Page 60 of The Wedding-Crashing Duchess

Augusta turned towards him. “When?”

“This morning,” he replied, keeping his voice low so that Sarah would not wake. “Gregory was with me, and we asked whether the investigation had produced anything that had not appeared in the papers.”

Augusta shifted closer without thinking.

“What did he say?”

“Very little,” Ronan replied. “There has been no progress, and they have not identified the man you saw. They did confirm that the woman worked for Phillipa’s family, and she had been a maid in the household for more than twenty years.”

Augusta’s expression tightened. “She worked there for twenty years?”

“More than twenty,” Ronan said. “I asked whether anyone had seen her speaking to men outside the household, although no one appears to have noticed anything of the sort. She was an older woman, and nothing they learned from the servants has given them a direction for the inquiry.”

Augusta looked towards the fire.

“That seems strange,” she said. “A person does not work in a household for so long without being known, and yet no one can offer any reason why she would have been outside or why someone would wish to harm her.”

“I thought the same,” Ronan replied. “Still, the constable had nothing else he was willing to state as fact.”

“You asked about the men she spoke to?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Ronan’s expression remained controlled, although Augusta saw a flicker of hesitation.

“You saw a man standing near her body,” he said. “It seemed reasonable to ask whether she had been seen with anyone unfamiliar.”

Augusta watched him for a moment.

“You arranged the meeting on account of what I told you.”

“I was accused of murder.”

“You had already been cleared.”

“The crime remains unresolved, and this is the only answer I am giving.”

Augusta wanted to press him, although Sarah shifted in his arms, and Ronan looked down immediately to make certain she had not woken.

The tenderness in the movement stole the argument from Augusta. “Thank you,” she said quietly.

Ronan looked back at her. “There is nothing to thank me for.”

“You noticed that I was worried, and you asked. It is not a small thing for me.”

“I wanted to know the truth.”

Augusta smiled faintly. “You may call it whatever you like.”

Ronan appeared ready to object, then he let the matter rest. Silence returned, and Augusta remembered the invitation she had intended to mention before the evening ended.

“Temperance is arranging a ball,” she said. “Charity told me about it when I visited, and I said I would attend.”

Ronan’s brows drew together slightly.

“When?”