his words, he didn’t sound very certain of that. “But Nell loves her children. And Helmswick would not be above taking them from her. Not that he has any use for them. From what I can tell, he spends as little time with his children as possible. But he knows how much such an action would hurt Nell.”
I pressed a hand to the child growing inside me beneath the cover of my cloak, horrified at the possibility. To have one’s children stripped away seemed unspeakably cruel. Far worse than the scandal of a trial or divorce proceedings flaunting one’s unfaithfulness. Simply the thought of it made me sick, and bitter, knowing no man need fear such a thing.
“Then if Marsdale truly cares for her . . .” I didn’t need to finish my sentence, for I could read in Lord Henry’s eyes that he intimately understood the marquess’s dilemma.
The sound of voices alerted us to the return of the others, and he lowered his own to answer as he offered me his arm once again. “Well, then, who knows what he might have been willing to do? What any of us might have been willing to do . . .” he amended, his gaze meeting mine. “To save her that heartache.”
“You mean you and your brothers?” I whispered.
I followed his gaze toward where Trevor stood speaking with Lord John.
“Think on it this way—what would St. Mawr do to spare you?”
It was not an idle question. At least, not in my case. For although my brother had not known about my late husband’s ill treatment of me at first, he had eventually come to suspect it. Upon Sir Anthony’s death and the public revelation of some of the horrors I’d endured, Trevor had blamed himself for not uncovering the truth sooner, for not putting a stop to it, even though I’d told him time and time again there had been nothing he could do. No court in the land would have sided with me over the eminent anatomist and surgeon to the king, Sir Anthony Darby. But of course, I hadn’t gone so far as to consider murder a viable option. And then his poor diet and circulation had done the trick without outside aid.
Trevor looked up then, his gaze meeting mine in the lantern light as we approached. I suddenly realized that just because I hadn’t contemplated homicide as a possibility then, it did not mean my brother hadn’t entertained such notions.
“Did you find something?” he asked. His eyes searched mine for some explanation for the anxiety I must have exhibited.
“Nothing,” Lord Henry replied. “It’s obvious no one passed that way.”
“The same for us.”
“And us,” Gage declared as he and Lord Edward joined us. The sudden brightness from so many lanterns made me turn aside, blinking as I tried to clear my vision. “We thought we’d found a trail in the dust, but it only led to a pile of lumber one of the carpenters and odd-job men must have hauled down here in recent months.”
“To the tunnel, then?” Lord Edward suggested.
“Yes, lead us to the place where you tripped over that boot.”
If Gage had hoped this comment would elicit a reaction from any of the Kerr brothers, he was to be disappointed. None of them seemed to be the least disconcerted by his mention of the boots. Not even Lord John, who must have heard about Lord Edward’s near tumble from one of his brothers.
Our erstwhile Lord of Misrule led us through the cellar to the blind corner and into the tunnel. Our steps were slow and measured as everyone searched the ground and walls for any signs of a struggle. Though I still felt as if the walls and dirt ceiling were pressing in on me, it helped to have something else to direct my attention to. Nevertheless, I stayed close to Gage’s side, both for comfort and because I was reliant upon his and the others’ lanterns for light.
Truth be told, I was doubtful we would find any definitive evidence of an altercation. Any marks in the dirt floor had been scuffed and muddled by our passage during our Twelfth Night ghost tour, just as any pools or trails of blood had been absorbed by the earth. But perhaps during the attack, blood had been cast off onto the wall. It certainly wasn’t outside the realm of possibility, though I didn’t expect to see large streaks but rather small splatters, which would be more difficult to spot