Funeral in Blue - Anne Perry [85]
He caught up and put his arm in Hester’s, felt her respond, matching her step to his. He knew that she had known this all along, and he understood why she had not told him.
In the morning they ate breakfast early, and Monk went out as far as the corner to buy the morning edition of the newspapers. He scanned the front page, and then the second and third. The North had gained a considerable success in the Civil War. General Butler had taken the Confederate forces on the Hatteras Inlet. Forty-five officers and six hundred men were prisoners of war.
There was no word of Kristian’s arrest—in fact, no mention of the case at all. He returned home uncertain whether he was really relieved or if it only pushed ahead the inevitable. Did the silence bring them any time, any chance to find refuting evidence before the press destroyed all innocence or doubt?
It seemed a wasted age of time until there was a polite tap on the door, and Monk strode over to open it and found Callandra’s coachman on the step to say they had an appointment with Fuller Pendreigh in his office in Lincoln’s Inn, and would they please come.
The journey took some time in the early-morning traffic, the wet streets glistening in fitful sun breaking through the clouds, gutters awash from the night’s rain. The air was damp and milder, full of the odors of smoke, manure, leather and wet horseflesh. No doubt, unless the wind rose considerably, there would be fog again by dusk.
They were there only a few minutes early, but Pendreigh received them immediately. He had obviously expected both women, from whatever Callandra had written to him, but it was Monk to whom he addressed his attention. It was apparent that he was unaware of Kristian’s arrest, and he was visibly shaken when he was told. His face was already colorless, and he seemed to sway a little on his feet as if the shock was so profound it had robbed him of balance.
“I’m sorry,” Monk said sincerely. “I wish I could have prevented it, but there really is no other reasonable person to suspect.”
“There must be,” Pendreigh said in a quiet, intensely controlled voice. “We just haven’t thought of him yet. Whatever the provocation, or the despair, I do not believe Kristian would have killed Elissa. He loved her . . .” He stopped, his voice wavering a little. He turned half away from them, shielding his face. It was the nearest to privacy he could come. “If you had ever known her, you would understand that.”
Monk was compelled by reason. All the passion and idealism in the world, the most devoted love possible, could not alter the truth, and only the truth would serve now. There was a cleanness in it, no matter how terrible, a relief in the mind from the struggle of denial. But it took a fearful courage. He did not know, in Pendreigh’s place, if he could have done it. He could not afford to think of Callandra, or how she would feel, nor of Hester beside him.
“Fear can drive us all to thoughts and acts we could not imagine when we are safe,” Monk said clearly. “We don’t know each other when that last boundary has been crossed. We don’t even know ourselves. I used to imagine that no one would act against their own interests or do things that are going to result in something they passionately don’t want. But that isn’t true. Sometimes we just react to the moment, and don’t look even to the very next thing after it. We lash out in terror or outrage. Something seems so monstrously unjust we seek reparation, or revenge, without looking further to think what that does to us, or to anyone else.”
“Oh, no . . .” Callandra protested, turning to him with an ashen face. “Some people, perhaps, but . . .”
“Elemental emotions can override reason in even the most rational of us,” he insisted, holding her eyes and forcing her to meet his. He wanted to find the right words, but there were none. All he could do was be gentle in his tone. “Reasonable men can be passionate as well,” he said softly. “You know that as profoundly as I do. I have seen the mildest and most intelligent of men change utterly if, for example,