Page 53 of The Autumn Wife
“Yes. On the first day and yesterday, and I suspect they’ll be back today.” She swallowed, her throat sore. “They take me out of this cage, put irons on my wrists and ankles—”
Theo grunted and seized her hands, raising them for his perusal. The grunt deepened as he turned them over and saw the chafed marks on her wrists.
“Who,” he asked, fury rippling through his words, “did this?”
“Soldiers—different ones. They change my guards every day.”
“Did they hurt you in any other way?”
A fresh chill washed over her. “Not…not yet.”
Theo nodded, but she knew by the sudden stoniness of his face that he, too, was banking panic.
“The interrogators,” he continued, placing her hands palm to palm so he could cover them both with his own, warmer ones. “What are their names?”
“They didn’t say, but I can describe them.” She shivered at the memory as she described the trio of interrogators to Theo, down to their velvet coats and lace collars, each man colder-eyed than the next. “I suspect they are the investigators sent by Talon, but I can’t be sure.”
“Seems likely.” He met her gaze, his green one deadly serious. “What evidence do they have?”
“I don’t know.” She caught a sob before she became undone. “They asked me the same questions in a hundred different ways, but they tell me nothing. Except that they found his…body.”
“Yes, I heard that in the tavern.” Theo released her hands and slid his arms through the bars to wrap them around her so he could draw her close enough to whisper in her ear. “They found him on a bank ofan island at the mouth of a river out of Trois-Rivières.”
Her mind screamed. He tightened his grip as if he heard her distress. She squeezed her eyes shut. To think she’d once been considered the good girl. The orphan all the nuns had adored. The one student who’d never felt the smack of a ruler on her hand. The woman who would never throw herself into danger like Marie or flaunt disobedience like Genny, yet had done something a thousand times grimmer, bloodier, more unforgivable.
“The river,” Theo whispered, as his gaze darted to the shed walls that were riddled with cracks and lingering shadows. “It runs by most of the homes in Trois-Rivières. Homes owned by those who might not have liked Eduard Tremblay either. According to gossip, your husband was deeply in debt to a lot of people. Do you have any idea why Talon’s investigators would single you out?”
Because I’m guilty.
“Whatever they found,” he said, thinking aloud, “it can’t be enough to convict you. That’s why you’re still being interrogated. They need a confession.”
Icy fingers squeezed her mute. She knew that if the authorities failed to get a confession by questioning her, they would use more violent tactics. They might pound wedges beneath the wooden staves of a boot. Lay a braided whip against her back. Or brand her in places unseen.
“Ceci.” Theo pulled back to meet her eyes. “You didn’t sign any papers, did you?”
“No.” Though the interrogators were wearing her down. She’d become keenly aware that telling the truth of what happened would put an end to the exhaustion, the hunger, and the whole investigation. All her worries would end—but so would her life.
“Lie,” he whispered with force. “Lie over and over again and never sign anything.”
A tear slipped down her cheek. She plunged into his gaze, steady with determination. Darling Theo, so worried for her…but she had been doomed from the start. Perhaps, from the very moment Eduard had returned to raise a fist to Etienne, she had known she would end up with a rope around her neck. She’d been flailing ever since, trying to stave off the inevitable, holding desperately to the faintest thread of hope.
And now here she was, dragging Theo into her nightmare.
She sank a little in his arms. She was so tired of fighting. She didn’t regret fighting Eduard. She didn’t regret preventing herself and Etienne from being slaughtered like lambs, but shedidkill a man. Furthermore, her actions had put everyone she loved in terrible danger. If she confessed, the torment would be over.
And she’d be protecting everyone else, too.
Straightening, she pulled herself away from the iron bars and the man beyond them, urging him to let his arms fall away.
“You’re a free man, Theo.” What a beautiful name he had. What a life they could have built together on the wooded banks of the Saint Lawrence River. “You can go and do whatever you want now. Forget about me.”
His eyes blazed like green fire. “I will never leave you.”
“I release you from all promises.” Her throat closed, as if already encircled by a prickly hemp rope. “The magistrates will hang me, no matter what—”
“They have no evidence.” He gripped the bars. “They can’t convict you if you don’t confess.”
“They convicted you four years ago, and you didn’t confess.”
