Murder at Midnight by Katharine Schellman

Author:Katharine Schellman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CROOKED LANE BOOKS

CHAPTER 17

“I know you are lying.”

Lily stared at Jack through the narrow door. Amelia, under suspicion only, had been locked in her bedroom as a precaution. But Jack, now a confessed murderer, had been hauled as far away from everyone else in the house as possible. The attic storerooms had once been servants’ quarters, back when a larger Grantham family had been in residence and had required more staff. Now one of the rooms had been pressed into service as a makeshift jail.

Jack, lying on the bed and staring at the ceiling, glanced toward the door. Not at her, but at Sir John, who stood next to her. Lily had demanded to speak to Jack alone. Her brother-in-law had refused to allow it, though whether it was her he did not trust or Jack in this instance, she couldn’t have said.

Jack looked back at the ceiling. “I have already explained what happened, Mrs. Adler,” he said quietly.

“Of course, that you were outraged by the insult that Mr. Edison inflicted upon your sister’s person,” Lily said, not bothering to keep the scathing disbelief from her voice. “You retrieved a pistol from Mrs. Grantham’s gun cabinet, followed Mr. Edison when he went downstairs, and shot him.”

The expression on Jack’s face could almost have been considered a smile. “I was defending my sister’s honor.”

“Liar.”

“Enough.” Jack swung his feet around and sat up so abruptly that John grasped Lily’s arm to haul her back. “I’ll not sit here and listen to you insult me.”

Lily gaped at him. He sounded nothing like the friend and confidant on whom she had come to depend. There was a hardness to his voice and expression that she did not recognize. “You will confess to murder, but you balk at being called dishonest?”

That almost-smile returned. “A gentleman has his limits.”

“He is right,” John said quietly. “You may not like what he has revealed, but you cannot change it. He has confessed to murder, and so must be held and brought to trial.”

Lily glared at them both. “And you are as witless as he if you think I am going to let such obvious nonsense stand.”

John’s face darkened at the insult. “There are times you cannot have your way, Lily. Perhaps this is one of them.”

Lily took a deep breath. Her brother-in-law was generally the most easygoing of men. She was used to speaking her mind around him and expecting nothing but indulgence, or at the worst pleasant disagreement, in return. But the past few days had put John under a strain that he had never before experienced. And now he had the son of a family he had known his whole life—and the childhood friend of his beloved, deceased brother—under arrest for murder.

She needed to be gentler with him.

Lily took a deep breath. “Please, John,” she said quietly. “I need to speak with the captain in some degree of privacy. Would you stand a little way off? Please?”

For a moment she thought he would still refuse. Then he nodded

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