'Til Death Do Us Part by Amanda Quick

Author:Amanda Quick
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2016-03-10T13:27:55+00:00

30

THE DAY HAD turned mild so Trent suggested that they walk back to Cranleigh Square. It would have been a very pleasant stroll under other circumstances, Calista thought. But talk of murder had a way of ruining a very nice day.

“An infection of the throat.” Calista shivered in spite of the sun. “Elizabeth Dunsforth’s lover murdered her and likely two other Grant Agency governesses as well, and then he had the gall to buy them expensive coffins. He is like a beast of prey. He is literally hunting governesses. It is difficult to believe that there has been no sensation in the press.”

“He is now hunting you, as well.” Trent’s eyes were stone cold.

“So it seems.”

“You are not a governess,” Trent said.

She glanced at him. “What does that signify?”

“I don’t know. Simply another element in our story, one that does not quite fit as of yet. As for the lack of coverage in the press, that is easily explained. The killer probably paid the funeral directors to conceal the cause of death. It’s not an uncommon practice. Short of obtaining permission to dig up the bodies, it will be impossible to prove the women were murdered.”

She tightened her grip on her satchel. “Nestor Kettering is a madman. And to think he once asked me to marry him. We’ve got to stop him.”

“We need evidence—something, anything—that we can take to the police. Inspector Wynn is a good man. He will act if we can provide some proof that Kettering has employed a professional killer.”

“I keep thinking about what Mrs. Abington said concerning Elizabeth Dunsforth’s belief that some man was following her. The poor woman was not delusional. Someone was, indeed, watching her.”

“What I find interesting is Mrs. Abington’s suspicion that Elizabeth Dunsforth may have been involved in an illicit liaison shortly before she developed the case of shattered nerves.”

“It is a terrible game to Nestor, isn’t it? He seduces lonely, single women, and then he frightens them, and in the end he orders them murdered.”

“So it appears,” Trent said.

A young boy was playing with a kite in the park. His governess sat on a nearby bench, keeping an eye on the child as she perused a book. Calista watched the scrap of bright red paper float high above the trees. The child giggled. The governess looked up and laughed with him.

Calista wanted to warn the woman that she might be in danger but she knew that if she tried to speak of madmen and murder the governess would believe her to be crazed and quite possibly a danger to her young charge.

“What are you thinking?” Trent asked.

“About how oddly vulnerable governesses are. They are frequently alone with the children they are paid to teach and watch over. They are isolated from other adults. It would be so easy for a man to approach that young governess over there on the bench, for example.”

“Governesses hold a peculiar position in a household, neither upstairs nor downstairs. You are right. In many ways they are isolated and alone.

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