Page 41

After a brief pause, he said, “As you wish, Miss Taylor.”

She detected regret in his voice and yet it seemed to be devoid of censure. “Thank you.”

“Is there anything else?”

“Yes. It’s a subject I have broached before. I remember your thoughts at the time but beg you to keep an open mind.”

His forehead creased. “What subject?”

“The murder of Harold Sinclair.”

He sighed. “Miss Taylor—”

“Please, hear me out. I have information that may cast new light on the case.”

“‘Case’? There is no case . I understand that you want to restore the reputation of Thorndale Manor, but this is not the way to go about it.”

“Mr. Vernon, I seek the truth about this matter not only to redeem the good name of my house, but also to avenge your sister’s death. Is not that truth a most valuable commodity and worth seeking at any price?”

He paused. “Not always.”

She didn’t know what to make of that. “Sir, you’re one of the only people I can trust. I don’t intend to disrupt your life. But in my quiet way, I am resolved to learn what really happened.”

He pinched his lips together and looked away. Finally, he said, “Go ahead. I’m listening.”

She told him everything. It took some time and to his credit, he listened without further protest, taking it all in. When she had finished, he said curtly, “May I speak now?”

“Please.”

“First of all, you can strike Edward Ackroyd off your list. You said he wasn’t even at that garden party.”

“He may have been lying.”

“Even if he was, Ackroyd adored my sister. If he had really killed Harold Sinclair, he would never have let Caroline hang for the crime.”

“But he was already away at sea when she was arrested and convicted,” Athena argued. “You told me he didn’t hear about it until it was too late.”

Mr. Vernon hesitated. “Still, if he’d done it, I can’t see him letting Caroline’s memory be forever tainted by the crime. Knowing him, he would have returned the moment he was able and turned himself in to the authorities.”

Athena wished she could believe that. But who would admit to a long-ago crime for which they would most certainly be hanged, to redeem the reputation of a woman already long dead?

“I find it equally incredible that Margaret Quince could have killed Harold Sinclair,” he went on.

“I fully understand if she was angry or felt humiliated by the insensitive way he treated her. I could even believe in a spur of the moment crime of passion. But to imagine that Miss Quince could have deliberately plotted his murder—that she could have taken poison to that party and deposited it in his drink… no. Extremely unlikely.”

“And yet possible,” Athena remarked.

“Perhaps,” he conceded. “But I still don’t believe it. And as for George Osborn—he couldn’t have killed Harold Sinclair.”

“Why not?”

“Because he fell from the stables’s roof at Woodcroft House two weeks before Sinclair died. The man broke his arm and his pelvis and was in bed for months. He couldn’t have attended that garden party.”

Athena frowned. She hadn’t had a chance to ask Mr. Osborn if he had attended that party—she’d just presumed he had.

“It’s awful, what happened to Mr. Osborn.

I didn’t realize the accident had happened just before that party.

” She suddenly remembered the odd look that had passed between Mr. Osborn and Mr. Carson at the pub.

“Wait. Mr. Carson seemed equally upset by what had happened to his friend. He could have done the deed for him.”

Mr. Vernon’s brows raised. “Carson? I’ve worked with him for years. He would never murder a man, even one as despicable as Harold Sinclair.”

“You can’t be certain of that.”

“Look, I know you have good intentions. But as I told you, I questioned everyone who was at that garden party. Nobody witnessed anyone poisoning Sinclair’s drink.”

“Did you ask Sally Osborn?”

He blew out a frustrated breath. “ Yes . Sally Osborn had nothing illuminating to say.”

“What about Ethel Leighton?” Athena reminded him. “Why did she lie on the witness stand? Was she blackmailed, or might she be the perpetrator behind all of this?”

“Now you’re really stretching, Miss Taylor.” He shook his head. “All this happened so long ago. Let it lie.”

“I wish I could. But even if I’m wrong about these suspects, it doesn’t change the fact that you believe your sister was innocent . How can we sit back and do nothing? Especially since the true perpetrator may have just attempted to kill me .”

“Attempted to kill you ? What do you mean?”

Athena hadn’t meant to bring that up. But there was no stuffing the cat back in the bag now. “Last week when I told you that a carriage nearly ran me over… it’s possible that it wasn’t an accident.”

“What?” He stared at her. “You’re saying that someone may have deliberately tried to run you down?” Off Athena’s nod, he continued, “Why on Earth would they do that?”

Athena told him what she had said in the churchyard and what had happened at the apothecary’s shop. “Mr. Chapman is making inquiries to see who might have hired that carriage.”

Mr. Vernon’s features tensed. “If you truly believe that might be the case, then confound it, Miss Taylor! Why do you still persist with this line of inquiry? Why haven’t you given it up?”

“Because the thought of what Miss Vernon went through preys on my mind and keeps me up at night!” Athena cried.

“It keeps you up at night?” Mr. Vernon leapt to his feet. “You speak of the thought of what my sister went through. But you cannot know how truly bad it was. Pray, allow me to inform you.”