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Kit emerged from his study down the hall and offered her a half-smile. “Has Inspector Pierce departed?”

“Yes, and he advised me that Cordelia will likely be called to testify at the inquest.” Just mention of that fact seemed to pain him.

“I would give anything to spare her that.” He quirked a brow. “Are you attending as well?”

“I will, and there is a possibility I will be called to testify regarding my calling card in Mr. Pennington’s possession.”

Kit hummed thoughtfully. “Such a strange thing, isn’t it? Cordelia swears she never gave him your card, and I certainly didn’t. I wonder how he got it.”

Electra wondered too.

Gideon wouldn’t rest until he discovered the truth about Percival Pennington’s murder, but Electra had her own questions.

Who had given him her card? And why?

Chapter Ten

Even as Gideon gave his testimony about examining Percival Pennington’s body on the evening of July 28th and what he’d discovered when he did so, he could not prevent his gaze from drifting toward Electra.

Wearing a high-necked dark blue gown and a dainty feathered hat atop her black hair, she watched him from the gallery of observers at St. George’s vestry hall. Sir Christopher and Lady Redmayne sat by her side.

The room had begun to fill with curious members of the public in the quarter hour before the proceedings began, and Gideon recognized a few journalists standing in a haphazard line along the wall as well.

Electra’s blue-green gaze held his every time he looked her way, and when he’d completed his testimony, he claimed a spot along the wall, rather than a chair. He preferred it, as it provided an opportunity to observe the rest of the witnesses and those among Pennington’s acquaintances who sat in the gallery.

Miss Lucy Faraday was called after Gideon, and Lance Pennington offered her an encouraging look, squeezing her gloved hand before she walked up and sat in the chair next to the coroner’s table. As expected, the young lady attested to her uncle’s demeanor on the morning of his death.

“He appeared in his usual good health. He did not seem agitated or indisposed.” Miss Faraday paused and gave a tearful glance at the gentlemen of the jury. “It is dreadful to recall how he quitted the house in good spirits, with no notion of the fate that awaited him that evening.”

“If there are no questions for the witness,” the coroner intoned, “Miss Faraday, you are released.”

Gordon Callister was called and gave much the same account he’d provided to Gideon, that he had seen Pennington in the afternoon and sent him away due to Callister’s own illness. His demeanor was different, however. In his home, he’d be varyingly angry, irritated, and seemingly distraught. Today, he spoke with cool detachment, his voice strong, with no sign of the rasp Gideon noted the previous day. No coughing either.

After Callister was dismissed by the corner at the end of his testimony, Electra on one side and Sir Christopher Redmayne on the other both turned to Lady Cordelia Redmayne as the coroner called her name.

Even from his spot on the far side of the room, Gideon noted the way the lady’s shoulders seemed to tremble. Several in the gallery murmured as soon as she stood with her husband beside her.

Sir Christopher looked as if he wished to accompany her to the chair himself, but Lady Redmayne said something to him, offered one firm nod, and then made her way to the witness seat.

“You were acquainted with the deceased, Lady Redmayne?”

“I was.”

“And you encountered him on the afternoon of July 28th,” the coroner said, reading from the report to which Gideon and the constables at Vine Street had contributed.

“I did.”

“What was Mr. Pennington’s manner and disposition when you met him?”

Lady Redmayne looked out into the observers and seemed to fix her gaze on her husband, who watched her with an open expression, as if to give her the courage to continue.

“Mr. Pennington was rather distressed because I told him that I wished for our acquaintance to cease.”

Gideon studied the jurymen’s faces at the declaration. A few seemed suddenly rapt.

“And why did you wish to end your acquaintance with Mr. Pennington?”

Lady Redmayne hesitated, focusing again on her husband, and said, “I did not feel it was appropriate.”