Page 34 of The Rise of a Forsaken Lady
“Nothing, Penelope,” he said hurriedly to step between her and the constables. He clasped her shoulder, ensuring that she looked straight at him. “It is a routine check about Lord Shirlling. Nothing for you to worry about. Mr. Moore, please take Lady Penelope to the library. I will be with you two shortly.”
“My Lady,” one of the constables bowed to her. “It is just as he said, please don’t worry.”
Heath was antsy to get Lady Penelope away from the room as he was suspected that the reason given to them about the dead Viscount was not the only reason for the constables' visit.
Lady Penelope might not have seen it—as she probably was not familiar with the ranks of the constables—but he saw the insignia of a chief superintendent on one of the men’s coats. That called for concern. He did not know who the other man was.
Admittedly, a dead member of the peerage did call for such ranks to be drawn to a case but wasn’t a chief inspector enough to handle such?
“My Lady?” Heath said softly beside her.
Lady Penelope’s jaw stiffened a bit, but she nodded to him and said, “Yes.”
Bowing to Lord Allerton and the constables, Heath ushered Lady Penelope out of the room and up the stairs to the library. She went directly to the shelves and stood at there with her spine ramrod straight. She ran her fingers over the spine of the books and plucked one out.
“Mr. Moore, how much do you know of human behavior,” she asked.
Standing beside the chaise lounge, his eyebrow arched, he replied, “Any specific aspects, My Lady?”
“How do you know when someone is lying?” she asked while paging through the book without reading a thing. It was more of a tactile distraction than anything else. “Or if not exactly outright lying, but telling a half-truth?”
“You suspect that Lord Allerton is telling a half-truth about Viscount Shirlling,” he said, not as a question but as a statement. “Why?”
She looked briefly at him, “Why else would the superintendent of the Bow Street Runners be here?”
His eyes darted up. Clearly, Lady Penelope was not the wide-eyed naïve woman some might have taken her for. “I cannot say, My Lady, perhaps it is really the truth about Lord Shirlling.”
“And probably there is something more to it,” Lady Penelope asserted. “The constables who were here before said they did not have many clues to follow up on. They questioned every staff member and my brother twice over. Aside from my brother, there was no one to witness the shot, and he was so frightened that he could not even tell where the shot had come from. So if they are as flummoxed as they say, why are they back here with higher ranks?”
His respect for Lady Penelope’s intuition kept growing. “They could be here to clear Lord Allerton of the crime, My Lady.”
She blinked and realization dawned over her. “You might be right.”
“I don’t think there is much to worry about, My Lady,” Heath said though his suspicions mirrored Lady Penelope’s. There was much more to this policemen’s visit than they had been told.
“By now, news about the Viscount’s murder on Lord Allerton’s lands must have reached London. For him to be under suspicion of murder is not good for business relations, My Lady,” Heath added. “The constables would be doing a disservice to not clear His Lordship clear of the heinous act.”
His explanation was both logical and sound to both of their ears and he could see his words settling on her mind. “Do you need anything, My Lady?”
“A real explanation would be more satisfactory than anything else,” she sighed. Then looked up at him and said. “I know what you mean, Mr. Moore but, I suspect that even when Eddie is done with the constables, he won’t even tell me what really happened. He tends to ignore me at times. I believe he thinks that I am just another one of the Ton women, who do not care for reality instead of the glimmering gloss of the peerage,” her tone was heavy. “Sometimes, it’s like he does not know me at all.”
He tried to form the words to comfort her but could not find many. He had not been there long enough to know the history between Lord Allerton and Lady Penelope, so, instead of saying the wrong words he said nothing at all, and hated doing so. Comfort giving—soulful empathy—was a primary indicator of a person’s soul and to know he was not able to give it to her, pained him.
Lady Penelope was staring blankly at the book in her lap with her eyes not moving. He hated the silence between them and had opened his mouth over three times to speak, but not a word had come out. The fourth time was coming when Lord Allerton came inside the room.
She looked up but did not say anything. Lord Allerton’s face was stoic, but a bit pale if one looked closely. “It all cleared up, Penelope. There’s nothing to worry about.”
“Why did they come?” she demanded.
“As I said before,” he replied. “Just clearing up the after effects of the Viscount’s death.”
“Any specific after effects?” Penelope pressed.
A fleeting flash of irritation went across Lord Allerton’s face, but he masked it quickly. “Just clarification of what we were doing outside when it was more prudent to have stayed inside. I told them—like I had told them the first and second time—that the Viscount had asked me to go somewhere private to talk business. He had a few ventures in South Manchester that he needed a capable eye to look over as he suspected there was some stealing going on. Since as I know numbers, and could detect if someone was thieving from him, he asked me if I was amiable to look over them as he did not want any of his people—the very same who might be stealing from him—to do it.”
The Lord had answered, but his response was a careful but obvious distraction from the real issue, and everyone in the room knew it. Lady Penelope looked at him blankly before she shook her head slowly, “And there you go, coddling me again.”
Heath’s eyes shot to the young Earl as a muscle in his jaw twitched, “Mr. Moore, a word in my study.”
