Dominic affected surprise. “Then why haven’t you? All I have observed you doing so far is retreating into your room to study books.”
“Great truths are to be found in books,” Mallory replied loftily.
“Of course they are. And precious little good they do if that’s where they remain,” Dominic responded. “Your family needs your comfort, your reassurance and loyalty, not quotations out of books, however wise or true.”
“Reassurance?” Mallory’s voice rose sharply. “Of what? What can I reassure them about?” His mouth twisted in a smile that failed. “That Father did not kill Unity? I don’t know that. I wish to God I did. But someone killed her, and it wasn’t me. I assume it was you … I certainly want to think it was you!” Suddenly there was real terror in his voice. “She followed you around often enough, always arguing with you, mocking you, making intrusive, cruel little remarks.” He nodded. “I caught her eye more than once when she was looking at you. She knew something about you, and she was letting you understand that. I don’t know anything about you before you came here, but she did.”
Dominic felt the blood drain from his face, and he knew Mallory saw it. The victory was bright in the younger man’s eyes.
“It is you who should be afraid of Pitt,” Mallory said triumphantly. “If he is anything like as clever as you suggest, whatever it is Unity knew, he’ll dig it up.”
“You look as if you would like that, Mal.” Clarice’s voice cut across them from the stairs, below and behind them both. Neither of them had heard her come up, even though the wood was uncarpeted. “Isn’t that rather unchristian of you?” She opened her eyes wide as if the question were innocent.
Mallory colored, but it was temper more than shame.
“I suppose you would like it to be me?” he continued, his voice brittle. “That would suit you nicely, wouldn’t it? Not your beloved father you are so quick to protect all the time, and not the curate he created out of God knows what. Only your brother. Does that fit in with whatever your morality is?”
“It is not you believing it is Dominic I object to,” she replied quite calmly. “That may be honest, I don’t know. It is your pleasure in it, your sense of some kind of victory that you still find him entangled in darkness and tragedy. I had not realized you hated him so much.”
“I—I don’t hate him!” Mallory protested, but now he was defending himself, backed into a corner. “That’s a terrible thing to say … wrong—and … quite untrue.”
“No, it isn’t,” she said, coming up to the top step and onto the landing. “If you could have seen your own face as you spoke just now, you wouldn’t bother denying it. You are so afraid for yourself, you’ll blame everyone, and this is a wonderful chance to get back at Dominic because Unity found him so attractive, more attractive than you.”
Mallory laughed. It was an ugly, jerky sound, and there was no real amusement in it, only a tearing kind of humor at something that hurt, and that he could not share.
“You are stupid, Clarice!” he accused her. “You think you are so clever, but in reality you have always been stupid. You think you stand back and watch, and see everything. And you see nothing. You’re blind to Dominic’s real nature.” His voice was rising and getting louder. “Have you ever asked him where he was before he came here? Have you asked about his wife or why he chose to join the church now, at forty-five, and not in the beginning? Haven’t you ever wondered?”
Her face was grim and pale, but she did not look away from him. “I don’t take the same pleasure in unearthing people’s past weaknesses and grief as you do,” she answered unflinchingly. “I never even thought about it.” It was a lie. Dominic could see that in her eyes, and that she was hurt by it. He had not realized before that she was vulnerable. It had never occurred to him that, under the wild humor and the family loyalties, there was a woman capable of such feeling.
“I don’t believe you,” Mallory said flatly. “You are so desperate to have it be anyone but Father, you must have thought of Dominic.”
“I’ve thought of everyone,” she agreed very quietly. “But mostly I’ve thought about how we are going to cope with it when we do know.