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When she turned to join her colleagues at the staff table, the bottom dropped from her stomach. What in heaven’s name is he doing here? Before she could wipe the stunned expression from her face, Monsieur Woodson acknowledged her with one of his glittering smiles. Gathering her wits, she made her way over and took her seat.
Agnes bustled over with a fresh pot of tea. “I was beginning to worry summat had happened,” she said as she poured. “All’s well, I take it?”
“Yes,” she told Agnes, flustered by the fact that Woodson was still there. “She will be down presently. Mrs. Sloane is bringing her.” Even as she spoke, the door to the dining hall opened to admit the pair. Standing, Jacqueline went and introduced the anxious little girl to her peers before leading her over to the table where some of her future roommates were seated. When she returned, Woodson was blessedly engaged in conversation with Mrs. Orson.
The question burned on the tip of her tongue, barely held in check by her tightly clenched teeth: why was he taking the evening meal here? There was no way to inquire without sounding unfriendly. She tried to content herself with eating in silence while everyone else talked.
Woodson addressed her just as she was about to take the first bite of dessert. “After we spoke this afternoon, Mrs. Hayton sent a message informing me Mrs. Inman had fallen ill. She adjured me to take my evening meal here.” His lips curved in the little half smile that turned her insides to jelly. “I must say the fare is more than tolerable. The company, too.”
He’d cast a glance about to include the others, but the comment brought a rush of blood to Jacqueline’s face nonetheless. “I daresay your companions are missing you this evening.”
“I doubt it,” he replied with a chuckle. “More likely, they’ve grown weary of my constant rambling about the goings-on here. It’s improbable that anyone besides me finds the girls’ mathematics marks to be of any interest. Yet they’re always polite enough to ask after my day’s activities. I try to be succinct.”
The merry blue eyes twinkling from behind his spectacles disarmed her entirely. “I’m sure it’s the most exciting news of the day for some.”
His soft responding laugh resonated through her. “None of my fellow boarders leads so dull a life—not even old Mr. Watlow. He was paid a visit by his son and daughter-in-law yesterday. As I understand it, they’ve been trying to persuade him to come and live with them in Cornwall. He has expressed his desire to do no such thing, but they are most insistent.”
If she’d had a family member come and beg her to move to the country with them while she was staying at Mrs. Hayton’s, she wouldn’t be here. She refrained from saying it, ho
wever. Small ears were everywhere. “I’m sure he will make the right decision.”
“I told him he ought to go. You should have seen the look he gave me. I count myself fortunate to have been seated by the fire or I might have frozen on the spot.”
She could well imagine. “He puts up a fuss but is really a very sweet gentleman. When I first inquired about the rooms to let, it was he who persuaded Mrs. Hayton to give me the front suite rather than the back, which he took for himself. He said the light from the windows in the front would annoy him. But I know he said it only to benefit me.”
His smile broadened. “Then it’s as I suspected; there is a gentle being beneath the rough—”
A blood-curdling scream from the kitchen cut him off. Jacqueline shot to her feet and at once made for the door. Woodson, to her surprise, reached it before her.
Chapter Eleven
Will’s heart pounded, and his muscles tensed in readiness. When he entered the kitchen, he half expected to find the place awash in blood. Instead, there was a cluster of aproned women huddled around another seated in a chair. “What happened?”
“Elsie! What is it?” said Trouvère at the same time.
They glanced at each other, and he fell back a step, mentally kicking himself for having forgotten his place.
“Oh, ma’am!” wailed the kitchen maid, half rising to greet her. “I went to fetch another bucket of coal, and I saw…” Trembling hands rose to cover her mouth, stifling a moan. Her eyes rolled, and she began to slump.
Dashing forward, Will grasped her upper arm and hauled her upright. “What did you see?” he demanded, shaking her a bit to rouse her.
Elsie’s lids fluttered. When she looked up at him, stark terror was written on her face.
“I would never hurt you,” he murmured, looking her in the eyes and easing his grip. “Tell me what you saw.”
“It’s not you I fear,” she said, her tone indignant despite her waxen cheeks. “In the courtyard, there’s a—a dead animal of some kind. I didn’t look too closely at it, but I think it’s a dog,” she quavered. “There was blood all around it—and writing. I was too afraid to stay and read it.” Her eyes flew to her mistress. “You cannot let the children see it, ma’am. You have to keep them downstairs until it’s been taken away!”
Releasing the girl, Will turned to the headmistress. “I’ll go and have a look. Stay here.”
It was the wrong thing to say.
Her hazel eyes spat fire. “This is my school, monsieur. I will not hide while there is a potential threat to it loose on the grounds!”
“You cannot go out there alone,” he retorted. “I’ll go with you. In fact”—he gestured for the cook and one of the other kitchen staff to come along—“we will all go. If the culprit remains, it’s highly unlikely he’ll attack four armed people. Each of you take up a lamp and something to defend yourself with, and come with me. Elsie, where exactly is it?”
“In the center of the courtyard,” she said, shuddering. “You cannot miss it.”
Grabbing up a lamp and one of the larger knives from the block, Will led the way out through the back door. He stopped only a few feet beyond. Elsie was right; he saw it at once—because it was surrounded by flickering candles. He counted six of them, dimly illuminating a lump in the center.
