Page 13 of Evidence of Evil
Please, God.
She was not asleep. She was curled up on her side with her back to the door when she heard it open and close. He moved about the room, rustling and splashing water. Deliberately, she kept her breathing deep and even.
But apparently, he was not fooled. “Constance? Where do you expect me to sleep?”
“There is only one bed,” she pointed out.
“Precisely. If you give me a blanket, I’ll sleep on the floor.”
Am I so very repulsive?Like the untouchables of India she had read about somewhere…
“It’s a big bed,” she said lightly. “I promise not to touch you, but put the bolster between us if you’re afraid.”
“Oh, trust me, I’m afraid,” he said, drawing the bolster out from under the pillows.
It felt cold against her back. Then the mattress dipped as he climbed in and lay down. She nudged the bolster further away. He didn’t seem to notice. In fact, a few moments later, he appeared to be sound asleep.
*
She woke withsomeone moving around the room. Disoriented, she sat bolt upright, peering into the early morning light in search of Janey and her morning coffee. Instead, she found Solomon in his shirt and trousers, pushing his feet into boots.
“Sorry,” he said in his velvet-soft voice. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
Very aware she was exposing the low-cut flimsiness of her bodice, she resisted the ridiculous, maidenly urge to snatch the covers up over her bosom. “I’m too used to having coffee shoved into my hands first thing. Is it very early?”
“Not quite eight. I wanted to speak to the gardener who found the body.”
“Good idea. I’ll come with you.”
“Then I suppose I had better speak nicely to the kitchen and conjure you a cup of coffee. Breakfast is not until nine.” Boots in place, he rose from the chair and reached for his coat.
She watched him amble off with supreme casualness and absolutely no awkwardness. Which, oddly, made her feel better. She threw off the covers and dressed as quickly as she could in a dark walking dress with matching jacket and stout boots.
She found Solomon in the kitchen making friends with the cook and the kitchen maid. They all looked so comfortable that she could not resist pausing at the foot of the kitchen stairs to observe them—which was when she became aware of the low-voiced conversation going on in the room beside her that stretched beneath the stairs.
She guessed it was the housekeeper’s sitting room, for the female voice was relatively cultured, if indignant, as it drifted through the half-open door.
“…no better than they should be, if you ask me. Looks like that aren’t natural.”
“His or hers, Mrs. Haslett?” inquired a male voice politely, with just a hint of sardonic humor.
Ah.Constance knew from Elizabeth that Mrs. Haslett was the housekeeper.
“Hers, of course. Too beautiful by far, and too many fine clothes into the bargain. Why would agovernesshave a friend like that?”
The wordgovernesswas spoken with unexpectedly virulent contempt, causing Constance to linger where she was. Especially since no one appeared to have noticed her. Everyone in the kitchen seemed to be either busy or gossiping with Solomon. Or both, in the cook’s case.
“Her ladyship is no longer a governess,” the male voice said austerely. “And I’d advise you to remember it. Besides, a governess is still a lady, and there’s no reason in the world she shouldn’t have wealthy old friends.”
A disparaging sniff sounded. “Maybe. But he doesn’t even look English to me. Watch those silly girls drooling over him—even Cook, who should know better.”
“Mrs. Haslett, you’re getting into one of your moods. And I really don’t see what you have against her ladyship. She has done wonders for the master, and for those children.”
This was better. The man was clearly the butler, whom Constance had glimpsed only once, when he announced dinner last night.
“I suppose you’re right, Mr. Manson,” the housekeeper said grudgingly. “She just doesn’t measure up to the first Lady Maule. No one could, and it breaks my heart to see a mere governess in her place.”
“It broke your heart not to see Frances Niall in her place,” Manson said dryly. “And if that had come to pass, just think where we’d be now.”
