Paragon Walk - Anne Perry [95]
“What did she look like?”
“Look like? Like a woman who has been assaulted of course! Her dress was torn open, and her hair was all over the place—”
“How was her dress torn?” Charlotte insisted.
Emily tried to picture it in her mind. Her hand went up to the left side of her own dress and made as if to rip it.
“Like that?” Charlotte said quickly. “And was it muddy?”
“No, not muddy. There was probably dust, but I didn’t notice. It was hardly the time.”
“But you told me she said it had happened on the grass,” Charlotte pointed out, “by the rose beds.”
“It’s a hot dry summer!” Emily waved her hands. “Anyway, what does it matter?”
“But those flower beds are watered,” Charlotte persisted. “I’ve seen the gardeners doing it. If she had been thrown to the ground—”
“Well, maybe it wasn’t there! Maybe it was on the path. What are you trying to say?” Emily was beginning to understand.
“Emily, if I tore my dress open and pulled my hair out, then came screaming along the road, how would I look different from the way Selena looked that night?”
Emily’s eyes were very clear blue.
“Not at all different,” she said, as perception dawned.
“I don’t think anyone attacked Selena,” Charlotte framed her words with deliberation. “She made it up, to draw attention to herself and to get even with Jessamyn. Only Jessamyn guessed the truth. That was why she pretended to be so sorry for her, and yet it didn’t trouble her at all. She knew Paul Alaric had never touched Selena!”
“And neither did Hallam?” Emily answered her own question with the tone of her voice.
“Poor man.” Tragedy overtook farce again, and Charlotte felt the chill of real terror and real death. “No wonder he was confused. He swore he didn’t attack Selena, and it was the truth.” Anger hardened inside her, for the mischief Selena had caused, albeit some of it unknowingly. Still, it was a selfish and callous thing to do. She was a spoiled woman, and part of Charlotte wanted to punish her, at least to let her know that someone else knew what had really happened.
Emily understood immediately. A look passed between them, and there was no need for explanations. In time, Emily would allow Selena to perceive very precisely both her anger and her contempt.
“We’ve still got to find out what is going on here,” Emily began again after a few moments. “That is only one small mystery solved. It doesn’t tell us what Miss Lucinda saw.”
“We’ll just have to ask Phoebe,” Charlotte answered.
“Don’t you think I’ve tried that?” Emily was exasperated. “If it were so easy, I would have known the answer weeks ago!”
“Oh, I know she won’t tell us intentionally,” Charlotte was not upset. “But she might let something slip.”
Obediently, but without any expectations, Emily led her to where Phoebe was sipping a lemonade and talking to someone neither of them knew. It took ten minutes of innocuous pleasantries before they could get Phoebe on her own.
“Oh, dear,” Emily said with a sigh. “What a tedious creature. If I hear one more word about her health, I shall be positively rude.”
Charlotte seized her chance.
“She doesn’t realize how fortunate she is,” she said, looking at Phoebe. “If she had been obliged to endure the strain that you have, she would not make such an issue of a few sleepless nights.” She hesitated, not quite sure how to phrase the question she intended so as not to be obvious. “When you know something dreadful has happened, and suspicion is directed at those in your own family, it must be a nightmare!”
Phoebe’s face was vacant for a moment with unfeigned innocence.
“Oh, I was not worried over much. I did not think Diggory would do anything so cruel. He is not in the least unkind, you know? And I knew it could not have been Afton.”
Charlotte was stunned. If ever there was an innately cruel man, it was Afton Nash. She would have suspected him still, if there were any crime unsolved, but, of all crimes, rape seemed to satisfy his character best.
“How can you know?” she said without thought.