farewell.
As the crowd dispersed, Louisa moved next to Hargate’s mother and offered her condolences. She was rewarded with a cold stare. Hargate’s father gave Louisa a look of open viciousness before he and his wife turned their backs and walked away from her.
Louisa moved back to Isabella as though nothing untoward had happened, but her heart was hammering, and she felt ill. Hargate’s parents had just cut her dead, and the entire gathering had witnessed it.
Isabella closed her fingers around Louisa’s arm. “Never mind, darling. They’re upset. Only natural.”
“They think I killed him,” Louisa said numbly. “Don’t they?”
“Please don’t think about it, dearest. We’ll go home and have lots of hot tea and stuff ourselves with cakes. You know this will blow over when Inspector Fellows clears it all up.”
Inspector Fellows had resumed his hat, but he remained on the edge of the crowd, watching every person walk by. He wasn’t part of them, and his stance said that he didn’t want to be.
He saw Louisa. Their gazes met, held for a heartbeat, two. Louisa grew hot in spite of the chill rain.
Finally Fellows gave her a nod and lifted his hat. Louisa nodded back as politeness dictated, but her head and heart ached.
Louisa usually found it soothing to sit in Mac’s studio and watch him paint. But the day after the bishop’s funeral, she paced restlessly in the wide upper room while her brother-in-law slapped paint onto canvas.
His children were there—Aimee, Eileen, and Robert—Aimee and Eileen playing together, baby Robert fast asleep. Mac Mackenzie, clad in his kilt, old boots, and loose shirt, his hair protected by a gypsy scarf, painted in a kind of frenzy, never looking away from his canvas or palette.
When Louisa paced past him for about the twentieth time, however, Mac dropped his palette with a clatter and thrust his brush into oil of turpentine.
“Louisa, lass, for God’s sake, sit down. I can’t concentrate with you rushing past a dozen times a minute.”
Louisa bit back snappish words and sat down with a thump on the threadbare sofa. The sofa was old and thoroughly worn from children playing and napping on it. Louisa knew Isabella modeled for Mac on it, and not for modest pictures. Little Robert had been conceived on it, Louisa believed. A very family-situated sofa.