Any Other Name (The Split Worlds) - By Emma Newman Page 0,126
“Guard the door,” he said to his men and then closed it.
“He was very tense… as if he were preoccupied. I asked him what was wrong but he wouldn’t tell me. He told me to go to my room and stay there.”
Will felt nauseous. Surely Cornelius couldn’t be involved? “Then what happened?”
“A couple of hours went by so I asked the maid what he was doing and she said he was writing letters and throwing them on the fire. I told her to tell me if he did anything else, and later she came to me saying he’d sent out the footman with a note. Cornelius didn’t come up to take tea with me as he usually does. I heard the door about an hour ago and the maid told me a man had arrived and asked for Cornelius. He was taken to his study straightaway. I asked her who it was and she said he didn’t have a calling card but Cornelius was expecting him.”
She paused, biting her lip. “Go on,” Will said.
“With everything that’s happened, and the way he was acting, I was worried so I came downstairs. I thought I’d knock on his door and pretend I didn’t know he had a guest, so I could see who it was. But when I came down I could hear Cornelius shouting. He never shouts. I heard the other man too, he said something about Tulipa, then there was a… I don’t know… a scuffle and then a thud and it went quiet.”
Will could feel her shivering beneath his hands. “Then what happened?”
“I knocked on the door and Cornelius told me to go away. Just like that, ‘Go away’, very harshly. Then I heard him weeping. I haven’t been able to get into the room, it’s locked from the inside. The butler said he was told not to disturb them. Cornelius won’t come out.” She broke down. “I didn’t know what to do so I wrote to you. Do you think I’m being silly?”
“No.”
“You’re angry with me.”
“No, I’m not. You did the right thing. Stay in here and don’t worry. I’ll make sure he’s all right.”
The thought of Cathy in hospital flashed through his mind as he kissed Amelia. He went out, checked she was remaining behind and then shut the door. “Come with me,” he said to his men and headed for Cornelius’s study.
“Cornelius?” he called as he knocked. “Is everything all right?” There was a long pause. Will tried the handle but the door was locked. He knocked again. “Cornelius?”
He pressed his ear to the door but couldn’t hear anything. He beckoned to the butler, who’d been lingering in the hallway since he’d arrived. “Do you have a spare key?”
“Yes, sir, I’ll get it for you.”
Two minutes later Will was turning the key in the lock, his other hand on the sword cane. He opened the door slowly. “Cornelius? It’s Will, I’m coming inside.”
He peered around the door. The body was the first thing he saw, sprawled on the rug in front of the fire. It was a man, dressed in a grey coat with half-cape, just as Cathy had described.
It took him a moment to locate Cornelius. He was sitting in a corner wedged between two bookcases with knees drawn up, staring at the body. A glass paperweight was lying on the floor between his feet, smeared with blood. He was as white as a fine china cup and there were spots of blood on his cheek.
“Wait outside,” Will told his footmen, then went in and closed the door behind him. “Cornelius?”
“I killed him,” Cornelius whispered.
Will stepped carefully over the body and moved round to look at his face, which had been obscured by the desk. He was lying on his back, his eyes open. His hair was long and brown, tied back in a ponytail, and Will could see a heavily embroidered waistcoat beneath the partially unbuttoned coat. As he got closer, he could see the blood pooled on the rug and the depression in the man’s skull, presumably made by the leaded glass ball.
“Who is he?”
“My cousin,” Cornelius finally answered.
“A Rosa?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?” Will stooped to close the man’s eyelids. He’d never seen a dead body before nor touched one.
“He was the one who stabbed Catherine.”
“How do you know that?”
“He told me.”
Will pulled the one chair in the room closer to Cornelius and sat down. “Did someone take him in to protect him from the Agency?”