Chapter 3 #2
Bow Street’s Principal Officer Hugh Marsden is accused of invading Viscount Neatham’s home on Kensington Square just past nine o’clock yesterday evening.
Mr. Marsden reportedly attacked the lord in his study, and after a brief struggle with the staff, fled on foot.
Less than an hour later, the lord’s sister, Miss Eloisa Neatham, absent from London these last several years, was stabbed to death on the ballroom floor of Lord Reed’s home.
A fireless smoke had prompted guests at the soiree to flee.
Miss Neatham was discovered by the Duke and Duchess of Fournier.
The police are searching for Mr. Marsden in connection to both attacks.
Audrey slapped the paper down. “This is preposterous! Why on earth would Hugh attack Lord Neatham in his home? He certainly would not kill his sister! You know him, Philip. He isn’t a murderer.”
Her husband sat placidly in his chair, his hands folded on the table before him. “I know he is not. But he has gotten himself into a pickle by forcing his way into Neatham’s home and attacking him.”
“Allegedly,” Audrey reminded.
Philip gestured toward the paper. “If you read the whole article, you’ll see that the police were summoned to Neatham’s home before the murder took place at the soiree. They are not making up the attack to further incriminate Mr. Marsden in the murder.”
Audrey hadn’t read the whole article. She didn’t know if she could stomach it.
Why would Hugh have gone to his half-brother’s home in the first place?
He despised Lord Neatham for the accusations he’d made and the challenge to a duel that had forced Hugh to defend himself.
He hadn’t wanted to kill Bartholomew then.
What would drive him to become so unhinged and murderous now?
“He is missing, Audrey,” Philip added, gently. “The attack on Neatham and then the murder immediately afterward… It doesn’t look good now that he has fled.”
Audrey shoved back her chair and stood, the need to move, to do something, burning through her limbs.
“Where are you going?” Philip asked.
“I don’t know.” Her mind whirled, and her pulse wouldn’t steady. Where would Hugh have gone? Why would he have run?
“You promised you would do nothing rash,” Philip said, pushing back his chair as well.
“I promised I would think before acting,” she replied, “and that is what I am doing.”
The news article painted Hugh as a deranged murderer, linking the past scandal to this new one.
But those who knew Hugh would know that he wasn’t capable of something so heinous.
Lord Thornton immediately came to mind. He was Hugh’s closest friend, and he possessed a fine home, large enough in which to hide.
Surely, Bow Street would have gone there first—his friendship with the physician was well known.
But Lord Thornton did not have to allow them inside.
“Let the officials solve this,” Philip said firmly. He then lowered his voice again, thoughtful of Harris just outside the breakfast room door. “I know you care for Marsden, but if you defend him publicly, there will be consequences for all of us.”
She snapped her eyes to his, annoyance zinging through her.
Once again, Philip’s concern for their standing in society reared its ugly head.
The near destruction of his own good name last spring had left him perpetually fretful over how the rest of the ton viewed them.
However, if she were being totally honest, it was an evergreen concern of his.
Hiding who he was from those who would turn their backs on him had been his primary concern for much longer than a year.
“How I feel about Hugh is irrelevant,” she said, though she couldn’t look Philip in the eye while saying it.
“What matters is that the wrong person is being hunted for Miss Neatham’s murder.
This article and others like it are going to work the public up into a froth over Hugh, while the real murderer gets away. ”
Philip stepped back from his chair and approached her, softening his voice even more. “What did it show you?” he asked. Then, arching a dark blond brow, added, “The ring you took.”
He’d seen her, of course, and had known what she planned to do with it. However, last night he had not come through the boudoir attaching their two sets of rooms to demand to know the results. He might not have been feeling well enough. Or perhaps he’d wanted to ignore his wife’s meddling habits.
“Just smoke,” she said, then clamped her mouth shut before she could say more.
Eloisa’s strange conversation with Lady Reed proved that Lady Reed had lied to Officer Tyne.
Finding out why was Audrey’s natural first step in sorting out all this madness.
Restlessness stole over her again. Worry for Hugh did as well.
If he was found and arrested, he would be as deeply in trouble as Philip had been last April.
But Hugh would not have a peerage title as a layer of protection. The thought chilled her heart.
Philip crossed his arms, the corners of his mouth turning down in thought. “What are you going to do?”
The question took her off guard. She peered at him, speechless for a moment. Her mind scrambled for at least a half-truth.
“I’m going to speak to Lady Reed,” she said. “I can return the ring. Perhaps I can say I found it on the floor and meant to give it to her the night before but became distracted by all the commotion.”
The marchioness would undoubtedly be plagued with callers today; Audrey’s arrival would not be noted as anything out of the ordinary.
Philip must have agreed. Instead of arguing and telling her to stay at Violet House or anywhere else not associated with the murder, he took out his fob watch to peer at the time.
“Very well. I suppose that won’t be seen as too out of the ordinary.
I must go. There is a session at the House I am required to sit for. ”
He put away his watch and arched a brow at her. “I will do everything in my power to help Marsden, should he need it. I promise you that.”
She believed him, but she also knew that Philip’s power would only stretch so far.
He bid her a good morning and left the breakfast room with a purposeful stride.
Audrey nibbled her bottom lip with a twinge of guilt.
She hadn’t been entirely truthful with him.
Lady Reed’s home was her destination, and she would indeed return the ring.
However, she was not planning to leave the marchioness’s presence until she’d confessed to seeing Eloisa last night and explaining why she’d lied about it.
If Hugh couldn’t investigate this murder himself, Audrey would do it for him. And she would not stop until she proved him innocent.