Page 65 of The Rise of a Forsaken Lady
“Answer me, servant,” Hillbrook ordered, “You were nowhere to be seen and suddenly the man is shot.”
“Russell?” Lord Allerton came around the corner, a deep frown in his face deepening as he looked at the two. “Mr. Moore, what is going on here?”
“My Lord, I—”
“Detain him, Dawson, he could be the one who shot Stratham,” Hillbrook said flatly.
Heath finally found his voice, “I did no such thing.”
“Really,” the Baron’s blue eyes were hard as ice and just a malleable. “weren’t you the last one in this room? Did you not have a key and where were you for the last few hours?”
Damnation. He truly had no excuse.
“Dawson tells me you have experience with guns and weaponry,” Hillbrook added. “And your last master was an addled old soldier who probably trained you to hate the Crown. It does not take a mathematician to add up the pieces. I say again, Dawson, detain him.”
Heath turned to the Earl and began to speak when Allerton’s jaw went stiff, “I think I agree, Mr. Moore. Until you can tell me where you were, I am afraid I have will have to turn you over to the authorities.”
Chapter 24
Another discreet peek over the banisters told Penelope that the men still had not left—four hours after they had come. Huffing under her breath, she went back to her room and sank into her chaise with a huff. Her arms crossed over her chest like a petulant child.
How long was it going to take Eddie to get these men out?
“Stop sulking, My Lady,” Martha said while coming and bearing a tray of food. “You know this is what His Lordship does.”
“I know,” Penelope sighed while toeing the rug. “My brother, Edward Phillip Dawson, the social butterfly of the Dawson family. I wish he would get married already and stop these gatherings.”
“He would say the same about you, but instead of gatherings, it would be riding,” Martha said.
“I’ll be riding until I am old and grey,” Penelope said with a roll of her eyes. “If he thinks I’ll give that up, he might expect the sun to stop shining.”
Sitting up, Penelope shook her head, “I can’t hide in here forever. I’ll just have to talk to him.”
“If you think that’s worth the trouble,” Martha added.
Patting her hair to make sure no unruly strands were sticking up, Penelope left to her brother’s study, hoping Edward would see sense and send these men home. As she approached, she heard voices coming through the closed door—her brothers, Lord Hillbrook and…Heath? What in the world?
She did not knock as Edward might just turn her away and pushed the door open to see her brother behind his desk, Lord Hillbrook looking too smug behind him and Heath, standing in front of the desk with a tight, harried look on his face. Something was not right.
“Penelope,” Edward's eyes were narrowed. “You cannot just barge into here as you like.”
Disregarding her brother’s words, her eyes flit from one man to the other before she asked, “What is going on?”
“Nothing that concerns you,” Edward said while motioning with his hand for her to leave.
She did not. In fact, she stepped in further and crossed her arms, pinning her sibling with a narrow-eyed glare, “I will not.”
“Penelope!” Edward was truly getting irritated, and if his glare were daggers, she would have been stricken through with holes. “This is no matter of yours.”
Lord Hillbrook then reached over and laid a hand on Edward’s shoulder, “What’s the matter in not telling her, Dawson? She will learn soon enough.”
“Fine,” he huffed and then gestured to Heath. “There was an unfortunate incident on our hunt, Sir Stratham got shot. Almost everyone was accounted for except Mr. Moore. We just got him here to explain his coincidental absence.”
“And you think he shot the man?” her jaw gaped at the only logical inference. “Edward, how utterly ridiculous that is…when….” she looked at him to see quiet desperation in Heath’s eyes. The fear of his dismissal was so profound, she knew she had to do something. “when he was with me.”
Heath’s head suddenly jerked up, nearly snapping to her but with he managed to stop the move before anyone saw it. Edward and Hillbrook’s were trained to her however with widened eyes and confusion.
She did not know what ridiculous notion would have made Edward suspect Heath and though she had no proof herself, she knew he did not do it. Turning back to her brother she explained.
