I know you did. You were in the yard, and I all but rode you down.”
“You pretended to ride off in a temper so you could circle back and kill me.”
“Silently circle back? My saddle has enough metal to ensure anyone walking in the moors hears me coming.”
I begin making my way downstairs, step by step.
Keep her calm, William. Please.
“I-I do not know how you came back silently,” she says, “but you managed it. You returned and struck me over the head.”
“That was Harold. When I came home hours later, you were gone, and he was returning in the coach. He said he had taken you to the rail station, and I believed him.”
“Why would that old man kill me?” she says. “I was his mistress, and I did not ill-treat him.”
“He saw you take the rat poison. He must have heard me accuse you of trying to poison August, and he decided I was wrong to send you into the world where you could hurt others.”
Was that Harold’s motive? Perhaps partly. But I think it was more about protecting William. Cordelia would never have left her brother. She still hasn’t. She will forever try to come between him and anyone he cares for.
I will not say that. William has extended a kindness Cordelia doesn’t deserve, and I understand why. What good does it do to rage? There is no punishment he can inflict on her. William only wants her gone. Gone from this place. Gone from our lives. If kindness will achieve that, then I’ll swallow my gall and let her have this small mercy.
I take another two silent steps.
“You did not kill me?” Cordelia says.
“I could not, no matter what you had done.”
A sigh and a rustle of fabric, then sobbing, as if she’s collapsed against him.
“You can be at peace now, Cordie. That’s what I want. For you to be at peace.”
“I will be,” she says. “We will be. Together.”
A ragged, choking breath.
William. Gasping. Choking.
My feet tangle as I race down the steps, shouting, “Cordelia Thorne, I name you as the killer of Theodore Wakefield and Elizabeth Stanbury.”
A thud from the other room, and I imagine William falling to the floor, getting his breath, as Cordelia disappears. Then another thump. A crash, and I realize that’s not what I’m hearing at all. It’s William, fighting for his life as his sister tries to kill him.
I run faster. “Cordelia Thorne! I name you as the killer of Theodore Wakefield! Cordelia Thorne! I name you as the killer of Elizabeth Stanbury!” The words come out in a rush as I tear through the parlor.
I fly into the kitchen, and that’s where I find them. Cordelia holds William’s face between her hands. Her body shimmers and glows, that glow snaking around William as he gasps, his eyes bulging.
I launch myself at them. I grab at Cordelia, but it’s like seizing air, and my fingers pass right through to William. His hand slams into me as he fights to breathe, and I reel back as that glow pulses between them.
She’s drawing his breath from him. Draining his life.
I grab to pull William away, but whatever she’s doing, it has him as immovable as if he’s been cast in cement.
“Cordelia Thorne! I name you as the killer of Theodore Wakefield and Elizabeth Stanbury and, my uncle, Stanley Dale!”
Cordelia staggers back, that glow fading, William catching a mouthful of air, like a swimmer surfacing.
“Cordelia Thorne,” I step between them. “I name you as the killer of Theodore Wakefield and Elizabeth Stanbury and Stanley Dale.”
She spins on her brother. “William . . .” she says, her voice breathy.
“I know what you’ve done, Cordelia,” he says. “When I sent you away, I wanted you gone from my life. I was a coward. I knew you were a danger to others, and I allowed you to live because I could not bring myself to turn you in to the authorities. I certainly couldn’t do what Harold did. I said that I regretted you leaving. I meant that I regretted allowing you to leave.”
“No . . .” she whispers.
“I knew what you were, and I knew what you’d done, and I let you go because I still loved you. I regret that.”
“No . . .”
“I finally understand what you wanted. You had a fantasy of us growing old together. An endless childhood. Your brother looking after you forever, the two of us in this house, all my attention for you in a way it never was when