Page 91 of Four Promises to Love

“I understand why you did not,” Finn replied.

She did—and she wasn’t hurt by the Harringtons’ reasoning.

“You did not wish to bias my findings,” she went on. “You wanted proof of the killer’s identity untainted by prejudice. I would have done the same in your shoes.”

“That is what I said.” The Earl of Manderly gave her an approving look. “A true professional would not wish to have her objectivity compromised.”

“You can forgive our lack of full disclosure?”

The relief in Owen’s eyes wrenched her heart. He’d felt guilty about this small lie of omission—while she’d lied to him about everything. She took in the rest of the table, and her conscience absorbed another blow. These were good people who treated her and the Hawks with kindness and hospitality. They wanted justice for a couple who had died over eighty years ago, for God’s sake. Their decency simultaneously made them easy marks—and the most difficult she’d ever had to con.

She cleared her throat. “There is naught to forgive. You did the right thing. Although now that I know about Langdon Pearce, how can you be certain that I will not be biased?”

“We can’t be,” Grantley said bluntly. “However, I think the real evidence will be revealed when we solve the clues.”

“If we solve them.” The grim reality of her failure confronted Finn. “I was certain a vision would come to me in the caldarium. Now we have searched the two places where the lovers met and the water runs pure and come up empty-handed.”

“This does not rest solely on your shoulders,” Owen reminded her. “Let us put our heads together and review the clue. Clearly, we are missing something.”

“Is there someplace else with running water?” Nell ventured. “Someplace other than the stream and the spa?”

“I cannot think of any.” Gigi turned to Miss Letty. “Are you aware of springs beyond the spa?”

“When my great-grandfather built this place, there were multiple local springs,” Miss Letty replied. “But they all dried up. In fact, the villagers claimed that was part of the curse…”

Finn’s attention was diverted by Owen, who’d gone stiff as a board.

“What is it?” she asked. “Did you think of something?”

His eyes were as bright as a rain-washed sky. “I think I know where to look.”

Owen took the group to a quiet corner of the property. The structure, or what remained of it, was hidden by bushes and covered by a thick blanket of ivy. It was possible to miss it entirely—if one didn’t know where to look.

“Here it is.” He cleared away a tangle of brush. “Miss Letty reminded me of it when she mentioned the springs drying up.”

“What are we looking at?” Finn asked.

“An old springhouse. I came across it during the renovation.” He tore away more ivy, revealing the top of a mossy stone. “I thought it was charming, a marker of time passed, so I left it as it was.”

“I’d forgotten about the springhouse,” Miss Letty exclaimed. “The water dried up long ago, before my papa’s time.”

“But perhaps the spring flowed for Rose and Thomas,” Finn said breathlessly.

She and the others joined him in clearing the overgrowth, and soon the shape of the old springhouse emerged. The footprint of stone was no more than six feet square; the remaining walls were knee-high and furred with moss. Near the back wall sat a cracked stone basin that had collected the water welling from the ground. A runnel extended into the nettles, dry as bone.

“The clue must be here somewhere,” Finn said.

As the group swarmed the structure, Owen examined the wall behind the basin. The springhouse had been built from local sarsen; the material, he knew from experience, was durable and difficult to work with. Replacing a cracked stone required skill at masonry—which might explain the shoddy repair job he’d spotted.

Scrubbing away the moss, he took a closer look at a stone near the base.

Finn appeared at his side. “Did you find something?”

“Perhaps. See that stone?”

“Yes…it’s a lighter color than the surrounding ones.”

He ran his fingers over the stone’s surface. “That’s because it is not sarsen like the rest. This is ordinary field rubble. I should know, having cleared plenty of it during the restoration.”