Page 99 of Mischief at Marsden Manor

“Don’t you dare!” I called after him. “Tom! If you know who did it, tell us!”

He shot me a look over his shoulder. “You have the same information I do, Pippa. I’m sure you can figure it out.”

And then he winked at Christopher and disappeared into the hallway before I could say anything else.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

“Olivia Barnsley?”I asked Christopher as the door shut behind Tom.

He removed his eyes from the now-closed door and smirked at me. “I’m Christopher, Pippa. Surely you know that?”

“Don’t toy with me, you prat. St George gets away with that, but you don’t.”

“And it really ought to be the other way around,” Christopher said, “since you say you love me more. Perhaps you ought to give some thought as to why that is, Pippa.”

I rolled my eyes. “Don’t be difficult, Christopher. He said it wasn’t Aunt Roz—as if I thought there was a possibility of that…”

“Obviously not,” Christopher said.

I shook my head. “And he said it wasn’t me.”

“No. Not that anyone thought it was you.”

“I’m sure Uncle Harold hoped it was.”

He made a face, but it didn’t stop him from nodding in semi-reluctant agreement. “Laetitia, too, probably. And her mother. Although they must have known that you wouldn’t.”

“So Olivia Barnsley, then, do you suppose?” Who else was there, after all? “She was up there in Violet’s room with Violet and Aunt Roz, so she could have left the vial. And Cecilywouldn’t have been suspicious of a cuppa that Olivia brought her.”

Christopher nodded. “Also, she’s goofy about Reggie Fish.”

Yes, she was. And Reggie might have been the father of Cecily’s baby, at least in theory.

“Did he kill Dom Rivers, then, do you suppose?”

“I think she would have done it all,” Christopher said. “The second dose of pennyroyal—Reggie was responsible for the first, obviously, obtained from Rivers, although he probably wasn’t trying to kill her; that would have been Olivia’s idea.”

“There would have been no reason for Reggie to bring Dom here, though,” I said, “would there? They traveled down together. Reggie could have just obtained the dope from Dom in London. Dom himself wasn’t necessary.”

Christopher blinked. “I suppose that’s true, really. So perhaps Olivia did it all, and Reggie was simply the motive. Perhaps she got the dope from Rivers in the ballroom and put it all in the tea. No need for two doses if she did it all. Unless she wanted to spread it out, I suppose. Or unless she dosed Cecily once, and when it didn’t work immediately, she did it again.”

“Perhaps.”

“Then she shot at you from the woods, thinking you were Cecily, and then she killed Rivers and dosed Violet. They were sitting at the same table for tea. It would have been easy to pour the rest of the pennyroyal into Violet’s cup.”

“Right under the nose of the Honorable Reggie and Lord Geoffrey?”

“The Honorable Reggie might have looked the other way,” Christopher said, “and might also have engaged Geoffrey in conversation to make sure he didn’t notice anything going on.”

So he might have done if he were involved. “Would that make him an accessory, then?”

“I’m sure I don’t know,” Christopher said and pushed his chair back. “Shall we go and watch the fireworks?”

He put his hand on the back of my chair.

“I suppose we ought.” I let him pull it out and got to my feet. He presented his arm, and I rested my fingers on it.

The hallway directly outside the drawing room was empty, but as soon as we got there, we could hear raised voices coming from the direction of the entrance hall.