The Countess Page 0,88

hesitated. "Not completely, but the breaks on three spokes side by side were almost straight across while the others were jagged and splintered."

"George's poisoner?" she asked unhappily.

"That would be my guess," he acknowledged.

"What? George was poisoned?" Suzette asked at once, and Richard glanced over to see that Daniel had drawn the young woman onto his own lap to make room on their side of the carriage. Suzette was sitting, arms crossed and expression grim like her sister, apparently not real y happy to be there either.

"It seems George may have been poisoned," Christiana explained. "Daniel and Richard smel ed bitter almonds by his mouth."

"Almonds aren't poisonous," Suzette said at once.

"Bitter almonds are used to make cyanide," Lisa explained solemnly, drawing every eye her way. Shrugging, she said, "I read a lot."

"She does," Suzette said dryly and then turned to Christiana. "What else don't we know?"

"You know everything I know now," she assured her. "And I only found out about the poison after the wedding. I just hadn't yet had a chance to tel you."

Suzette nodded and then turned to spear Daniel with a look. "What else?"

"That's it," he assured her.

"And why didn't you tel me yourself before this?" Suzette asked.

"It wasn't my secret to tel ," he said simply.

"Where have I heard that before?" she asked dryly, turning back to face forward again, apparently not appeased.

"So we have a murderer as wel as a blackmailer," Lisa murmured thoughtful y.

"Or do we think they are the same person?"

Richard and Daniel exchanged glances.

"They don't know," Suzette said for them when neither man spoke.

"Wel . . ." Lisa frowned. "Surely it wouldn't be easy for someone to get poison inside the townhouse without being discovered?"

Richard almost piped up to say that they had got George out without discovery, but then realized that wasn't true. Daniel had been caught in Suzette's room by Suzette, and he would have been caught there too had he not thrust the body at the man and rushed out to lead the women downstairs. He hardly could have done that were he a stranger to the house. Had he been a stranger, they both would have been caught in Suzette's room. Perhaps it wouldn't have been easy for an outsider to get the poison in undiscovered.

"So it is probably someone in the townhouse who did it," Christiana fol owed her reasoning.

"Someone could have paid one of the servants to do it," Suzette suggested.

There was silence as everyone contemplated that. It seemed the most likely scenario, but no one was eager to embrace it. Members of the ton depended on the steadfast loyalty of their servants. Without it the number of scandals made public would probably treble. Of course, it happened on occasion that a servant wasn't as loyal as one would hope, but it was never something anyone wished to consider.

"I shal have to question the servants when we arrive back in London," Richard said with a sigh, acknowledging that a betrayal by one of the staff was most likely what had happened.

"That leaves the blackmailer . . . if it isn't the same person who paid someone on staff to administer the poison," Lisa said.

"It is someone who knew what George did last year and that he took Richard's place," Christiana said, her expression thoughtful. "There can't be many who know that. I hardly think he would trust that information to many people."

"No," Richard agreed, and asked, "Who among his friends do you think he would have trusted with the information?"

Christiana snorted at the question. "You are asking me? I daresay you would know that better than I. I haven't even an idea who his friends were. No one ever came to cal , and he certainly didn't deign to tel me where he was going or with whom when he went out."

"Do you have any idea, Daniel?" Richard asked, glancing to his friend.

He shook his head. "I have been stuck at Woodrow since Uncle Henry died last year, trying to bring the estate back up to scratch. I only left because I received your letter from America. I didn't even know you - or George pretending to be you - had married. I have no idea what he's been up to this last year or with whom."

"It shouldn't be too difficult to find out," Robert put in. "There's nothing the ton loves more than a good gossip. A question here or there should tel us who George considered a trusted friend."

"So we need to question the staff,