Treason at Lisson Grove - Anne Perry [84]
He looked at her steadily. “What you really mean is, how can I prove I didn’t kill her myself.”
She felt a heat of shame in her own face. “Yes.”
He did not question her.
“She was cold when I found her,” he replied. “Sean tried to blame me. The police would have been happy to agree, but I was with the viceroy in the residence in Phoenix Park at the time. Half a dozen staff saw me there, apart from the viceroy himself, and the police on guard duty. They didn’t know who I was, but they would have recognized me in court, if it had been necessary. The briefest investigation showed them that I couldn’t have been anywhere near where Kate was killed. It also proved that Sean lied when he said he saw me, and that by his own admission he was there.” He hesitated. “If you need to, you can check it.” His smile was there for a moment, then gone. “Don’t you think they’d have loved to hang me for it, if they’d had the ghost of a chance?”
“Yes,” she agreed, feeling the weight ease from her. Grief was one thing, but without guilt it was a passing wound, something that would heal. “I’m … I’m sorry I needed to ask. Perhaps I should have known you wouldn’t have done it.”
“I would like you to think well of me, Charlotte,” he said quietly. “But I would rather you saw me as a real person, capable of good and ill, and of pity, and shame …”
“Victor … don’t …”
He turned away slowly, staring at the fire. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”
She left quietly, going up to her room. She needed to be alone, and there was nothing either of them could say that would do anything but make it worse.
THEY WERE AT BREAKFAST the following morning: she with a slight headache after sleeping badly; he weary, but with the mark of professionalism so graciously back in place that yesterday could have been a dream.
They were eating toast and marmalade when the messenger arrived with a letter for Narraway. He thanked Mrs. Hogan, who had brought it to him, then tore it open.
Charlotte watched his face but she could not read anything more than surprise. When he looked up she waited for him to speak.
“It’s from Cormac,” he said gently. “He wants me to go and see him, at midday. He will tell me what happened, and give me proof.”
She was puzzled, remembering Cormac’s hate, the pain that seemed as sharp as it must have been the day it happened. She leaned forward. “Don’t go. You won’t, will you?”
He put the letter down. “I came for the truth, Charlotte. He may give it to me, even if it is not what he means to do. I have to go.”
“He still hates you,” she argued. “He can’t afford to face the truth, Victor. It would place him in the wrong. All he has left is his illusions of what really happened, that Kate was loyal to Ireland and the cause, and that it would all have worked, except for you. He can’t give that up.”
“I know,” he assured her, reaching out his lean hand and touching her gently, for an instant, then withdrawing it again. “But I can’t afford not to go. I have nothing left to lose either. If it was Cormac who created the whole betrayal of Mulhare, I need to know how he did it, and be able to prove it to Croxdale.” His face tightened. “Rather more than that, I need to find out who is the traitor in Lisson Grove. I can’t let that go.”
He did not offer any rationalization, taking it for granted that she understood.
It gave her an odd feeling of being included, even of belonging. It was frightening for the emotional enormity of it, and yet there was a warmth to it she would not willingly have sacrificed.
She did not argue any further, but nodded, and decided to follow after him and stay where she could see him.
Narraway went out of the house quite casually, as if merely to look at the weather. Then, as she came to the door, he turned and walked quickly toward the end of the road.
Charlotte followed after him, barely having time to close the door behind her, and needing to run a few steps to keep up. She had a shawl on and her reticule with her, and sufficient money for as long a fare as she would be likely to need.
He disappeared around