Murder on Charles Street - Leighann Dobbs Page 0,46
the back. Before he sees you!”
Wayland hesitated. If anything, he seemed ready to argue. Katherine bit her tongue, fear choking her. Her father’s good opinion meant everything to her. He had raised her ever since she was small and her mother had died. He had taught her everything she knew about detective work. And how had she repaid him? By becoming increasingly more friendly with his rival.
The knock echoed ominously through the house. Harriet, uncertain, backed away. “I’ll get that.”
“Please, Wayland. Go out the back.”
His expression shuttered. If anything, Katherine thought for a moment that she had wounded him with the request. But despite what she had told Mrs. Campbell, they weren’t friends. Not in the same way she was friends with Lyle, Pru, or even Lord Annandale. No, Katherine’s association with Wayland was far more… complicated. And it wasn’t something she could explain to her father. Not now.
Her pleading must have shone in her eyes, because Wayland laid the cheesecloth-covered ice over her ankle and fled without another word.
It wasn’t a moment too soon.
Chapter Fourteen
Katherine shifted her weight, trying for a more comfortable position before her parents descended upon her. She hated to lie to her parents, but she didn’t have a choice. Susanna, her stepmother, might understand her association with a fellow detective, but Papa never would. Why are they visiting now, of all times?
Susanna, round with child and bigger than Katherine expected, given her figure a month ago when Katherine had left Dorchester House, stepped into the room and gasped. She turned several shades paler despite the yellow glow of the fire, a fact made more evident by the black curls framing her cheeks.
The Earl of Dorchester, still dressed in his greatcoat, stepped forward and clasped Susanna’s arm. “What is it, my dear?”
Susanna pulled her arm free of her husband and rushed over. “Katherine, what have you done to your leg?”
Katherine grimaced. She would have pulled it aside, hidden the injury, if the heavy cheesecloth stuffed with ice had not weighed it down. The pain had ebbed marginally with the cold.
As Harriet hovered around Papa, collecting his greatcoat, he frowned. His keen blue-gray eyes surveyed the scene, shrewdly picking out the details. He was, after all, a detective.
Katherine held her breath. Could he sense that someone had been here?
The faintest of noises deeper in the house drew Emma down the corridor in a mad scramble of claws on wood. Pensive, Papa looked after her. “What was that? Did someone go out the back door?”
Harriet curtsied, turning her face away as she mumbled, “I must have left one of the shutters open, my lord. Let me attend to it.”
She disappeared before Katherine’s father could say another word. As he turned his gaze onto her, she almost spilled her every secret. She pressed her lips together instead.
Thankfully, Susanna seemed not to pay a whit of attention to the sound that had drawn Papa’s curiosity. She lowered herself onto the table next to Katherine’s ankle. The wood groaned but held. Despite the fact that it wasn’t meant as a seat, it was a sturdy table.
Susanna brushed her fingers along Katherine’s ankle, the sensation more tender than usual. Katherine hissed.
Papa turned to her, a brooding look on his face. “What have you done to yourself?”
“I slipped on a patch of ice and fell. It happened only ten minutes ago. I’m certain I will heal before too long.”
Rather than take the armchair, Papa loomed over Katherine and his wife. He examined her ankle. “What is it you have on your leg?”
“More ice,” Katherine mumbled. “Harriet wrapped some in cheesecloth.”
“Ah.” Papa nodded and straightened. “Should I send for the physician?”
The nearest physician would have been only two doors down, if not for the horrible tragedy. Katherine swallowed hard. “There’s no need, I’m sure. It’s just a twist.”
He nodded sagely. “I can see that. But my dear, why did you slip? It isn’t like you to be so clumsy, and we haven’t had rain or sleet in days, nor has it thawed to create the ice.”
Katherine bit the inside of her cheek. Not everything was a mystery. “It’s winter, Papa. The ice must have been there already.”
Susanna plucked at the ice on Katherine’s ankle, slipping two fingers underneath to feel along her skin. “How long have you left the ice here?”
“Only a few moments.”
“Maybe it is time for a bandage. Your skin is cold, and I don’t want you to freeze your foot.” Katherine didn’t protest as Susanna gingerly removed the ice and probed