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Kilbourne was lying on the cot when Maximus entered the cellar, and at first he couldn’t tell if the man were awake or not, but as he drew near he saw the shine of open eyes.
“My lord,” he said, making sure to stop outside the reach of the chain he’d attached to the man’s right ankle. “Where did you get the emerald pendant you gave to your sister on her fifteenth birthday?”
Kilbourne simply stared.
Maximus sighed. The man might be insane, but somehow he didn’t think him unintelligent. “Look, Artemis says—”
That got a reaction—a growl. Kilbourne rose, a monolith of shifting rock, and reached for the notebook and pencil on the floor beside his cot. He scribbled something and held out the notebook.
Maximus hesitated.
The other man smirked as if aware of Maximus’s wariness, his eyes daring him to come closer.
Maximus stepped forward and took the notebook, stepping back before dropping his eyes to read.
You haven’t the right to call my sister by her Christian name.
Maximus looked the other man in the eye. “She herself has given me that right.”
Kilbourne sneered and lounged back on his cot, staring defiantly.
Maximus frowned. “I haven’t the time for your sulking. I need to know who you truly got the pendent from. I rescued you from Bedlam. Is this not a small fee for your freedom?”
Kilbourne cocked one eyebrow and looked pointedly down at the chain on his ankle.
Maximus remained unmoved. “You killed three men. Do not expect me to let you run free in a house with my sister—and yours, for that matter.”
The look the viscount sent him was filthy, but he took up the notebook again to write. Then he once again extended his arm.
Maximus looked at the offered notebook. This man was accused of a horrific crime, had been incarcerated in Bedlam for over four years, and had shown him no friendship. Then again Kilbourne hadn’t shown him violence, either. And he was Artemis’s brother.
Maximus stepped forward to take the notebook and this time he didn’t back away again as he read:
I would never hurt my sister. You insult me to insinuate it. I got the pendant when I was a boy at school. Another boy, in the same house as I, bet it in a game of dice and I won. The boy was John Alderney. I know not how he had it. Even though I thought the necklace was paste, it was pretty, so I gave it to Artemis on our birthday. Have you seduced my sister?
membered the chain she’d been wearing when she’d given him back his signet ring. He frowned. “Then why haven’t I ever seen the emerald on you?”
A blush rose in her cheeks. “I took it off before we’d… Anyway. I left the woods at the abbey, after you’d already raced off, and I forgot to put my fichu back on. My necklace was visible for a moment, with both the emerald drop and your signet ring on it.”
He understood at once. “Any of the guests could’ve seen it.”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“If one of them saw the emerald on you,” he said slowly, staring into the darkness about the bed, “and then searched your room looking for it, then the murderer might have been at Pelham. Might’ve eaten at my table.” The mere thought filled him with hot rage.
She stroked his chest as if to soothe him. “Then it could be any of the men?”
He considered. “Watts is younger than I.”
“Surely it isn’t he, then.”
He nodded. “That leaves Oddershaw, Noakes, Barclay, and Scarborough.” Scarborough, who had been a friend of his parents’.
For a moment they were quiet, contemplating the possibilities.
Then he stirred. “Thank you.”
“What for?”
