A Spear of Summer Grass - By Deanna Raybourn Page 0,138
each other. You just don’t matter enough for me to bother with.”
Oddly, I believed her. “Then why the push to get rid of me? Was it Kit? Did you resent the fact that he preferred me?”
She lifted a hand and studied her nails with lazy interest. “Did he? I always thought Kit was like a tomcat—only interested in what was right under his nose at any given moment.”
“You’re probably right. So what was it? What turned you against me? What made you so eager to frame me for Kit’s murder?”
Her hand stilled. “Do you know or is that a shot in the dark?”
“Oh, definitely a shot in the dark. Most of this is. But I had a lot of time to think it over in prison and I believe I’m right. You decided Kit had to die and you were happy for me to swing for it. And now you’d like me to leave Africa because I’m the one person who knows you killed Kit. I’d just like to know why.”
The laughter pealed again. “So many shots and so few of them true! Where shall I begin, pet? You and I both had our fun with Kit. Oh, it stung when he first started seeing you, I admit. He didn’t have as much time for me, and I didn’t like that. But it wasn’t long before I realised Kit wasn’t going anywhere. He liked variety too much, and that’s my specialty,” she said, stretching her legs out in front of her. “He was a lovely boy, don’t you think? But venal, with a very small heart, always grasping at what didn’t belong to him.”
“Is that why you gave him presents?”
She lifted one foot, balancing the heel carefully on the toes of her other foot. “I didn’t give those to him. Rex did.”
“Why on earth—”
She flapped a hand at me. “Can’t you guess? Blackmail! Kit discovered that Rex had been stockpiling weapons at a little fishing cabin he keeps up at one of the lakes. He threatened to go to the authorities with what he’d seen if Rex didn’t come across with some money. Rex gave him what cash he could lay his hands on, but Kit wasn’t terribly particular. He was just as happy with the wristwatch and the gramophone.”
“But most of the settlers are stockpiling weapons. Why would the government care if Rex is?”
She gave me a narrow smile. “Because most of the settlers aren’t contemplating kidnapping the Duke and Duchess of York to make their point.”
“You’re joking.”
“Not a bit of it. Rex had thought of abducting the governor, but as soon as he heard about the proposed royal visit, he realised how much better this would be! So much publicity for the cause of independence.”
“It’s madness.”
She shrugged. “Well, of course it is. But you know men and politics. Listen, I’ve been married for the better part of two decades. I know exactly how to manage Rex. All I had to do was go along with his idea and tell him how brilliant it was, and somehow in the year between now and the Yorks’ visit, I would have figured out a way to change his mind.”
“But then Kit happened.”
Her mouth turned grim. “Kit happened. He began making demands on Rex and Rex panicked. Believe it or not, Rex isn’t half as strong as he pretends to be. He relies on me—more than anyone ever realises. We are each other’s support, and he needs me.”
I wasn’t sure if she was trying to convince me or herself, but it made an odd sort of sense. Most men wouldn’t have tolerated Helen’s blatant catting around. Rex almost seemed to take a strange sort of pride in it.
“So Kit threatened to expose him and demanded money,” I prompted.
“And truth be told, there isn’t much, not after building the house and furnishing it and importing all of Rex’s breeding stock. Besides, I knew Kit. He wouldn’t stop until he’d bled us dry. He had to be taken care of.”
It was a sinister phrase, gentle and nonspecific, but lethal.
“You decided together to take care of the problem?”
“No, the idea was mine. The best ideas always are,” she added with a ghost of a smile. “All Rex had to do was pull the trigger and leave the rest to me. I knew Kit slept heavily after an afternoon in bed. We just needed to wait until the two of you had been together and then seize the moment.”