Page 71 of Undercover Duke
“Hardly,” Sheridan grumbled. “I can’t even get her to talk about those two house parties.”
“That’s because you’re going about it all wrong,” Vanessa said. “Mama only lapses into memory if the memory reflects particularly well on her. You need to appeal to Mama’s belief that everything is about her. Better yet, you should letmequestion her.”
Sheridan narrowed his gaze on her. “Not a chance. She’s your mother. How could we trust you to be objective?”
She sniffed. “I can be plenty objective about Mama, which you would learn if you’d just let me wheedle the truth out of her.”
Olivia straightened in her chair. “If Vanessa can question her mother, I don’t see why I can’t question mine.”
Joshua cast her a stern look. “Does that mean Thorn hasn’t questioned your mother yet?”
“Well, no.” Olivia shot her husband an apologetic glance. “But he and I both will make sure to find out from her what we can. She’s really quite reasonable once you get to know her.”
“She is, actually,” Thorn said. “Putting aside her attempt to blackmail me into marriage nine years ago, that is.”
“Thorn!” Olivia protested.
“I deserved it, sweeting. It’s fine.”
“Hmph.” Olivia turned to the group. “Grant you, Mama will do almost anything to protect her family, but I can’t see her killing anyone with no purpose, and I wasn’t even born when the first two murders happened, so she would have had no reason. Whereas Vanessa’s mother . . .” She trailed off, as if realizing she was about to say something rather condescending. Vanessa didn’t mind, having learned, in the short time she’d known Olivia, that the woman was generally blunt.
“Look,” Vanessa said, sweeping her gaze about the room, “I know Mama can be difficult, even cruel. Certainly she was horrible to Grey. But to murder two people and arrange the murders of two more? The impracticality of it alone rules out Mama. Why, she couldn’t even manage my debut ball by herself—she had to get Grey to help her. Trust me, my mother could never be a master criminal of the sort you’re describing. That would require far too much effort.”
The dowager duchess nodded. “That is more in line with the CoraIused to know. Her wickedness was always borne of weakness.” She turned grim. “She preys on children who can’t defend themselves and her own daughter who only wants her love. But murder three powerful dukes and a newly minted one? I’d be shocked to find out she would risk it. And for what? Why would she keep killing dukes, anyway?”
“Because she was hoping to have her husband inherit the dukedom?” Joshua said.
“That only works for the first murder.” Sheridan frowned. “Although we honestly don’t know if she poisoned baby Grey as well. He was sick at the same time as his father.”
“But if Mama had given him arsenic,” Vanessa pointed out, “wouldn’t he have died? I can’t imagine an infant surviving such a poisoning. Even if he had, even if Mama was responsible for the former Greycourt’s death, what reason did she have for killing Thorn and Gwyn’s father?”
“To be honest,” Joshua said, “we’re still a bit fuzzy on the motive or motives for the two earlier murders. The only thing we seem to agree on is that it involves the dowager duchess.” Everyone looked at him in outrage. “Not as a suspect, mind you, but as a victim in some way.”
“There’s at least a motive for Lady Eustace to have murdered Grey’s father,” Olivia said. “But my mother has no motive for any of the murders. Access without a motive doesn’t prove much unless you can put the arsenic in her hand.”
The dowager duchess looked at Olivia. “And the second murder—if it was one—was made to look like a carriage accident. I cannot see your mother sabotaging a carriage. Can you?”
“Of course not,” Olivia said. “She wouldn’t even know how.”
“Are you saying the villainess must be Lady Hornsby?” Joshua glanced at Olivia. “Or one of the personal servants of the three women?”
“I wouldn’t put it past Lady Hornsby,” Gwyn grumbled. “She keeps avoiding me. It’s almost as if she knows what I’m after.”
“She did leave the wedding before I could even so much as speak with her,” the dowager duchess said. “Although it’s not unusual for her to leave events early. She has quite a busy social life.”
After another quick sip of brandy, Vanessa jumped in again. “And what would behermotive?”
“She wanted my first husband,” the dowager duchess said. “And our marriage thwarted her in that.”
“She was also rumored to have been meeting our father behind your back,” Thorn said quietly.
“I told you,” the dowager duchess said, “that is ridiculous.”
Vanessa took another, bigger sip of her brandy. Olivia was right. It was rather delicious when one sipped it.
“You also told us that Lady Hornsby’s husband died of an ague,” Olivia said. “Like your first husband? Is it possible she poisoned her own husband?”
“I suppose it’s possible but it’s highly unlikely,” the dowager duchess said. “And if it were done so she could gain Thorn and Gwyn’s father, then why not kill me instead? Why kill my second husband? It makes no sense.”
