Page 25 of Seducing a Stranger

“Sir.Sir.” Someone clutched at his jacket, and he whirled to find a white-faced reverend at his elbow. “Sir Morley? Chief Inspector Carlton Morley?” the short, rotund old man whispered his name and title as if it were an illicit secret.

“Yes?”

“Youmustcome with me. Oh God in heaven. Never in my life…” The Vicar’s words trailed away as he furtively skipped his gaze over the guests now trying to step around them since they’d stopped in the middle of the aisle.

Instantly on alert, Morley glanced over at Argent, who made a baffled gesture.

“Please.” The Vicar’s pallor was alarming. “Don’t make a scene.”

Argent stepped forward. “Should I accompany—?”

“No! Only Sir Morley.” The reverend was tugging on his jacket now, dragging him toward the back of the chapel like a recalcitrant child might his dawdling nanny.

“We’ll find our seat and save you one,” Millie offered, tugging her husband in the opposite direction.

Morley followed the frantic priest down an empty stone hall with vibrant purple carpets. “Lord Goode and the Viscount Woodhaven sent me to find you right away. There’s been a— Well, the groom. Thebride. Oh my God, of all the nightmares. So much blood.”

When Morley entered the sitting room, he froze.

Not because of the blood, though itwaseverywhere. Soaking into the floral carpet, spreading past it onto the grey stone floor. Coloring the bodice of the bride’s cream dress in a dappled spray. Saturating her hem and train where she stood, paralyzed, in the puddle draining from a man’s neck. The dripping knife still clutched in her trembling, blood-drenched hands.

The fucking priest had been right.

Of all the nightmares…

It washer.