Page 67 of The Curse of Penryth Hall
She took in a deep breath through her nose. “Please don’tquarrel with me. Not today, Ruby.” She reached out, taking my hand and twining her fingers in mine.
I closed my own around hers. No, not today, then.
I’m not certain if it was the wine or simply her presence pulling me back to our girlhood days—the time before my parents died, long before the war, when we were into mischief. Much like Jago and Charles. Somehow, we found ourselves with a second bottle of wine in Edward’s room. Clumsily rummaging through his drawers, a pair of drunken thieves searching for treasure.
“Property disputes?” I suggested, dumping out his handkerchiefs onto the bed and shuffling through them.
“No. Nothing recently.” She popped her head out from his wardrobe, hand still in a dinner jacket pocket.
I giggled to myself, taking another sip of wine and wobbling a bit on my feet. “Not recently? Murder is murder. Come now, Tams, think!”
She laughed. It was wrong to be cavalier with her when her husband had been killed. Edward. A darkness crept over my thoughts. “He didn’t strike you, did he? That bruise… I know you said before that—”
“And it’s the truth. Edward never raised a hand to me. I’m certain you won’t believe me—I wouldn’t if it were me—but it’s the God’s honest truth.” Suddenly the color drained from her face as her eyes fixed upon the bruises at my throat. “You don’t think that whoever harmed you could have tried the same to me?”
I hadn’t thought of that. Not truly. My throat grew thick at the idea, but Mrs. Penrose did say that the room I’d slept in was Tamsyn’s favorite. I swallowed down the fear and lied. “No. No, I don’t think so. I’m sure it was just an accident as you said.”
She sighed, and I couldn’t be certain if she believed me orjust went along with the farce. “I know I should have left him. I thought about doing it dozens of times. It’s only that I couldn’t ever come up with a good enough reason. He was respectable and I had a comfortable life here. It made it simpler to excuse his bad behavior when he wasn’t quite as horrible as he could have been. Besides, by the time I made up my mind to leave, I already had Jori. He’d have never let me take his heir away.”
The conversation sat uneasily with me, so I returned to safer waters. “No property disputes then? What about business deals? Did he cheat anyone out of money?”
She thought on that for a moment, tilting her head before deciding against it. “No. But the man had rutted with almost every single woman between here and Exeter. Does that count?”
“For what it’s worth, I don’t think it could be related to his sexual adventures.”
She shook her head. “Me either, if it were, surely someone would have done the job ages ago.”
I snorted, returning to the dresser. “Ah, well, onward I dig.” I stooped down to the ground and ran my hand under the empty spot where the drawer I’d removed had been. Nothing. “What’s in here, you suppose?” My fingers traveled along the base of a particularly deep drawer. “You know in stories there’s always a secret compartment. Something very clever. Hiding important things. But I tell you something—”
“Ruby—”
I glanced over my shoulder and she smiled. The sensation shot straight to my core, settling there. Or rather,unsettlingthere.
The floor shifted slightly beneath me. The wine was stronger than I recalled. Or maybe it was the fact I hadn’t eaten much in days. If it weren’t for that combined with my brush with death, I’d have assumed that there was something else in thewine muddling my thoughts. I braced myself on the dresser with my free hand to keep from falling over.
“I’m glad you came back.”
“You said that already.” Dozens of times.
“I know. But I am.”
I turned my attention to the drawer, pulling it fully from the tracks.Me too.But I could never put voice to things like that or it would open up a Pandora’s box of emotions. And I detested the things. I set the newly freed drawer on the floor and started to reach into the gap, feeling around the top for something. Anything. Even a jammed-up piece of paper stuck in the bracing, but there was nothing. Nothing at all.
I rocked back onto my heels and then plopped down onto the carpet, reaching backward for the glass of wine that I’d set down. It was half empty.
Tamsyn came over and sat down beside me with the glass decanter. “More?”
I lifted my glass. “Always.”
“Ruby, I… I want to tell you something.” She fiddled with the diamond bracelet at her wrist nervously.
I struggled to focus my gaze, my vision growing fuzzy and dim. “What is it?”
Something flickered in her expression I couldn’t make out. Her light eyes guarded. “It’s nothing. Nothing at all.”
If my head weren’t such a jumble I might have pressed her, but instead I let it go and took another drink.
CHAPTERTWENTY-NINEFinally a Clue
