Fearless (Scarlet Suffragette, Book 1): A Victorian Historical Romantic Suspense Series (32 page)

“I have enjoyed your visit immensely, Mr Entrican,” I offered in return. “It is not often that a gentleman considers such topics appropriate for a lady. A refreshing change, one I welcome most eagerly.”

“You need never fear for that, Miss Cassidy. I respect your opinion and would enjoy your counsel.”

He took my hand and laid a soft kiss above it, then stood and nodded his head.

I trailed behind him towards the door, while Wilhelmina took up her usual place, silent, beside the fire.

Entrican stopped at the doorway and turned back, spying Mina and then diverting his attention to me.

“Won’t you come to the speech this afternoon, Miss Cassidy?” he asked. “There will be an area set aside for my closest friends and I should be most delighted to count you among them.”

I hesitated. This was not the superintendent’s or the inspector’s plan. I suddenly realised how disastrous Entrican’s visit had been.

“I…” I managed.

“Perhaps if you would be more comfortable bringing Miss Cassidy,” he suggested, offering a smile towards my cousin. “Then you will not feel so abandoned while I deliver my speech.”

Oh, but this was awkward. To decline and then appear later would raise questions. And the last thing we needed was the mayoral office interrupting our sting.

“Thank you,” I said, offering a small curtsy. “We’d be most pleased.”

“Brilliant,” he announced. And I was sure he meant it. Which only made me feel more wretched for the man.

I did not fancy him. I enjoyed his conversation, certainly, but it was not mere conversation he was seeking.

For now, though, I had no other choice. I’d deal with his intentions after we’d caught the killer.

I stood still in the centre of the parlour as Mina and I waited for the front door to click closed behind him. Even when we heard Mrs Hardwick’s farewell to the deputy mayor we remained silent. My mind whirring. Mina’s no doubt in a little shock.

I’d never shown interest in anyone. Other than Andrew Kelly.

“Well,” I said, turning to face my cousin and be done with this farce.

Only to have the door to the drawing room spring open again and a familiar deep, smooth and angry voice announce, “What the devil were you thinking accepting his invitation, Miss Cassidy? Now you’ve bloody well gone and done it!”

Twenty-Seven

But Where Would The Fun Be In That?

Inspector Kelly

It was all I could do not to step out from my hiding place and throttle the peacock that had just behaved so familiarly with Anna.

And Anna! What the hell was she playing at, entertaining an upstart fop like him?

I waited for the housekeeper to close the door behind the deputy mayor before I stepped out from Anna’s surgery and nodded my head in thanks. She lowered her face to the floor, frown lines marring her already creased façade, and scurried away to the kitchen. No doubt in fear of what her mistress would say.

I didn’t waste any time, but crossed the hallway and threw open the door to the parlour, anger and frustration making the movement more harsh than intended.

Wilhelmina jumped, but Anna swung around to look at me with surprised, and then quickly following, incredulous eyes.

“What the devil were you thinking accepting his invitation, Miss Cassidy?” I almost bellowed. “Now you’ve bloody well gone and done it!”

“It was unavoidable, sir,” she replied, more formally than she had for quite some time.

“Unavoidable? Why was he even here?” I demanded.

“He appears to have taken a fancy to me,” she admitted, a wash of delicate pink rising up her cheeks, making her appear, to my eyes, so very beautiful right then.

I scowled and tapped my cane on the floor, moving farther into the room, despite the lack of invitation.

“This is not how we intended today to go,” I pointed out, somewhat peevishly to my ears.

“I am aware of that, but once cornered had no other option but to politely accept the invitation. Else appearing at the speech afterwards would have raised alarm bells.”

“And why should we be concerned if they do?” I snapped. “He is of little consequence to the investigation.”

Anna opened her mouth, and then closed it. Tilting her head to the side, she repeated the action; a delightful fish out of water. But I knew Anna. She’d had a thought. And if there was one thing to be said about Anna Cassidy, her thoughts were, more oft than not, important.

“What is it?” I asked, more levelly, taking a step closer, but not too close. The sound of my cane on the hardwood floor reminding me to keep my distance.

It seemed I needed that reminder more and more of late.

“Why do you think Mr Entrican wears such exuberant cravats?” she suddenly asked, out of absolutely nowhere.

“Because he’s a fop and a nitwit,” I suggested gruffly. Wilhelmina stifled a giggle, but Anna only offered an arched brow.

“The killer was harmed by his first victim,” Anna said carefully.

“Margaret,” Wilhelmina offered in interruption.

Anna nodded her head, but didn’t say Margaret Thorley’s name, just continued with, “He will be scratched and will be particular about hiding the condemning mark from public view. It is not beyond speculation that the killer could have been scratched on the neck or throat.”

“A valid point,” I conceded. “But not nearly enough to convict.”

Anna nodded in agreement and then took a seat on one of the two settees in the room. Wilhelmina moved to a chair by the fire, still part of the conversation, but removed from it, as though she needed that buffer of space to remain. I understood her reticence; Anna protected her cousin where necessary, but you’d have to be blind not to see Wilhelmina Cassidy’s fragility. She was nothing like my fearless Anna.

“May I?” I asked, once both ladies were seated, indicating the settee opposite Anna with my cane.

“Please,” Anna replied, and then picked up a small cake from the tea tray before her and started to nibble on it, deep in thought.

“Accusing the deputy mayor of murder is a rather bold statement,” I pointed out.

“Hmm,” Anna managed around a mouthful of crumpet and whipped cream.

The smile was difficult to suppress, but I achieved it. I had the feeling that Anna hadn’t eaten a morsel of food today, and if she was now, I was reluctant to call her on it.

“He is in a position of power,” I added. “Has friends in very high places. His connections would make an accusation such as this difficult to maintain. We need more than the suspicion of a scratch underneath preposterous neckties.”

Anna swallowed her mouthful and washed it down with what looked like cold tea. She grimaced slightly, dusting her hands on a napkin, then lifted dove grey eyes to me.

I could get lost in Anna Cassidy’s eyes, so I was the one to look away.

“He was at the first and second crime scenes,” she said, making my eyes return to her face. “The original mayoral speech and the dockyard.”

“There’s no way to know if he was present at the third,” I added, sitting up straighter in my seat. “But Albert Park is not far from the council chambers.”

“Indeed,” Anna supplied. “He also visited the building that housed the dark den, not long before we found Mary Bennett.”

“I did not view him closely at the time,” I admitted. “Was he under the influence of opium?” If anyone could tell from a look alone, it would be Anna.

For more reasons than the mere fact that she had trained as a doctor.

“I’d say not,” she reluctantly advised. “But that is not to say he hasn’t partaken.”

“Agreed, but the person who placed Mary Bennett in that tight alleyway was both reckless and endowed with great strength.”

“That’s exactly what Anna said,” Wilhelmina offered from her quiet corner. I’d almost forgotten the chit was there.

Anna smiled and reached for another crumpet, her hand hovering over it for a second and then withdrawing empty. Pink washed her cheeks again. She looked drawn, thinner than I had realised. Only yesterday I’d searched her features to see if she was holding up. Something had happened since then, to make her appear drained. Stressed.

I silently cursed the planned sting and her part in it. Anna often gave the impression of such strength under fire, but she was only human. A woman at that. A miraculous woman, but a woman all the same. It was at times like this that I wished she’d excelled at embroidery or painting, not forensic medicine and post-mortems.

I leaned forward and picked up one of the cakes, taking a bite before I thought better of it. “I hope you don’t mind,” I said after chewing. “I haven't had a chance to eat this morning.”

“I’ll have Hardwick bring us some hot tea and sandwiches,” Wilhelmina offered, standing from her corner and retrieving the used tray, then scurrying out of the room.

I was surprised she’d lasted that long in my presence, truth be told. She was rather like a frightened mouse. But a clever one. She’d left the plate of cakes behind, and I watched on quietly as Anna reached forward and divested the platter of another.

We ate in silence for a while and then Anna said, “He has an interest in science.”

“Entrican,” I said, becoming instantly alert. “Are you certain?”

“Yes. He told me he read English at Oxford, but his heart lay with politics and science.”

“That is curious,” I conceded. “Present, for a fact, at two of the murders. Witnessed exiting an opium den. Scientific knowledge that could include anatomy. And has more than a passing interest in you.”

“Yes,” she said simply, finishing the cake and settling back on her settee.

“It still may mean nothing,” I pointed out.

“But it’s more than we’ve presently got.”

I nodded, then crossed my legs, my eyes on her face, and said, “And how do you feel about your wooer being a suspect to murder?”

“He is not my wooer.”

“He is attending you in your home, has openly stated his intentions, and invited you to one of the most important events of his political career to date.”

“He said the speeches were nothing extraordinary,” she argued. “Something to be expected but not excited by.”

“Trust me, Miss Cassidy,” I said. “The speeches are vital to his success in this campaign. He wants you there to show you off.”

“You’re wrong, Inspector.”

“I’m right. And you know why I’m right?” I asked, leaning forward in my seat and piercing her with my gaze.

“Why?” she asked uncertainly.

“Because it’s what I would do, if I were in his position. I would woo you, claim you, make you mine, and then show the world what I had achieved.”

She looked startled.

Or excited, it was difficult to tell. Her lips were moist from where she’d licked them, parted as though she had only just sucked in a lungful of air. And that soft pink was rushing up her cheeks again, down her chest, slipping beneath the bodice of her gown. My eyes trailed after it, my hands fisted about my cane.

“If he is the murderer,” Anna said quietly, drawing my attention above her breasts again, “then perhaps you are right. His letters would have you think he is wooing me.”

I blinked. “Is that what they call wooing these days? I have clearly not kept up with custom.”

Anna smiled and my heart soared.

“Think you not that Entrican is good for a possible suspect?”

I tapped my cane softly on the floor and gave her question due consideration. He was not a small man; tall by any standards. His placement at two of the scenes and interest in the sciences
did
compound his credibility as a suspect. And there was his interest in Anna. It was unbecoming. He did not know her well enough to ingratiate himself into her home.

My eyes found their way back to her in that instant. She was looking at the last crumpet with solicitous desire. I wondered where her cousin had gone to with the promised sandwiches. I glanced toward the door, noting it had been closed on silent hinges to offer better privacy, and then back at Anna.

Amusement made my lips twitch, but seeing the hunger in Anna’s eyes finally did it.

I stood, swiped up the plate and moved to her side, settling in on the settee next to her and offering her the cake on its platter.

“What are you doing?” she asked, shocked I should think.

“Feeding you, as you seem hell bent on denying yourself, it seems.” I picked the cake up and held it towards her lips.

“You can’t do that. You
shouldn’t
,” she corrected.

“Damn it, Anna. You’re fading away. And we’ve a long afternoon ahead of us if we’re to catch Entrican before he acts.”

“I can feed myself,” she argued, as only Anna Cassidy could do.

I smiled. She blinked; thick dark lashes over porcelain skin.

“But where would the fun be in that?” I murmured, taking her chin in one hand and moving the cake closer.

She watched me, from that storm grey gaze, her hands perfectly still in her lap, her lips parted as if in invitation.