murder?”
“You’d be a fool not to. I’m the third of three wives, all of whom are living. I might be pretending my shock at that discovery. My husband’s lies and the ramifications of them coming out would certainly give me a motive.”
Owen nodded slowly. “An impressive analysis of the situation. But I needn’t take down notes about you because I know you didn’t do the crime.”
“You know?” she asked. “How’s that?”
“Your alibi,” he said, motioning her toward the chairs before the fire. They sat, though he couldn’t say the lumpy seat was comfortable. “I spoke to Mr. Greenley, and your landlord did verify that you were in a meeting with him on the day in question. You couldn’t have reached London, a day-long journey on the best roads, in time.”
She seemed to ponder that for a moment. “What if I had an accomplice?” she asked. “Or paid someone to poison Montgomery?”
He almost laughed at how hard she was working to convince him she was a murderer. “You really do think of everything.”
“I try,” she admitted. “I don’t want there to be a question later, you see.”
“Well, I think of everything too,” he said. “I don’t wish to offend, but I doubt you have the funds to pay an accomplice to kill in your stead.”
Her lips thinned. “My current surroundings give me away, do they?”
“Unfortunately, yes. And I know this is not a recent development because Mr. Greenley complained incessantly about how your rent had been late over and over during the last nine months.”
“Dastardly man,” she grumbled, and the flush of her cheeks made Owen wonder if Greenley had offered her alternative methods to keep a roof over her head, much to her disgust. To his, as well.
“If you could not pay for the murder and you couldn’t get to London yourself,” he continued, slower this time. More gingerly, for what he was about to say might earn him a slap. “Then that would only leave one alternative. Someone you cared for would have had to commit the crime. I know your parents had supper with you that night.”
“They don’t care enough about me to kill for my honor,” she muttered, her tone brittle and bitter.
“Then it would only leave a lover,” he said. She jerked her gaze to his and the room seemed to get a little smaller as they stared at each other. “Are you the sort of woman who would take a lover, Celeste?”
Her shoulders straightened. “I did not have a lover, no. But I think, after a year of neglect and cruelty, that I would have been in my rights to take one.” She arched a brow when he was quiet. “Have I shocked you, Owen? Have I reduced myself in your esteem?”
He narrowed his gaze. “Not at all. I happen to agree that based on all the circumstances, no one could fault you for finding…pleasure for yourself.”
He shifted because this conversation was making his blood pump decidedly southward and he needed to get that under control before he shocked and horrified the woman. She’d suffered enough in the last few hours. Few months, if what was coming to light was accurate.
“No lover, no money, no way to get to London…it eliminates you from suspicion unless I uncover some other evidence to the contrary.”
There was a flutter of a smile that passed her lips. “I’m glad of it.” Her shoulders rolled forward. “I honestly have no idea what to think, Owen. Since I left my parents’ home, I have been unable to consider anything but Erasmus’s murder and this news of his other wives. But it is like it’s being told to me in a language I don’t fully understand. I can’t…I can’t fathom it.”
He nodded. “I don’t pretend to understand what your position is. The shock of all this isn’t something I will ever diminish. But you asked me a moment ago if I had questions, and perhaps your answers will also allow me to give you more of the same.” He leaned closer. “Can you tell me something of your marriage to Montgomery?”
She turned her head as if he had physically slapped her, and those blue eyes flashed. “Have you not mined the depths of my humiliation enough? Is there no bottom to this pit?”
He reached for her before he thought it through and caught her hand. For a moment they both stared at their intertwined fingers, and then he released her.
“Forgive me,” he said, pushing to his feet and stepping away from her