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“I suppose the past couple of days are finally sinking in. Someone was murdered on my father’s property, someone I knew in passing, someone my sister considered a contemporary.

” At least that wasn’t a lie. “To think that someone we all know could have killed him?” She wrapped her hands around the teacup and reveled in the warmth. “It’s rather a lot.”

“Oh, I don’t doubt that.” The housekeeper patted Caroline’s hand.

“However, I have known you since you were a little girl, and I know when you aren’t telling me the truth.

” Her eyes were kind. When angry, raised voices drifted in from the housekeeper’s office, she offered a smile.

“Unless I miss my guess, you are out of sorts, and it stems from Major Kourier.”

She tried to laugh, but another wash of tears welled in Caroline’s eyes. “Is it that obvious?”

“To everyone else? No. To me? Yes.” Mrs. Flinders sipped her refreshed tea. “The major isn’t one for words, is he?”

“That depends, but I have a feeling things between us have gone awry or changed since last night. There is a distance there that wasn’t before.” She shrugged. “I realize I’m not the ideal lady in society, but I’d thought that wouldn’t matter to someone like the major.”

“Well, he is a man, after all, dear.” The housekeeper shook her head. “At their core, even the best of them aren’t very brave, especially if something or someone touches them deeply.”

“Why?”

“It makes them shove all thoughts and feelings down to ignore else they’ll pull from their memories and revisit unpleasant things as a reminder of why they can’t move forward.

” Mrs. Flinders shrugged. “My advice? If you wish to know Major Kourier better, listen to what he doesn’t say.

What his body language tells you. I learned to do the same thing with my husband.

Men tuck their wounds—real or imagined—away where they fester, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t crying out for help. ”

“Damn it all, Major, how many times do I have to tell you? I have a pistol for protection, to protect Lockhart. That’s all!” The valet’s voice raised in anger echoed through the servants’ hall.

“Oh, dear.” Mrs. Flinders frowned. “Listen, dearie, good men are difficult to find and even more difficult to keep. That’s because they’re stubborn to their core.

But that also means they’ll be true once they’re committed.

The more they act like an arse, the more you know you’ve made an impression. Don’t discount that.”

There was no time for either of them to say anything else, for Mr. Whitmore barreled down the corridor and erupted into the servants’ hall. He glared at Caroline before continuing on to the staircase and storming upstairs.

“Thank you for the tea, Mrs. Flinders.” Quickly, she clambered to her feet just as the major came into the room, with his face like a thunderstorm.

“I hope your investigation proves fruitful and fast,” the older woman said with a speaking glance. “So you can turn your thoughts to other things.”

With a nod, Caroline followed Felix out; it was impressive how quickly he moved for a man with a limp, a cane, and a false leg. It wasn’t until they were in the corridor at the rear of the house that she finally caught him up. “What did you find out?”

“The damned valet is either innocent or he’s extremely good at lying.

” His eyes flashed. “I know he was in one of those passageways, and we overheard that conversation last night between him and Lockhart’s cousin.

He also has a pistol, yet anyone could have taken it or the butler’s pistol. It’s a deuced quagmire.”

Despite her annoyance with him, she wanted to see the job through. “How do we figure out which lies lead to the killer?”

“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “But he seems genuine; he wants to protect Lockhart as well as see him as the next Duke of Kingston.”

“What does your gut say?”

He pinched the bridge of his nose in a gesture she was beginning to link with anxiety and perhaps a megrim. “It says I need a drink and a quiet place to think.”

Ah, then that was what he’d probably done on previous cases. How he made sense of them. “You aren’t very skilled in working with a partner, are you? ”

“It is… different, I’ll admit, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong.”

“Except you’re guarded and you’re pulling away.

I never thought you were a coward, not after everything you’ve already survived.

” Well, if he didn’t want her around any longer now that he’d gotten what he’d wanted, she wasn’t going to walk a path that might end in heartbreak.

“Go take a nap. It will help ease the pain in your arm. And ask Mrs. Flinders for some white willow bark tea for the megrim.”

He frowned. “Where are you going?”

“To see the case through in a way you’re not willing to.”

“How?”

“With kindness and compassion. Humanity first, Major. Then the crime.” Not looking back, Caroline lifted her chin and then she left him where he stood in the corridor even though her chin trembled and tears blurred her vision.