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“He had a nightmare?”
“Yes.”
“Were you able to make anything out?”
“Not much. Quite a few times, he was actually crying. I felt bad for him. This was nothing I had seen before, especially with a grown man.” Mayfield rubbed a hand over his bald head. “When he woke up, he was exhausted, but he didn’t know what had happened. When I told him, he looked so humiliated. He begged me not to tell anyone about it. Which was a little difficult, seeing as a few of us had needed to hold him down.”
Victoria let this sink in. She hadn’t known about any of this. Then again, it wasn’t something she would have asked about.
“Is that when you allowed him to come with you?”
“He told us what happened and that he had nothing for him. He had lost his old life over something that he couldn’t even remember occurring, and he wanted to get away from it. Anything to stop him from thinking about it.”
“Did you say he couldn’t remember killing my brother?”
“I don’t think he did.”
“Why do you say that?”
Mayfield sighed.
“I’ve been a tracker for many years, Lady Blackmore. From what Rafe told me, your brother was shot in the head?”
“Yes?”
“He described it all to me, almost like it was seared into his mind. It sounded like a calculating, premeditated shot. And from a distance.”
“A distance?” Victoria blinked. “What makes you say that? You weren’t there.”
“Rafe described everything in detail. I’ve shot plenty of things to recognise the signs. If he had been arguing with your brother, then Rafe would have been up close. The blood on him doesn’t match up with him being close enough to shoot him the way he had been. If he had, there would have been more blood all over him.”
Victoria wasn’t sure she wanted to hear this. Her faith in her convictions was being shaken, and she had no idea how to react to it.
She took a deep breath.
“You weren’t there. You don’t know what happened. Lord Blackmore did it. I know he did.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Why? Because of some blood and the fact that it was a calculated shot. Blackmore was a tracker for some years, wasn’t he? He could have done it.”
“He was a good shot, but not as good as he declared. It took six months to get him less shaky and hone his skills. If you asked me after that if he could kill someone, absolutely. But before….” Mayfield shook his head.
“Besides, I’ve been over it many times with Rafe. I’ve seen the nightmares occur. He remembers every detail that happened before, and the details he gave me about your brother’s body are to the point. He leaves nothing out. But the bit in the middle? The actual killing? Nothing at all.”
Victoria snorted.
“Of course, there isn’t a memory of that. He’s purposely blocked it out.”
“Maybe there’s another explanation for it.”
“Like what?”
“I’m not sure. But there’s enough there for me to doubt that he killed anyone.”
Victoria groaned.
“You sound like Abigail. She seems to believe the same.”
