Page 88 of The Secret of the Three Fates
“I see you, lass. I’ve alwaysseenyou. Now go break the sorry news to my daughter that there are two of you instead of only the one.”
I blinked, not comprehending his words, but there was no time to question what he meant, as he’d already turned on his heels and started out of the croft, presumably back to the duchess and Lady Morton.
Ruan looked up from Elijah. His eyes bright—brighter than I’d seen them since we were shot.
I grabbed a nearby bucket and carried it over to Genevieve’s side and sat down. I’d had enough mud and blood for one day. “How are you?”
She looked up at me through her wet lashes. “Do you think Elijah will be—” Her voice trembled. “I did not mean for him to come to harm.”
I laid my palm on her shoulder. “Ruan will take care of him. I promise you that.”
She eased beneath my touch and looked up at me. “Thank you. For everything you have done.” Her gaze drifted to the duke’s lifeless body. “You did not have to help me and I would not blame you had you not, considering the secrets I kept from you. I put you in danger. I’d thought… I’d thought the fewer who knew the truth of him, the safer we’d all be.”
I looked into her dark eyes. Full of self-hatred, fear, and righteous anger. Emotions likely echoed in my own. There was no doubt in my mind that she was Mr. Owen’s daughter. It was written in the proud set of her jaw, in the very way she carried herself. She might have never known the man in life, but she carried his blood in her veins. I would have bet everything I owned upon it. “You have his eyes.”
“I do not understand you.”
I stretched my neck from side to side, letting the sweet pull of my muscles ease the tension. “Why are you convinced the duke is your father? You have the look of Mr. Owen. You and Andrew—you have the same eyes.”
She lowered her lashes and fiddled with a piece of dry straw. “Brown eyes are common.”
“What color were your mother’s?”
“Blue.” The word more curse than anything else.
“As were the duke’s.” The edge of my mouth curved up into a lopsided smile. “That monster was not your father.”
“My mother could not be certain. She dared not hope. I did not even know she had been married until I met Aunt Lucy.”
“Did Lucy believe you were Mr.…” I corrected myself. “Hawick’s child?”
She shook her head. “She said it didn’t matter who my father was. That Hawick was a madman, chasing after his ghosts and fairy stories and that I was safer in the shadows with her.”
“Funny for a medium to be judgmental of the occult.”
Genevieve let out an amused sound. “I told her the same. We did not intend to summon Mariah’s spirit… Well, we did, but not at the séance. Lucy had hoped that if Hawick brought the ring, that Mariah would reveal where the photographs were hidden in private. We had been looking for weeks to no avail.”
“What about the others? Lady Morton… the duke… why bring them all together?”
“I did not invite the duke. Lady Morton, yes. I thought Icould bend her to our will. Her husband had been a Eurydicean and rumor has it she loathed the man once she realized what a monster he was. I thought perhaps we could have used her anger to our advantage. If I had known that the duke would come to the séance… I… I truthfully don’t know what I would have done.”
“I found Abigail—the other medium. It was the night of the second séance. Someone had killed her and left her body in the ruins.”
Genevieve winced. “Elijah discovered her that same morning, along with the missing negatives. We’d hoped having them would be enough to prove the duke’s guilt. It was a vain hope.”
I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees. “But your mother…”
Genevieve frowned, running her thumb along the inside of her manacle to relieve the raw flesh there. “She must be buried here somewhere. I know she came to confront the duke one last time. She had hidden all of the glass plates at Manhurst the night she fled—terrified if she traveled with them they would break. It was her insurance to protect her against him. Against all of them.”
“A clever woman. How many negatives were there in all?”
Genevieve smiled faintly. “I’m not certain. I believe there were over thirty hidden away at Manhurst. More than enough to implicate the duke. Aunt Lucy managed to find roughly half of them, before you arrived. The rest… Elijah found the rest, on Abigail’s body.”
The missing medium.
“Those were the most incriminating ones. I took the best ones and gave them to Elijah to turn over to the inspector, claiming he’d found them in the duke’s room after he left. A flimsy tale, but I was beside myself. The remaining negatives were left with my things.”
My head was beginning to ache.
