Kate panicked. How had he slipped in so quietly? Most of the inn’s doors squeaked. It was almost as if Lake had oiled his…

“I see you found my bat, Mr. Kaden.”

He moved toward her. When he wasn’t breaking things, Lake seemed like such a nice, nonthreatening man. But now as he stalked toward her…candlelight flickered, casting eerie shadows across his features.

Kate backed up a step, taking a firm grip on the bat. “Mr. Lake, I’d like you to stay where you are.”

“Why is that, Mr. Kaden?”

“You are making me nervous.”

Lake stopped a few steps in front of her, and Kate gripped the bat more tightly. He held his hand out, reaching for it.

“May I have my bat, Mr. Kaden? After that, perhaps we can discuss matters.”

A tight voice interrupted. “The only thing we are going to discuss, Lake, is you stepping the hell away from Ka—Mr. Kaden.”

Lake stiffened, but turned to the door where Christian stood. Christian shut the door and walked over to Kate, stepping in front of her, close enough to Lake to make him back up a step.

“What is going on here?” Christian’s voice was low and menacing.

“I was simply asking Mr. Kaden to hand over my bat.”

“We are searching your room, Lake. Mr. Kaden doesn’t have to hand anything back to you. And I must say things aren’t looking so good for you. Gone into a rage lately, have we?”

Lake raised his chin. “I apologized for my bad behavior yesterday.”

“Indeed. And now threatening my partner?”

Lake appeared affronted. “I was not threatening Mr. Kaden. Was I, Mr. Kaden?”

Kate had felt threatened, that was for sure, but now that Christian was back, Lake looked harmless, and she felt silly. She shrugged uncomfortably.

Lake’s eyes widened.

Christian’s eyes narrowed. “Did you kill Janson?”

Lake’s expression returned to the bland, slightly unfocused one he had sported before. “I would have dearly liked to. Even Kaden here can tell you I didn’t like the man. But no, I didn’t kill him. Would like to shake the hand of the person who did, but it wasn’t me.”

“That’s a bit morbid, Mr. Lake,” Kate said.

Lake stared at her, and his head tipped a bit to the side. “Yes, it is. But Janson was the worst kind of man, and he would have made Mary’s life hell. One of these days it would have been her, lying dead in the cold. I’m not sad the rotter is gone.”

Kate wasn’t quite sure how to respond to his declaration. Christian didn’t seem as affected.

“Who do you think murdered him then?”

“Don’t know.” Lake shrugged carelessly. “Don’t much care, other than to offer the man a thanks and a pint.”

“Talk like that is going to get you in trouble, Lake.”

Kate smelled alcohol as Lake carefully, too carefully, maneuvered to the bed and flopped onto the covers. He was drunk, although hiding it well. That explained his earlier expressions a bit more.

“Do those thoughts make me a bad man, Mr. Black? That I want to protect the woman I love? That I am glad she didn’t end up with a man who would likely have beaten or raped her.”

“Why do—did—the Wickets like him so much then?”

Lake ran a hand over his face roughly. “Mr. Wicket sees what he wants. Janson put on a good show when he chose to. Mary’s father refused to see the bad side of his personality and kept pushing Mary to accept him. I have to believe that Mr. Wicket would have opened his eyes and come to his senses before it was too late. Most of the other servants knew what Janson was really like. I don’t think they would have allowed her to marry him. I think they were ready to confront her father.”

Christian reached for the bat.

“What about the blood on this bat?”

“That’s from a match fight a few weeks ago. It’s my blood actually. I wiped it from my face and inadvertently transferred it to the bat when Janson came after me.”

“Fighting with Janson?”

“We fought all the time.”

“And you think Mary Wicket will be safer in your company?”

Kate expected Lake to react vehemently to Christian’s words. Perhaps to charge at him or yell; instead he merely shrugged.

“I’d never hurt Mary. Never hurt any woman. Truth is I haven’t had the desire to hurt anyone except Julius Janson.”

“Not a stunning defense against an accusation of murder,” Christian pointed out.

“You can ask anyone. I’ve only ever fought with Janson.”

“Even in bar fights or fights on the field?”

“As if you have never fought in a bar fight, Mr. Black?” Lake’s face was full of disbelief. “I meant that I never had any urge to fight with anyone but Janson. I have been in a few tumbles, and in each of those, Janson has been on the opposing side.”

Kate signaled to Christian. This was getting them nowhere and they needed to move on.

“We’ll be back to talk to you later, Lake, understand?”

He nodded and his eyes closed. He’d probably be asleep in minutes. Christian propped the bat against the wall as he and Kate exited the room.

“We need to talk,” Kate said as she preceded Christian to their room.

When their door was shut, she said, “Lake didn’t do it.”

“I know.”

She blinked. “You do? You seemed to be questioning him pretty fiercely.”

“Just wanted to see if he really did have violent tendencies.”

“And does he?”

“When I attacked him verbally, his first response, even being half drunk, was not to attack me physically. Something that would definitely not have been true of Janson. Did you notice that Lake seemed genuinely upset to be labeled as violent? For the most part, he seems to deal with accusations appropriately.”

“Except with Janson.”

Christian smirked. “I thought you said he didn’t do it?”

She swatted his arm.

“Oh, now look who is being violent.”

“Should we search other rooms tonight?”

He shook his head. “Most of the guests were retiring when I was in the hall. Desmond is still demanding to know what we’ve discovered.”

“Now there’s someone who is volatile. He also seems overly curious.”

Christian shrugged. “He was a friend of Janson’s, two peas in a pod. Wants revenge on Lake even if he can’t prove he did it. Desmond is an idiot.”

“So what will we do for the rest of the night?”

He raised his eyebrows suggestively, but said, “Well, what have we learned so far?”

“Lake and Janson fought last night, both with words and fists. We also know that Tiegs talked to Lake after his verbal fight with Janson?”

“Yes.”

“Hold on a moment. I’ll be right back.”

Kate watched as Christian fairly skipped from the room in excitement. He returned a few minutes later with an inkpot, quill, and some paper.

“How is your handwriting?”

“Fair.”

“Good, have a seat, because mine is barely legible. Or at least so my father tells me.” A quick cloud passed over his features, nearly too quick for her to detect if she hadn’t been observing him closely.

“You are lucky to still have your father.”

“Oh, lucky doesn’t begin to describe the feeling.”

His carefree manner returned, brighter than before. Brighter…and most definitely more false.

He gestured to the paper. “Let’s write down everything we know. See if something doesn’t all of a sudden make more sense.”

“You are really getting into this investigation, aren’t you?”

His smile was brittle. “I used to want to be a constable. Thought that the position would allow me to have justice. I mean, bring justice to others, of course. Mentioned it to my father once, and as a result was relegated to eating alone for an entire month.”

Kate’s mouth opened and closed wordlessly, not knowing how to respond to that piece of information. Finally she said, “Was that because you are a gentleman and he thought the position beneath you?”

“Oh, come now, Kate. You and I both know I’m not a gentleman. No, my biggest sin was killing my mother when I was born. Nothing after that could wipe away the murder my father claimed I had committed.”

“Your mother died in childbirth?”

He picked up the quill and handed it to her with obvious intent to close the thread of conversation.

“You do know it was not your fault, right?”

His face was expressionless. “Of course. Shall we begin our lists?”

She uncapped the inkpot and dipped the edge of the quill into the dark liquid. She felt a tendril of connection. They were both motherless, although her father had been loving and kind, when his was obviously anything but.

She switched back to a safe subject. “You seem much more excited this evening.”

“I have a few theories. Plus, think of what a boon it would be to catch the killer.” She detected a hint of relief in his tone at the subject change.

“I thought men in your profession apprehended criminals all the time,” she said dryly, knowing without a shadow of a doubt that he was not a Runner.

He waved aside her sarcasm. “I’ve always loved puzzles. Though I was reminded regularly that being a dab hand at puzzles did me little good.”

She grasped the personal information that he had all of a sudden begun to dole out to her. Prior to this he had hidden behind false smiles and careless comments. Now those seemingly carelessly tossed comments actually contained kernels. Here he was admitting to a vulnerability plain as day, or as plain as he ever seemed to get. Some hidden insight of which she had previously thought him incapable.

Then again, everyone had some measure of depth, including Julius Janson. And Christian Black. And Joshua McShaver, who dearly loved his wife.

She shook her head to dislodge the suddenly romantic thoughts. “After we compile our list, perhaps we should discuss the motives for murdering Julius Janson.”

“Seems pretty obvious.”

Hidden depths or not, the man was irritating.

“So how should we proceed?”

“Title the list ‘Facts.’”

Kate dragged the quill across and down to form the F, the scratch of the tip leaving a trail of ink as she finished the uppercase letter with a flourish. Scratching out the other four letters more neatly, she looked up to see Christian give a satisfied nod. He reached down and placed his hand over hers, drawing a line under the word, his fingers trailing off hers at the end of the stroke.

Kate’s breath lodged somewhere in her chest, and she busied herself with dipping the quill in the inkpot. The quill hit the edge of the opening before she steadied herself enough to successfully dip it. She took extra time tapping the excess ink onto the pot’s throat before glancing up.

Christian was staring at her, but his gaze wasn’t entirely focused, as if he were in deep thought. The lamp flickered golden light onto his already handsome features, playing with his cheekbones and straight nose. After a moment he shook his head as though to clear it.

“Let’s think through the sequence of events. Lake and Janson started a brawl in the taproom, presumably over Mary. They were reprimanded by the Wickets. Soon afterward, you heard the two of them arguing in the common room, this argument also concerning Mary. Janson then left. Tiegs, who is already suspicious at best, entered and approached Janson. They conversed about a topic which remains a mystery, but could have possibly concerned his problems with Janson. Tiegs did something with a pocket watch, but what that was we don’t know. This was all around midnight, and Janson was still alive. Correct so far?”

“Yes.” She wrote down his dictation, trying to keep pace and trying not to stare at the way the light from the lamp caressed his skin.

“Next you came back to the room. Lake got angry and threw the lamp. Mrs. Wicket stormed down to reprimand him. Around two, you left the room and observed two men on the balcony. One looked like Janson. We will assume for the moment it was he. Janson was still alive at two, because the snow had just started to fall and by the impression left in the snow, we can assume that it had been snowing awhile before the body was cast over the balcony, yet it had to have been well before the snow stopped falling. Gordon stated the snow had stopped by six o’clock when he made his rounds. So we can deduce that Janson was murdered between two and six, probably closer to a time between two and four.”

Kate had stopped scratching, mesmerized by his account.

“That is quite a deduction.” She was impressed despite herself. “Maybe you should consider thumbing your nose at your father and becoming a constable or investigator anyway.”

“Kate, you say the sweetest things.” He ran a hand over the back of her neck, massaging the muscles and skin. “And of course, how could I forget; at three you started moaning, and I captured you between the sheets.”

The mortification that Kate would have experienced had he said something like that earlier was strangely absent while he continued doing sinfully wonderful things to her shoulders and neck.

“I do remember someone’s footsteps treading down the hall at that time. Not loudly, but as if the person were checking that all was well. Possibly Mrs. Wicket, as Nickford claimed earlier. He said he heard a thud and moan about half past two.”

“Which he blamed on his ghost.” Her eyes slid shut as he pushed gently against the top of her spine. A sound of satisfaction escaped.

“Mmm…Kate, if you continue to make those sounds, you’ll have to let me take you instead of you taking notes.”

His whisper brushed the hairs at the back of her neck. She jerked open her eyes to see the tip of the quill halfway down the page, a jagged line in its wake.

She cleared her throat, trying to regain some semblance of dignity, and tapped the quill against the inkpot. She had to remember her resolve. She was going to be the one in charge. She’d do the rejecting. “Whoever was walking around last night should have been quite tired this morning.”

“Everyone looked tired this morning, unfortunately.”

“Except Nickford.”

“I don’t think that man belongs in normal company.”

“Possibly not. Should we compile a list of the people staying in the inn, as well as possible suspects?”

His fingers ghosted the nape of her neck, playing with the tendrils there. “Excellent idea, Kate.”

She would not let his charm wash over her. She would not.

His hand brushed her arm.

“What are you doing?”

His body leaned over hers, his face next to hers, cheek to cheek.

“I’m listing the names of the guests for you.”

She focused on the paper and not the tingles zipping through her body.

“Don’t forget to list the servants, although I don’t know the names of those who are traveling with the guests.”

He cocked his head toward her, the edge of his lip lightly brushing hers. “Servants? What do you mean? Why should we list the servants?”

She was so distracted that she could barely focus on the conversation—his lips were a breath away, the heat of his body scorched hers. “They are staying in the inn too.”

“But servants…serve.” His full lower lip grazed her cheek.

“And they don’t commit crimes?” she whispered.

He reached down and rested a hand on her thigh, tugging the durable fabric in the same way he was pulling her reactions. “Well, I suppose the odd trouser theft here and there. Father always claimed the servants were not to be trusted. I suppose that’s why I always want to trust them.”

She disengaged herself and turned to look him full in the face.

“Christian.” She paused, committing to memory all the remarks about his father so she could surreptitiously question him about them at a later time. His statement also confirmed that he was wellborn and that he had had servants at some point. “It’s not that your father was right, but the servants have just as much reason to commit a crime as anyone.”

“Gordon did act might shifty when he was talking to us at the stables.” Christian straightened, tapping his chin, and suddenly Kate was unsure if he was having her on or not.

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously, but she decided to go along with the conversation in case he was serious. “There you go.”

“On the other hand, Gordon reported the body. Why report it? Better to leave it hidden instead. Mr. Wicket was willing to write off Janson as leaving early.”

“There is that.” She missed the heat of his body and cursed herself for the thought.

“What about Mr. Wicket then? Awfully convenient. Perhaps he found out what a churl Janson really was.”

“And then objected to his daughter being involved?”

Christian nodded, then shook his head. The man was nearly impossible to read. When he was feigning carelessness he might be dead serious, and when he acted serious he might just be having her on.

“Wicket just doesn’t strike me as a very good fabricator. I think he truly thought, or hoped, that Janson was a right fine bloke.”

“But remember, not everyone held that sentiment. Lake seems to believe that many of the servants shared his disdain for Janson. Mary was very close-faced whenever Janson was around, and Janson made no bones about his feelings for both Lake and Mary. If he had, I wouldn’t have overheard them. Lake was incensed.”

“So that brings us back to Lake.”

“Everything does seem to circle back to him.”

“Wouldn’t we have heard him leave his room?”

She raised a brow. “Didn’t I use that argument about Freewater, to no avail?”

“I can’t seem to recall.” His eyes were wide and innocent.

“I bet you can’t,” she muttered. “But in any case, Lake’s door was well oiled. He startled me when he silently entered the room today. And you slipped in unnoticed as well.”

Christian absently nodded. “There is that. And Lake could have hired Tiegs or one of his bodyguards.”

He paused.

“Or Tiegs could have done it on his own. He seemed to know Janson, and Janson appeared intimidated by him, even frightened.”

“We should probably search Tiegs’s room next.”

“I agree.”

Kate finished the list, writing down servants’ names or descriptions if she didn’t know their names. The Crescents had brought a maid and valet.

Just as she was writing out the last name, the chimes struck midnight. Twelve strikes of sheer helplessness. The quill wrenched across the page, creating a second jagged line in its path. Two, three, four. Kate closed her eyes and leaned forward, determined not to let Christian see her reaction. Seven, eight, nine. The quill snapped and she felt strong fingers pry open her grip and remove the broken pieces. Twelve.

She inhaled deeply and after a few moments forced herself to look up. Christian was staring at her, an unreadable look on his face. His fingers turned the broken quill pieces, staining the edges of his finger pads.

Christian tilted his head, his eyes intently watching hers for something—just as they had earlier, watching for something she didn’t understand.

“What now?” she forced herself to say.

“Now we go to bed.”

Kate reached for the counterpane. There was no way she could continue their dance after all of Christian’s touches and the unwanted memories from the chimes.

Christian stayed her hand. “Kate, I’ll sleep on top of the sheet. Just…just don’t argue.”

She was about to do just that, but fatigue set in. She might as well share the bed, his bed. It wasn’t as if her reputation would be any worse if someone discovered her ruse. They would assume the worst anyway.

She hadn’t slept well last night or during the previous month. And as he looked at her, she saw comfort and something else in his eyes. Something she needed.

She nodded and slipped between the covers, fully clothed, and nestled up against the wall. Christian, true to his word, arranged the covers so that he lay on top of the sheet, and in contrast to the night before, stayed fully clothed. He maintained a respectful distance, but she could still feel the heat from his body seeping through the thin sheet and into her own. Tomorrow she’d figure out all the conflicting emotions. For now she’d sleep.

 

She awakened three hours later, thrashing in the throes of another nightmare. But comforting arms pulled her closer, and she calmed in the warmth and safety of the embrace.

A vague alarm sounded as gentle fingers caressed the hair at the nape of her neck. But the concern was buried between layers of bliss. Skillful fingers stroked her skin, and warmth lulled her to a peaceful sleep.