Page 57 of Snowy and the Seven Doves
“He will be stopped if we can prove he is behind any of these attempts,” Snowy told her. “Margaret, my biggest worry is that he will try to kill you. Is there any chance I could persuade you to stay within these four walls unless I am available to escort you?”
Pauline gasped, as she tipped the warm water from washing the wounds into the slop bucket.
Margaret didn’t blame Snowy for feeling protective. She did not intend to neglect her social responsibilities, but she was willing to compromise. “I will be careful, Hal. I will not go into the slums, or to isolated places. I will not go out without a footman. But I am not going to let fear cage me in.”
“At least two guards as well as your footman, even in your garden?” he asked. “And you will letmehire the guards?”
Margaret acquiesced. It would make Snowy feel better, and she could not deny that the thought of such virulent hatred worried her.
“Can you have Snowden locked up until his trial?” Pauline wondered.
Snowy shook his head. “I’ve spoken to two magistrates as well as my solicitor and a barrister friend. They will not confine him unless we have solid evidence that points directly to him. Especially since they have decided to treat him as a peer until he is proven not to be one. On the upside, they are treating me as a peer, too, until the House of Lords decides which one of us has the title.”
“It is very frustrating,” Pauline grumbled.
Later, after Rahat had been settled in a comfortable chair, with Pauline reading to him, Snowy told Margaret he had to go out. “I will have Blue with me,” he assured her. “I need to consult with Wakefield, the enquiry agent, and I mean to ask him about trustworthy guards.”
“I can pay for the guards,” she assured Snowy. “We have not discussed such things, but you must know I am a wealthy woman.”
He smiled. “And I am a wealthy man. As you probably realized when we discussed the marriage settlements.”
Wealthy from what? She knew he invested, but what in? Did he own the brothel in which he lived? She had heard that such establishments were lucrative, but she could not like the idea…
Would he give it up, if she asked? After all, whatever was hers would be his.
Snowy frowned at her silence. “Is there a problem? We should have the documents in the next day or so, but if you have thought of any changes you would like, just let me know.”
She forced a smile. He had been more than generous in his suggestions for the settlements, and her failure to find out more about the source of his wealth was not his fault. “I will read them again, Hal, but I am sure everything is more than acceptable.”
“You are still worrying,” he observed. “Margaret, I am confident there is nothing we cannot solve if we work at it together.”
She managed a more convincing smile. “We can talk about it later,” she said. “Be careful, Hal.”
He bent to give her a gentle kiss—just a brush of lips upon lips, but still her knees weakened. “I will be back in time to take you for a drive at the fashionable hour,” he said. “Show the happy couple to the ton.”
His second kiss began as sweetly as the first, then deepened into something more passionate, so that, when he broke it off, she was left wanting. “Later,” he promised.
*
Wakefield still hadn’theard back from the agents he’d sent to question those on the duchess’s list, nor had questioning Daphne yielded any further information. As for Lord Hungerford-Fox, he had taken heart at not being tortured, had retracted his confession about Snowden, and was now refusing to answer questions.
“I’ve had a man retracing his steps, and he has been seen visiting Snowden,” Wakefield said, “which adds to the circumstantial evidence but, to be honest, with what we currently have, neither of them will be convicted. Hungerford-Fox is linked to the crime by the evidence of a prostitute, and Snowden is not linked at all. Not now that Hungerford-Fox has recanted.”
“Then you have nothing for me,” Snowy said.
Wakefield shook his head. “I would not say that. I do not have enough for an arrest, but we are building a picture. I appreciated the suggestion to look into Deffew committing crimes for Snowden and Snowden for Deffew.”
He shuffled some papers on his desk and picked up a page with three columns. Colored lines circled some of the paragraphs.
“Again, what we have is suggestive rather than compelling, but Deffew was in the village near your childhood home on the day your father was killed. And Snowden provided the corroborating evidence that allowed Deffew to have his wife committed.”
He showed Snowy the page. The column headings were Snowden, Possible Crimes, Deffew. “We are filling in their location at the time of events we think one or both had a hand in. More people remember things than one might think, though memories become skewed by time.”
“Time is something I may be running out of,” Snowy told him. “I am getting married next week.”
“Ah. I can see how that might worry your villain. Another possible legitimate heir. Lady Charmain has accepted your gallant proposal, then?”
Snowy raised a brow. “The Teatime Tattler?”
