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“Petal?” Jerry prompted.
Petal jumped at the sound of her name. She released her tight hold on Aidan enough to be able to look at him. It was then that she remembered the dowager seated quietly beside him.
“I am sorry. I didn’t realise,” Petal said swiftly. She tried to sit upright but her aches and pains protested, and she ended up flopping uselessly back down onto the bed.
“Now, you stay here,” Aidan warned.
He pressed another kiss to her temple and settled her against him again.
Her cheeks flooded with heat. It felt wrong to lie in such an intimate embrace while the dowager looked on. A wave of helplessness swept over her at her inability to correct the damage she had just done to, well, what was left of her reputation in the eyes of Aidan’s mother.
Heaven only knows what she must think of me now, Petal thought morosely.
It was then that the awful memory of those fateful moments at the top of the stairs began to return in vivid detail.
“What is it?” He was so in tune with her that he could almost hear what she was thinking. “You remember something.”
She stared blankly at the fine material of his shirt while she fought to open up the memories hidden in her subconscious.
“There was a pair of hands. I can remember them coming at me. As I fell, I looked up.”
“Did you see who it was?” Aidan asked.
He tried to keep his voice calm for fear of frightening her and losing the precious memory. However, he was just as tense as the dowager and Jerry, who both sat forward in their seats to listen.
“Petal?” Jerry prompted when at first she didn’t seem to have heard them. “Can you remember?”
“I glanced up as I fell. I didn’t see his face, but it was definitely Rollo.”
Aidan’s jaw dropped. He stared at Jerry. His first instinct was to deny it. To assure her that it couldn’t possibly be the erstwhile butler who had been through everything with both him and Jerry for many a good, and bad, year.
“Are you sure?” his voice sounded practically dull even to his own ears.
Aidan looked deeply into his wife’s eyes but saw clarity there; a calm certainty that allayed any doubts he might have had that the knock to the head had confused her.
To his disbelief, the dowager nodded slowly.
“You knew?” Aidan gasped in outrage.
If she suspected the butler might not be as trustworthy as he appeared to be why on earth had she allowed him to continue working with the family? Questions pummelled him, and he levelled a stare on the dowager that could have melted glass while he waited for her to answer.
“I suspected, but as I have said to you before, I have no proof. While you and Jerry were single, there was nothing to worry about. It is your wi
ves who pose a problem. Alice was always concerned about things going wrong in the house, and that her orders were not carried out as she wanted. Then she started to take ill, and it was clear the marriage was failing fast. But, as soon as she had died, everything settled down again. I have been keeping a very close eye on both of you ever since. If there were even the slightest question that anything untoward was happening, I would have summoned the magistrate, sacked all the staff, and started all over again. However, as soon as Alice passed away everything went quiet. All has been alright since. Well, until you had that carriage accident, Aidan.”
Jerry shook his head. “Now he couldn’t have had anything to do with that because he was here. He was in my house working with me right until the moment when I received the note informing me what had happened. He couldn’t possibly have been involved in that.”
“No, I am not suggesting he was,” the dowager countered. “He doesn’t pose a threat to you, Aidan. He just doesn’t seem to like women in the house.”
“Are you sure it was Rollo?” Aidan asked with a frown as he turned his attention back to his wife. “What did you see?”
“I saw white hands. They were wearing a dark jacket and disappeared around the corner out of sight. But it was definitely the same black jacket that Rollo usually wears,” Petal replied. “Why, Aidan? Why would he want me dead? He seemed to be one of the people who accepted me. I have never had any reason to doubt that he might be able to do something like this. Why?”
“I don’t know,” Aidan sighed.
“Rollo has been with this family since he was a young boy,” the dowager replied. “Whether his life of service has made him bitter, or whether he feels proprietary towards my sons, I think only Rollo can tell.”
“Maybe he doesn’t like you being married to a servant,” she whispered, saying what she suspected everyone else was thinking.
