to remember her by? I doubt they’d be worth anything to anyone else.”
Mrs. Thorpe gripped the pouch greedily, a smile on her face. “I should be happy for you two to have those things what belonged to Miss Macintosh.”
Dot felt the pockets of the dead woman’s garments but found nothing. Appleton looked under the bed and under the mattress to the same result. There were no rugs on the floor or pictures on the wall under which something could have been hidden. There was nowhere else in the chamber where Ellie could have hidden anything.
He couldn’t help but wonder how in the devil Ellie had been able to get her hands on so much money. For one of her station, fifty guineas was a fortune. Even for a woman like Mrs. Thorpe, who owned a well-situated house, it was a lot of money.
As they made their way downstairs, he casually asked, “Do you know, Mrs. Thorpe, one of the seamstresses at Miss Pankhurst’s dressmaker’s was inquiring about lodgings. Do you object to telling us what a situation like Miss Macintosh’s would cost? We’d like to tell her about your house since she needs a respectable place to live.”
“Seven pounds a month with meals furnished.”
“And I’m certain the food here must be very good,” Dot said.
* * *
As soon as they were in the carriage, he thought aloud. “How in the devil did Ellie get her hands on that much money?”
“I don’t know if we’ll ever know, but it must have something to do with her death.”
He eyed Dot, thankful that if he had to spend the rest of his life with her, he wasn’t going to be tied down to a woman in want of brains. “Then you don’t think her murder was random?”
“It’s possible there’s a maniac running about Bath intent on killing young women, but now that we’ve seen the hoard of money she hid away I’m highly suspicious her murderer was someone she knew.”
“I am, too.” He’d instructed the coachman to take them to Camden Crescent where he and Dot could peruse Ellie’s papers in private. He only hoped Annie didn’t come barging in. For some peculiar reason, he did not want his sister to know what he and Dot were investigating—peculiar because he and Annie had always shared everything.
It wasn’t that Dot was usurping his sister. It was more that he felt he was already jeopardizing one woman he cared about. He did not want to put Annie in danger too.
After all, a homicidal sex maniac might be on the prowl in their city.
Dot shook Ellie’s Bible. A slip of paper fell from it. Their eyes met, and then she picked it up and read it, her brows forming a deep V.
“What’s it say?”
“Nothing. It’s your name.”
“Let me see.” On a small sheet of torn paper, written in a feminine hand, were the words Lord Appleton. He looked up at her. “I wish to God I knew what that means.”
“Were you being honest with me?” She drilled him with those almost-black eyes.
He gave her a puzzled look. “About not seeing Ellie away from Mrs. Starr’s?”
Dot nodded.
“I told you the truth. I can’t think why she would have written my name.”
“Perhaps she fancied you.” Dot smiled. “You are most dashing.”
He returned her smile. “Thank you, my love, but I assure you Miss Macintosh never favored me in any way. In fact, it was at her hands, whilst she was dealing, that I had the most lamentable night of my life.”
“Oh, dear, I am sorry for that.”
“That night cured me of a lifelong habit of gambling.”
“Many men swear off gambling, only to weaken.”
He stiffened. Their eyes locked. He could only barely control his anger. “I have never in my life gone back on my word.”
“It’s gratifying to know you’re a man of your word.” Her voice then softened. “I’m sorry if I sounded as if I don’t trust you, but remember we haven’t known each other very long.”
He nodded solemnly.
When they reached Appleton House, they quietly made their way to his library, closed the door, and sat beside one another at the writing table to look over Ellie’s papers.
The first piece of correspondence they read was a letter dated nearly four years earlier. Ellie would have been around sixteen. After reading a few paragraphs, Appleton realized it had been written by Ellie’s cruel stepmother shortly after Ellie’s father died.
The woman said now that Ellie was a woman she was expected to make her own way in the world,