Page 66 of The Curse of Penryth Hall
Tamsyn pressed her lips to the glass and frowned. “Is it better or worse that it’s not the curse? I admit I cannot decide.”
My fingers rose again involuntarily to the bruises at my throat. We had not spoken of the curse since my return, and it shocked me that Tamsyn had reached the same conclusion I had. “What makes you change your mind now? Especially with that odd woman threatening Jori?”
She ran a hand over her lap, smoothing her already smooth skirts. “Dr. Heinrich is such an interesting man. I think he finally talked me ’round this morning. What with how Edward was killed, not to mention the attack on the boys. There is no reason for the curse to strike outside the Chenowyth line. I suppose it should be a relief, and yet it’s a bit more troubling in some aspects.”
I chewed my thumb, sinking down onto a low sofa. “Do you know if Edward had any dealings with them. Jago or Charles? Did he know either of them?”
Her dressing gown shimmered nearly black in the dim lighting as she sat beside me. Outside I could hear the low voices of Enys’s men, too quiet to make out what they said, but they provided an odd bit of reassurance.
“Not as far as I know. I’d only seen them at church and Edward never set foot inside the place. Have you any ideas?”
Not a one. “We drink? It’s typically what I do when out of decent alternatives.”
She giggled, tinking her glass gently into my own. “An excellent notion.” She hesitated for a moment before looking at me with a sober expression. “I feel wretched that I’m so relieved. There is a murderer out there.” She swung her glass to the open window. “And those poor boys could have been killed, and yet I can’t help but be happy that it’s not the curse.”
I rested my head on her shoulder and closed my eyes. “No, darling. It’s only human. Besides, I think we should celebrate that you are no longer to be in fear of your life. Though you might need to be concerned about the state of your storerooms.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I know… don’t remind me that Edward is down there still. He’s to be buried in two days, and not a moment too soon.”
“I meant because of your housekeeper. Did you know she’s been cooking for my cat?”
Tamsyn snorted and took another sip, licking the drink from her lips. “Oh, yes, there isn’t a creature Mrs. Penrose wouldn’t take under her wing. Did I ever tell you about the pig?”
“Pig?” Something nibbled at the edge of my thoughts and I batted it away.
Tamsyn’s face grew animated as she smiled, leaned back into the settee, and crossed her legs. “Last summer, she found an enormous sow running loose in woods, sorely neglected. It’d been there for weeks and she’d failed to be able to corral it. Then one day she stumbled across it caught with a leg in a trap. The thing was nearly dead. So Mrs. Penrose stormed back to the house, got a rope, and led the wretched beast back into the paddock and spent the next week finding its owner.”
“And did she?”
Tamsyn nodded, her hair slipping from the comb holding it back. “Mmm. She did and gave him a right tongue-lashing too. Refused to give the pig back. It was breeding too. Can you imagine someone being so careless with their livestock as to let a breeding pig run loose?”
Another prick at the back of my neck as I recalled the bottle Ruan had found beneath my bed on the very first night at Penryth Hall. A fetal pig he’d said it was. I wasn’t quite sure I wanted to know more and yet I had to ask. “And what happened to it?”
“Oh, Edward planned to shoot it and have it cured for the winter larder once it’d had its litter, but Mrs. Penrose wouldn’t hear of it.” Tamsyn laughed. “Of course, the creature eats better than the rest of the household. Honestly, I think if the world wouldn’t think her mad, she’d let it live in the house with us, put it up on the third floor with satin bedclothes. But it is rather nice for a pig. Jori likes to take it sweets.”
“And the piglets? You said it was breeding.”
“Lost most of them. But I allowed her to give the survivors to the poor in the village.”
I laughed at that, the unease loosening a bit. A woman who gave away piglets to the poor was not about to put an ill wish beneath my bed.
The idea was absurd. I drank down some more of the expensive sherry and rested my head along the back of the sofa. “I must admit I’m rather fond of your eccentric housekeeper.”
“She’s a lot like you. One wouldn’t know it to meet her, but she has the kindest heart of anyone I’ve ever met. Once she takes a soul into her affection, there’s nothing she wouldn’t do to keep them safe. Another way she reminds me of you. You were always so fierce, Ruby. With far too much heart—I suppose that’s why you’ve always locked it away from everyone.”
That selfsame organ seized up at her words. I kept my eyes closed, massaging the back of my neck with the edge of the sofa. Rocking back and forth. It was seductive to be with her like this. Easy and unafraid in our conversation. Almost as it used to be, and for a moment I understood why Tamsyn dwelled in the past. And while I wanted to give in, to surrender to this moment, there was something about this new Tamsyn I could not trust, and it burned that I couldn’t puzzle out the reason.
“What’s wrong?”
My body must have told the truth that my words would not. I shifted away from her and took a sip of the wine. “I’ve not slept properly in over two days.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re here. Regardless the reason.”
“Have you any new thoughts as to who might want to kill Edward?”
She fetched the bottle of sherry and brought it back to the sofa, refilling both our glasses for yet another time and settling it in the cushions between the two of us to save a return trip. “Anyone. Honestly, he was abominable. You should have seen the way he treated the staff here.”
“I still cannot fathom why you stayed, even if I grant you your reasons to have married him in the first place.”
