Page 43 of A Lady's Wicked Revenge
He can’t. He couldn’t. He didn’t.She blinked, unsure if she had done so even once for the past several minutes. Her mind raced over every word Uncle James had spoken in her presence, every conversation they had had, every note on every scrap of paper in his office.
I knew the man was mad for money … but is he truly capable of having his own sister murdered for such a base, ordinary thing?
Over and over these thoughts swirled in Diana’s mind, chasing one another past the inevitable certainty that Uncle James had ordered her parents to be killed so he could take their fortune.
She did not know if she had fallen asleep or was merely incapacitated by the weight of her own thoughts, but she jumped with surprise as she heard her doorknob begin to turn, then the door slid open as a dark shape rushed into her room and closed the door behind it.
“It’s quite dark in here, you realise,” she heard Colin’s voice say softly, laughter suspended in his words like bubbles in a glass of champagne. “I’m not sure if I should feel enticed or afraid of being ambushed. Either way, I clearly am not interrupting anything too pressing, as it is too dark to read in—”
“I need to tell you something, Colin.” Diana sat up on the end of her bed, her words cutting Colin’s repartee short. Though the only light in the room was the dim blue glow of the moon flooding in through the curtains, her eyes were sufficiently adjusted to the gloom that she could see on his face and in his bearing that he was unnerved by her words.
“What is it?” Colin asked, taking a seat on a footstool close by. There was a look of true, sincere concern on his face, and with a start, Diana realised how terribly this revelation would hurt him. Wrong-headed though he might be, Colin was devoted to his stepfather … would she truly be the one to cause him such pain?
Then her mind fixed on the image of her mother’s lifeless body, lying amid the splinters of a crushed carriage. The blood rushed through her veins, her breath coming quickly with indignation.No,Diana thought, her fingers clenching in her lap.I will not let justice go undone. Uncle James will not murder and rob his own family with abandon.
So she told him all. There, in the dark stillness of her room, her voice quivering even as she fought to keep herself quiet so they would not be overheard from another room, Diana told Colin everything that had happened. She described how she had found a place from which she could eavesdrop, how she watched the villain called Bertrand enter Uncle James’ study, how she had overheard her guardian’s grisly confession. Through it all, Colin just stared at her, a finger rubbing his chin thoughtfully, his face a dispassionate mask.
Finally the thing was said, and Diana found herself rushing to devise their next steps. “We must take action of some sort. Soon, perhaps right away. I imagine we must summon the law, though I should understand if you wish to do further investigation on the matter or speak with Sir James first.”
Then Diana stopped, noting for the first time the cloud of anger that had settled on Colin Mullens.
“You couldn’t have … there must …” Colin’s face was turned away from her and veiled in shadow in his current position, but Diana could plainly tell how agitated he had become. She felt her own fears overrun by a powerful rush of guilt.
“I know how hard this is to accept. I know how good you say Sir James has been to you, and I wish more than anything that this had not happened … for all our sakes. I’m sorry, Colin.” Diana reached out a hand to him, gesturing for him to take it in his own.
He did not move to accept her hand but continued to cast around for a moment before meeting her gaze with a look of icy suspicion. “You did not hear any more of the conversation than those few words. Or … or know the man to whom he was speaking.”
Diana blew out a long, heavy sigh, feeling what little life she had left in her frame exit her body at the same moment. “You don’t believe me,” she muttered.
“I … believe you overheard something, I suppose. The mind has a strange way of piecing together information to fit a conclusion that we already came to. I’ve done the same countless times.” Colin’s words were sympathetic, but his tone was as cold and empty as an open grave.
“I’m not imagining this, Colin,” Diana said through gritted teeth.
“I didn’t say you were.”
“Then you don’t believe that Sir James caused the death of my parents? Despite his confession to—”
“Of course I don’t bloody believe that!” Colin snapped, shooting to his feet. Diana shushed him gently, fearing his words would be audible from another room, but now his temper had slipped any leash. “My God, they could have been talking about anything at all, and you decide your own guardian is a criminal and a murderer on no more evidence than your own bloody suspicions?”
Diana felt her shoulders pull up, her mouth twist in a cruel snarl. “I told you Bertrand’s exact words, Colin. ‘The couple whose carriage my friends fixed for you.’ He said their names. What in God’s name is it you suggest they could have been talking about?”
“I know it may be a foreign concept to you, communicating with a complete absence of sarcasm,” Colin growled, “but did it even occur to you that this Bertrand fellow was talking about literal friends who literally repaired a carriage? It’s hardly illegal for a man to have a cartwright as a friend, even a poor one.”
“That’s preposterous, and you know it.”
“Then they were repeating a conversation they had overheard elsewhere, or … or reciting the lines from a play!” Even in the dim blue light of the moon, she could see Colin’s consternation as he struggled to think of any plausible excuse. “Bloody hell, they could have been discussing anything in the world, Diana. Unless you are so proficient at espionage that you hear everything that goes on in this house, somehow?”
“Considering what I uncovered, I only wish that I had been paying even closer attention to Uncle James’ affairs!” Her voice rang from the ceiling—they were both nearly shouting now, she realised, but there was nothing she could do that would stem the tide of emotion. Instead, she scoffed in disbelief and went on. “Honestly, Colin, even if there has been some sort of misunderstanding, isn’t this at least worth looking into? If the man is capable of murdering his own sister, what else might he be plotting even now?”
“Circular reasoning. Now who’s being preposterous?”
Diana could not stop the contemptuous scowl from crossing her features.He’s grasping at straws to defend the indefensible … why have I put any of my trust in this man? I can’t decide which of us is more pathetic.She stood but a few inches from Colin’s face, now ready and eager to voice every ounce of frustration she had experienced for the last several months.
“You are in such a rush to defend your beloved stepfather that you are not even listening to what I’m telling you!”
“Would you do any less if someone so important to you were being slandered in such a vile fashion?”
“It’s only slander if it’s untrue!”
