She lowered her gaze. "How very thorough of you, Mr. Monk. Although I fear thoroughness may be all you will be able to offer her, poor creature. But you must go through the motions, I understand. Where shall I begin? When they arrived?"
"If you please."
"Then sit down, Mr. Monk," she invited, indicating the overstuffed pink sofa. He obeyed, and she walked, with more swagger and sensuality than pure grace, over towards the window where the light fell on her, and turned to face him. In that moment he realized she knew her own power to an exactness, and enjoyed it.
He leaned back, waiting for her to begin.
She was wearing a rose-colored crinoline gown, cut low I at the bosom, and against the lushly pink curtains she was strikingly dramatic to look at, and she smiled as she began her account.
"I cannot remember the order in which they arrived, but I recall their moods very clearly indeed." Her eyes never left his face, but even in the brilliance from the window he still could not see what color they were. "But I don't suppose times matter very much at that point, do they?" Her fine eyebrows rose.
"Not at all, Mrs. Furnival," he assured her.
"The Erskines were just as usual," she went on. "I suppose you know who they are? Yes, of course you do." She smoothed the fabric of her skirt almost unconsciously. "So was Fenton Pole, but Sabella was in quite a temper, and as soon as she was through the door she was rude to her father - oh! Which means he must already have been here, doesn't it?" She shrugged. "I think the last to arrive were Dr. and Mrs. Hargrave. Have you spoken to him?"
"No, you are the first."
She seemed about to comment on that, then changed her mind. Her glance wandered away and she stared into the distance as if visualizing hi her mind.
"Thaddeus - that is, the general - seemed as usual." A tiny smile flickered over her mouth, full of meaning and amusement. He noticed it, and thought it betrayed more of her than of the general or their relationship. "He was a very masculine man, very much the soldier. He had seen some very interesting action, you know?" This time she did look at Monk, her eyebrows high, her face full of vitality. "He spoke to me about it sometimes. We were friends, you know? Yes, I daresay you do. Alexandra was jealous, but she had no cause. I mean, it was not in the least improper." She hesitated for only an instant. She was far too sophisticated to wait for the obvious compliment, and he did not pay it, but it entered his mind. If General Carlyon had not entertained a few improper ideas about Louisa Furnival, then he was a very slow-blooded man indeed.
"But Alexandra seemed in something of an ill temper right from the beginning," she went on."She did not smile at all, except briefly as was required by civility, and she avoided speaking to Thaddeus altogether. To tell you the truth, Mr. Monk, it strained my abilities as a hostess to keep the occasion from becoming embarrassing for my other guests. A family quarrel is a very ugly thing to have to witness and makes people most uncomfortable. I gather this one must have been very bitter, because all evening Alexandra was holding hi an anger which no observant person could miss."
"But one-sided, you say?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"One-sided," he repeated. "According to you, the general was not angry with Mrs. Carlyon; he behaved as normal."
"Yes - that is true," she acknowledged with something like surprise. "Perhaps he had forbidden her something, or made a decision she did not like, and she was still smarting over it. But that is hardly reason to kill anyone, is it?"
"What would be reason to kill, Mrs. Furnival?"
She drew in her breath quickly, then shot him a bright, sharp smile.
"What unexpected things you say, Mr. Monk! I have no idea. I have never thought of killing anyone. That is not how I fight my battles."
He met her eyes without a flicker. "How do you fight them, Mrs. Furnival?"
This time the smile was wider. "Discreetly, Mr. Monk, and without forewarning people."
"And do you win?"
"Yes I do." Too late she wished to take it back. "Well, usually," she amended. "Of course if I did not, I should not. . ." She tailed off, realizing that to justify herself would be clumsy. He