The church was empty. The whitewashed walls looked the same, as did the high lectern to the right of the altar. Beth wondered if the lectern door’s hinges still squeaked as they had every time Thomas marched up the tiny flight of stairs and opened the half door.
The trump of doom, he called it. Now they have to listen to the vicar preach. When Beth suggested he have the sextant oil the hinges, Thomas replied, Then there won’t be anything to wake them up when the sermon’s over.
Everything in this narrow church spoke of Thomas and Beth’s old life, the small measure of happiness she’d found here. But that was long ago, and Thomas’s voice was faint and far away. Now she was hurt, alone, and feared she’d never see Ian, the man she loved with all her heart, again.
Ian shoved his way past Cameron and Fellows and bolted out of the room. He heard Hart behind him snap, “Stop him.”
Cameron came after Ian, but Ian was faster. He was down the stairs and out the door before Cameron could catch up, and made straight for Hart’s carriage. He yanked open the door to see Katie asleep on one of the plush benches. She was alone.
Ian shook her. “Where is Beth?”
Katie blinked at him. “I dunno. I thought she was with you.”
Ian’s heart hammered. He slammed the door and strode to the coachman leaning on the wall near the horse’s heads, chewing a plug of tobacco.
“Where is she?” Ian’s voice rang out, and the horses jerked back.
“Your missus? She ran inside, guv. I thought. ..”
Ian didn’t wait for the rest of his spluttered explanation.
He ran back to the house, meeting Cameron halfway. His brother paused, turned back. “Ian, what the devil?” Ian dashed into the house, shouting Beth’s name. Hart looked down from the landing, Fellows beside him. Two ladies popped out of a room on a higher floor. “Where is she?” Ian shouted at them.
Hart and Fellows only stared, but one of the girls answered, “She ain’t up here, love.”
“Did you see her?”
“I saw Ma Palmer hurrying down the back stairs,” another put in. “Guess she didn’t want to see the good inspector.” Fear and rage narrowed Ian’s focus. Beth. Find her.
“Ian!”
Cameron’s shout came from the bottom of the back stairs, the way to the kitchens. Ian barreled down them, then through the quiet kitchen and through a back door. Cameron stood in the tiny yard behind the house with a lantern he’d snatched up from the kitchen.
Ian peered at what had Cameron’s attention. A brown-red stain had splotched the bricks, new against the coal grime. “Blood,” Cameron said quietly. “And a smear here, on the gate.”
Ian’s heart pounded so rapidly he was nearly sick. As Fellows came out to see what was going on, Ian caught the inspector by the collar and shoved his face at the stains. “Bloody hell, your lordship,” Fellows bleated. “Find her,” Ian said. He jerked Fellows upright. “You’re a detective. Detect something.”
Cameron opened the gate and stepped into the alley.
“Ian’s right, Fellows. Do your damn job.”
Hart put a hand on Ian’s shoulder. “Ian.”
Ian twisted away, unable to bear his touch. If Beth was dead . . .
Fellows quickly stepped away. “He’s not going to have one of his mad attacks, is he?”
Ian turned his back on Hart. “No.” He strode out of the gate to join Cameron, pulling Fellows by the collar with him. “Find her.”
“I’m not a bloodhound, your lordships.”
“Woof, woof.” Cameron said, giving Fellows an evil grin. “Good dog.”
Chapter Twenty-one
Beth cried out as Mrs. Palmer shoved her onto the hard wood of a pew. No one was there, not a sextant sweeping a floor or the rather doddering vicar who’d taken Thomas’s place nine years before.
Beth grabbed Mrs. Palmer’s wrist. “No, don’t leave me.”
“Don’t be foolish. Someone will find you.”
Beth hung on with all the strength she could muster. “Please don’t leave me here alone. Wait for the vicar with me. Please. I don’t want to die alone.”
Her tears were genuine. The pain had increased, waves of it rolling over her. Would Ian understand where she’d gone? Would he find her? For all his obsessions with minutiae, he wasn’t stupid and had a brain that could reason complex mathematical problems and memorize the intricate language of treaties. But could he fit the pieces together and come up with an answer to the puzzle?
Mrs. Palmer made a noise of exasperation but sat down in a rustle of skirts. Beth slumped against her, unable to support herself.
“Did you kill Lily Martin?” Beth asked in a whisper, too numb now to fear. If Mrs. Palmer had simply wanted to kill Beth, she would have done it by now. The woman was afraid, and Beth had the sudden feeling she was now more afraid of Hart than of being caught by Inspector Fellows. If Mrs. Palmer let Beth, the wife of Hart’s beloved brother, die, Hart would never forgive her.
“Of course I killed Lily,” Mrs. Palmer said viciously.
“She was a witness to Sally’s murder.”
“Then you think Hart really did kill Sally.” “Hart was so angry with Sally. The little bitch was blackmailing him to get money so she could run off and leave me. Hart told me he would fix her, make her regret trying to play her games.”
“You were angry at Sally, too.”
“If Sally wanted money so much, she could have asked Hart for it. But she wanted power over him. As though she ever could control someone like Hart. He has the will to command. I saw that when I first met him, when he was all of twenty years old.” Her voice dropped to fond tones. “He was a bonny lad then. All handsome and charming, before so many people hurt him.”
Beth found herself with her head on Mrs. Palmer’s plaid broadcloth lap, staring up at the older woman’s face. Mackenzie plaid, Beth realized, blue and green with white and red thread.
“I’m sorry,” Beth whispered. “You must love him so much.”
“I’ve made no secret of that.”
“It must have been hard for you to watch him marry, to start shutting you out of his life.”
Not the most diplomatic thing to say, Beth thought, but she’d lost control of her words.
“I knew he’d have to marry,” Mrs. Palmer said calmly. “I’m thirteen years older than he is and hardly one of his class. He needed to marry some peer’s daughter to host balls and fetes and charm his colleagues. He’d never become prime minister of England tied to a woman like me.” “But plenty of lofty gentlemen have mistresses. Mrs. Barrington liked to rail about it.”