to listen. Kate heard voices, but the window was shut, muffling the words.
Damn, she mouthed.
Switching the knife to his other hand, Marco inched up the wall and carefully pushed the point between the wooden casement and the iron-framed glass. A deft flick eased it open a crack.
“… I don’t like complications, Lord Tappan.” The voice was raspy and heavily accented. Russian? German? Hungarian? Kate couldn’t tell. “Murder was not part of our original negotiations.”
“Oh, come, every diplomat knows it’s often necessary to improvise,” replied the baron.
Kate heard the clink of crystal and a splash of liquid.
“You are quite the cold-blooded bastard,” said the stranger.
“As are you,” countered Tappan, sounding unruffled. “Otherwise you would not have had any interest in the deal that I proposed to you.”
A harsh laugh rattled the glass. “Touché.”
Fisting her hands, Kate tried to squeeze away the icy prickling in her palms. The thought of Von Seilig lying lifeless in the morgue made her want to smash the panes into a thousand slivered shards.
Marco touched a boot to her knee and shook his head in warning. She blinked at him, feeling tears give way to righteous anger.
“But just out of curiosity, why was it necessary to kill the colonel?” continued the stranger. “Prussia’s objection to my country’s proposal would have been moot, once I used your little secret to eliminate the real opposition.”
“He was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time,” explained Tappan. “He came back to the conservatory in order to fix the broken door latch. Being the thorough Prussian that he was, he decided to make an inspection before locking up. I was well hidden, but he spotted the evidence of my digging. Given that his hobby was botany, I feared that he would realize what plant was missing and immediately report it to the duke.”
“It was clever of you to kill him with the granddaughter’s knife,” murmured the stranger. “How did you manage to have it with you?”
“I didn’t,” said Tappan smugly. “While Von Seilig was bending down to examine the soil, I crept up behind him and hit him with my hammer—just enough to stun him but not crack his skull. Pressure on the carotid artery finished the job without leaving any marks of a struggle.”
A wave of nausea washed over Kate as she listened to his dispassionate account of the crime. He might have been describing what he had for breakfast or his valet’s newest recipe for boot polish.
“Here is where the clever part comes into play,” continued Tappan. “I had noticed Miss Woodbridge’s knife in an herb basket beneath one of the potting benches. She must have forgotten it earlier in the day. Now, I make it my business to learn about the background of people who may be useful to me, and knowing I was going to be staying with the duke, I did some research on Miss Woodbridge and uncovered some very curious stories concerning the girl’s family. And so I realized it was a perfect way to deflect suspicion from the plant.”
Tappan paused, and Kate heard the scrape of a flint against steel. A moment later a plume of cigar smoke wafted out into the night. “Sticking the blade into Von Seilig’s ribs was an easy matter. As was covering up the gap in the soil by rearranging the surrounding specimens and sweeping up the telltale dirt. As an added measure to cast suspicion on Miss Woodbridge, I passed the stories on to Lady Duxbury—and she told her brother.”
“What role does Lady Duxbury have in this?” asked the stranger. “My spies tell me that she is your lover.”
If the announcement was meant to shake Tappan’s composure, it did not succeed. The baron merely laughed. “Correct. I made her my lover several weeks ago, figuring it would prove useful during the house party. It wasn’t hard to arrange. The slut will sleep with any man who unbuttons his trousers.” Tappan slowly expelled a mouthful of air with an audible whoosh, clearly savoring the taste of the pungent smoke and his own cunning.
“As for her role,” he went on, “she proved useful in gathering gossip and keeping an eye on the guests when I was searching the guest rooms for any embarrassing papers that I could use to extort hush money from the foreigners, nothing more. She likes playing games with people and finds it amusing to earn a bit of extra blunt from it. She has no idea that I have anything to do with Von Seilig’s