a woman hold so dear that she would kill to protect it?"
Oliver stopped eating, his fork in the air.
"We haven't looked at it that way," he said, turning to her. "Hester?"
She thought, wishing to give the most careful and intelligent answer she could.
"Well, I suppose the thing that would make me most likely to act without thinking, even of the risk to myself, would be some threat to the people I loved most - which in Alexandra's case would surely be her children." She allowed herself a half smile. "Regrettably it was obviously not her husband. To me it would have been my parents and brothers, but all of them except Charles are dead anyway." She said it because it was high in her mind, not to seek sympathy, then immediately wished she had not. She went on before they could offer any."But let us say family - and in the case where there are children, I imagine one's home as well. There are some homes that go back for generations, even centuries. I would imagine one might care about them so extremely as to kill to preserve them, or to keep them from felling into the possession of others. But that does not apply here."
"Not according to Monk," Oliver agreed, watching with dark, intent eyes. "And anyway, the house is his, not hers - and not an ancestral home in any way. What else?"
Hester smiled wryly, very aware of him. "Well, if I were beautiful, I suppose my looks would also be precious to me. Is Alexandra beautiful?"
He thought for a moment, his face reflecting a curious mixture of humor and pain. "Not beautiful, strictly speaking. But she is most memorable, and perhaps that is better. She has a face of distinct character."
"So far you have only mentioned one thing which she might care about sufficiently," Henry Rathbone pointed out. "What about her reputation?"
"Oh yes," Hester agreed quickly. "If one's honor is sufficiently threatened, if one were to be accused of something wrongfully, that could make one lose one's temper and control and every bit of good sense. It is one of the things I hate above all else. That is a distinct possibility. Or the honor of someone I loved - that would cut equally deeply."
"Who threatened her honor?" Oliver asked with a frown. "We have heard nothing at all to suggest anyone did. And if it were so, why should she not tell us? Or could it have been someone else's honor? Who? Not his, surely?"
"Blackmail," Hester said immediately. "A person blackmailed would naturally not tell - or it would reveal the very subject she had killed to hide."
"By her husband?" Oliver said skeptically. "That would be robbing one pocket to pay the other."
"Not for money," she said quickly, leaning forward over the table. "Of course that would make no sense. For something else - perhaps simply power over her."
"But who would he tell, my dear Hester? Any scandal about her would reflect just as badly upon him. Usually if a woman has disgraced herself, it is the husband whom the blackmailer would tell."
"Oh." She saw the point of what he was saying and it made excellent sense. "Yes." She looked at his eyes, expecting criticism, and saw a gentleness and a humor that for an instant robbed her of her concentration. She was far too comfortable here with the two of them she liked so much. It would be so easy to wish to stay, to wish to belong. She recalled herself rapidly to the subject.
"It doesn't make sense as it is," she said quietly, lowering her eyes and looking away from him. "You said he was an excellent father, with the exception a couple of years ago of forcing Sabella to marry instead of taking the veil."
"Then if it doesn't make sense as it is," Henry said thoughtfully, "it means that either there is some element which you have not thought of, or else you are seeing something wrongly."
Hester looked at his mild, ascetic face and realized what intelligence there was in his eyes. It was the cleverest face she had seen that held absolutely nothing spiteful or ungenerous whatever. She found herself smiling, without any specific reason.
"Then we had better go back and look at it again," she resolved aloud. "I think perhaps it is the second of those two cases, and we are seeing something wrongly."
"Are you sure it is worth it?" Henry asked her gently. "Even if you do discover why