horse was grazing a few yards away and Jupiter’s lack of concern convinced him as surely as anything that he was safe.
What had happened? Obviously Crenshaw had fallen from the banqueting platform. He walked to the steps and was debating going up when he heard a horse, or was it two, coming toward him. Jess. He hoped it was Jess. Come to think of it, where had he been? As Belmont and Michael Garrett rode into sight, Destry took another look at the stairs and wondered where Jess had spent the last hour.
TIME PASSED IN a haze for Cecilia. She did everything she could to be helpful, refusing to allow herself to be unwell or to cry. All the while she tried to balance the truth with what she wished was the truth.
She expected to see Crenshaw come walking up the path to the finish line where she waited with the others and was shocked to the point of nausea when he went by in the back of a wagon, inelegantly posed on a pile of burlap. According to the land steward, Destry was in charge at the scene with Mr. Garrett and Lord Belmont assisting him.
Cecilia had decided that the most she could do to help now would be to stay out of the way. She was sitting on the ground against the base of a tree waiting, feeling stupidly female. Tears filled her eyes and she remembered why she’d experienced a moment of déjà vu when she had first seen Crenshaw.
Nora Kendrick came to sit next to her, patting her hand, a gesture for which Cecilia would be eternally grateful.
“I have seen someone dead with a broken neck before,” Cecilia tried to explain, her eyes closing as she spoke. “Our brother. He died after falling from a horse.”
“My dear, that would be upsetting.” Nora continued to pat her hand. “However were you able to handle yourself so well today?”
“I did what had to be done.” Cecilia opened her eyes. “A hysterical woman would have been no help at all. But I must admit that now I am feeling less than capable.”
“It happens that way sometimes. We are fine in the emergency and then are overwhelmed by the shock. Just stay here and soon someone will bring a conveyance for you.”
“What is happening? Do you know anything?”
“I can go and see, if you do not mind being alone.”
“I will be fine alone, and would rather know than sit here and wonder.” And surely Beatrice would be along shortly.
With a final pat, Nora Kendrick stood and headed down the path to the scene of Lord Crenshaw’s accident. That’s what it was. An accident. Cecilia was sure of it now that she’d had some time to think about what had happened. Gentlemen were not murdered at country house parties. He’d had too much to drink and had fallen off the platform. She did not try to answer the question as to why he had been up there in the first place.
With that explanation in place she concentrated on the other event that had taken her by surprise.
William had said, “I love you.” That was part of the reason she was upset. How could it be true? How could he know so soon?
He was too impulsive. Even the countess had warned her of that. Beatrice would sometimes act without much forethought and it was almost always amusing, but Cecilia did not feel the same about Destry’s spontaneous declaration.
Might he decide he did not love her with equal impulse?
After they were married?
Nora Kendrick came back before Cecilia thought herself into a bout of crying.
“The countess is still out on the property somewhere with your father. The land steward has sent for the coroner.”
“But why the coroner?”
“The coroner will determine whether or not it was an accident.”
“Lord Belmont could do that, could he not?”
“Yes, but Destry says there should be an official investigation.” Nora shrugged. “I have no idea why. It was clearly an accident.”
“Do you think so, too?” Cecilia wanted it to be an accident quite desperately. The alternative was too terrible to contemplate.
“Who would want him dead?” she asked, as if that were answer enough.
Lord Jess, Cecilia thought, but kept the horrible thought to herself. Nora Kendrick did not know the truth behind Crenshaw’s divorce, nor had she heard Jess’s threat the other night. The one Beatrice had told her about.
The wind gusted through the trees and Cecilia felt a rush of cooler air.