Page 15 of The Bride Wore White

“Yep, that pretty much says it all,” Prudence said. “You’re right; you do take very good notes.”

“Just wait until you have the opportunity to observe my typing skills,” he said.

Luther cleared his throat. “Clara Dover sounds as if she is morethan a little unhinged. Maybe Gilbert’s instability came from her side of the family as well as his father’s.”

“No,” Prudence said, “I don’t think so. Clara was obsessed and very determined to get what she wanted, but she never seemed unstable, at least not when I knew her as a client. However, there’s no knowing how Gilbert’s death might have affected her.”

“Because he was the object of her obsession?” Jack asked.

“It would be more accurate to say Gilbert was the means by which she intended to secure the empire she had created,” Prudence said.

He thought about that. “I see what you mean. His death crushed her dreams of founding a dynasty of psychically gifted Dovers.”

“She will be enraged because she’ll see herself as stuck with her other son, Rollins,” Prudence said. “Perhaps one day she’ll realize she was more fortunate than she thinks.”

“Maybe,” Jack said. “But from the sound of it, I doubt it. How hard did she push you to marry Gilbert?”

“Very hard.” Prudence gave a visible shudder. “She brought him, unannounced, to a reading appointment she had booked for herself and introduced him to me. Gilbert was very charming, but it was obvious he was simply humoring his mother. I could tell he had no personal interest in me, however, so I hoped that would be the end of the matter. But a day later he asked me out to the theater. I’m sure his mother ordered him to do it.”

“You declined, I assume?” Luther said.

“Yes, of course. I explained I didn’t have the proper attire for the theater. That was a mistake, because the day after that a very expensive evening gown was delivered to my door, along with another invitation. I sent both back. Matters went on like that for a while, but eventually the invitations stopped. I knew Gilbert had been going through the motions to please his mother. Apparentlyhe’d had enough of the charade. I was very relieved until the day Clara Dover walked into my reading room in a towering rage.”

“She threatened you?” Jack asked.

“She said that she had made me the offer of a lifetime, and if I was too stupid to take advantage of it, she would destroy me,” Prudence said. “I tried to calm her down, but she was beyond reason. I knew she could ruin me, but I was already planning to shut down my business and move to L.A. That last scene with her convinced me to speed up my plans.”

There was a short, brittle silence. Jack made no attempt to break it. Neither did Luther. They both watched Prudence.

With great care she set the cup and saucer on the small table next to the chair. “Shortly after the very unpleasant visit from Clara, I shut the doors of my business and moved to Los Angeles. Well, Adelina Beach, to be precise.”

Jack listened to the chimes and knew he was not hearing the complete truth.

“How long has it been since you made the move?” he asked.

“Several months,” she said.

He smiled. He didn’t need the sound of the chimes now. He just did the math.

“Do you think you might have arrived in L.A. around the first of November?” he asked.

Prudence went very still. Behind the lenses of her spectacles, her eyes got bone-chillingly cold. “Possibly. I can’t recall the exact date. Is it important, Mr.Wingate?”

“No, I’ve got enough information.” He tucked the notebook and pencil into the pocket of his jacket. “I just wanted to confirm a theory I have been working on since Luther suggested I take your case.”

Prudence clenched the arm of her chair with a gloved hand. “What is that theory?”

“You are Madame Ariadne. You have a knack for attracting publicity, don’t you? First you hit the headlines as the Nightmare Psychic who vanished after her last client collapsed during the course of a reading. Now you are on the front page as the Killer Bride. Do you plan to order another set of business cards?”

Chapter 7

Prudence stopped breathing for a small slice of time that felt like an eternity.

When she recovered from the shock, she reminded herself that she had known her past would come back to haunt her if she sought help from Luther Pell. Still, she had assumed she would be attempting to explain the situation to Pell, who was something of a known quantity. Jack Wingate, on the other hand, was a complete mystery. The fact that he had been the first one to connect the dots was unsettling.

She had to admit it was also not surprising. She had known the moment she walked into the room and saw him standing in the shadows near the window that he was going to be a problem.

“You have an excellent memory for scandal, Mr.Wingate,” she said, working hard to maintain a cool, professional demeanor. She knew how to handle difficult clients. She’d had ample experience first as a psychic and then as a librarian. Okay, Jack was not, technically speaking, a client, but it amounted to the same thing. “Itrust you know better than to believe everything you read in the press.”

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