down on the table. When she returned, she stood close to Rafe, and he put his arm around her gently.
“Never mind our sister,” Rafe said. “This isn’t a day for our revelations but for yours. Why did you take us away from Stonehaven and give us to Edgar?”
“You won’t like it,” Pauline said, sniffing. “Your uncle hated your father. He wanted everything your father had, so he took what he could. He paid Edgar to start the fire, and we were to ensure that you”—she looked pointedly at Rafe—“and your father died.”
A blinding rage took hold of Rafe. He gripped Selina harder than he should as the world around him went red.
“He didn’t die, however,” Selina said from somewhere that sounded quite far away. “But our father did.”
“He’d been given laudanum so that he wouldn’t be able to escape. Your mother refused to leave him. Her maid told me to take the two of you to safety. But I was supposed to make sure you were trapped.” She looked from Rafe to Selina. “I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t leave you in the fire. So I took you and ran.”
“You left our parents to die?” Selina’s voice was closer now, but so small. The question pierced Rafe’s heart. This woman and her brother had taken everything from them.
“You did this for money?” he asked, his vision clearing while a dull throb started at the back of his head.
“More money than I could ever make in a lifetime as a nurse.”
He curled his lip. “Yet you’re dying in the back room of your sister’s husband’s inn.”
She turned her gaze to the wall. “I have made many poor choices.”
“What did you do after you ran away?” Selina asked.
“I was afraid of your uncle, that he’d catch me. Edgar wanted to take you, so I let him. I knew he was going to London. I went there too, but I didn’t stay long. I lost all my money and came here, where I married.”
Selina practically growled in frustration. “Your life sounds rather normal.”
Rafe repeated everything Pauline had said in his mind. Now, he summarized it out loud. “I want to make sure I understand: my uncle, Ludlow Mallory, arranged to murder my father and me. You know this for a fact?”
Pauline looked him in the eye. “Yes. He asked Edgar to start the fire and later spoke directly with me and Edgar to discuss the details. He visited Stonehaven about a week before the fire to make the final arrangements.”
“And you never once thought to alert our father or the authorities? You had no hesitation about killing a man and his five-year-old son?” Selina’s voice was rough with anger and despair.
“I did.” Pauline closed her eyes briefly and pushed her head back into the pillow. “But I was young and foolish.”
“Greedy,” Selina said tightly, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Fortunately for you, there is still time to do something right,” Rafe said.
“What’s that?” Pauline’s lids drooped as she looked up at them.
“You’ll provide testimony to a clerk in the event that you don’t live long enough to testify at the trial.”
She shook her head so hard that she started coughing once more. Rafe glanced at Selina, but she continued to stare malevolently at the woman in the bed.
He went and picked up the glass of water, then waited for her coughing to subside before helping her to take a few sips.
“I can’t do that,” Pauline croaked.
Selina violently uncrossed her arms, elbowing Rafe in the process. “Why not? You can’t be afraid for your life. It’s nearly at an end.”
“No, but I won’t cause trouble for my sister and her husband. They’ve been good to me. Lord knows I don’t deserve it. But they don’t deserve the taint of being associated with someone like me and what I’ve done.”
Rafe clenched his hands into fists as fury tightened every one of his muscles. “So you’ll let a murderer go unpunished. You were party to the deaths of our parents and the servants who also died in that fire. And you allowed my sister and me to be forever changed.” Damaged.
“You’re a monster,” Selina whispered.
Pauline had the gall to raise her chin and give them a clear-eyed stare. “I could have lied to you, but I told you the truth. I will go to my grave with a clearer conscience at least. You can either look backward or you can look to your future. It looks rather wonderful, doesn’t it?”
Rafe snorted. “That was precisely the fucking