Ryder laughed again, more deeply, more richly, more genuine amusement than before.
"Sir!"
"Mr. Cole, Thomas is a villain, as I must assume you already know. I don't believe it wise to take testimony from a villain. I propose another theory, one that differs from yours quite substantially. However, there is just as much motive, just as much rationale for mine, as for yours. Thomas is a bounder. I suspect that Mr. Burgess discovered Thomas was cheating him, that or he was abusing the slaves too much, and he fired him. Put very simply, Thomas killed him. As luck would have it, Miss Stanton-Greville and her brother were there at Camille Hall and thus she proved to be a perfect scapegoat for Thomas."
"Thomas is a man and she is a—"
"No, he's a bastard, no-account, cruel, mean as a snake."
"That doesn't excuse Miss Stanton-Greville. Why, she's nothing more than a—"
"I wouldn't say anything were I you, Cole. She and her brother are under my personal protection. Indeed, I will be applying shortly to become the guardian to both of them. Oliver Susson will be handling the matter." "Ah, I see the truth of the matter now." "Do you, now? Pray, just exactly what do you see?" "She is, as I intimated before, your mistress." Ryder said in a voice reminiscent of his father's whenever he was tired of an individual's impertinence and wanted him gone, "Perhaps she will be someday. I'm not as yet certain I wish to bed her and keep her. However, I do feel an obligation to Jeremy and she comes along with him. He is, after all, Theo Burgess's heir. His interests must be protected and I can see no other man to do the job. Now, Cole, do you wish to say anything else? No? Why then, why don't you have Thomas fetched in your august presence? Perhaps with your obvious interrogation skills you can induce him to tell the truth." Ryder rose and merely waited for Cole to heave himself to his feet, which he did, reluctantly. "I just might find more evidence to convict her!" "More, Cole? As of this moment, you haven't even a pinch, nary a dollop. Get Thomas and you've got your killer. Now, I have many matters to attend to. I trust you will excuse me. Oh, should you care for more sweet buns to take with you?"
Sophie quickly ran back up the stairs. She'd seen Mr. Sherman Cole ride up the drive. She'd had to know what he would say. Nothing he said was unexpected. Ryder had handled him brilliantly. But then Ryder had spoken. . . . She felt deep, very deep pain and it wasn't in her ribs or in her burned throat.
"I am not as yet certain I wish to bed her and keep her."
He was no different from any of the other men. She guessed that he would demand her in his bed as payment for seeing to Jeremy's protection. Then he would tire of her and that would be that. At least she'd be free, at last. She and Jeremy would live in peace at Camille Hall. Everything would be all right. In a year and a half she would be twenty-one and deemed old enough to become his guardian.
She managed to climb into her bed and pull the sheet to her chin before he was standing there in the doorway, looking at her, saying nothing for a long time.
"Mr. Cole was very amusing."
"Was he? Am I to be arrested?"
"You still sound like a foghorn. No, you won't be arrested. I venture to say that Thomas just might be the one to hang. Wouldn't that solve all our problems?"
She turned her face away from him and said in a very low voice, "Why was Coco awake so very late last night? You said she was the one who saw me leaving."
"Coco is pregnant. She was feeling ill and thus had her face in the cool night air on the balcony."
"Oh."
"Would you like to hear everything that is going to happen now?"
She wanted to scream at him that she'd already heard everything and for him to shut up and just go away, but she couldn't. She merely nodded.
He censored judiciously, so well in fact that if she hadn't overheard the entire exchange between the two men, she wouldn't have suspected a thing.
Ah, but he left out the damning things.
"I don't think so," she said when he finished.
"You don't think so what?"
"I don't need you to volunteer your services as guardian. I am nearly twenty. Mr. Susson can be Jeremy's guardian until I reach twenty-one, then I will be his guardian. Camille Hall now belongs to him. Yes, I will be his guardian."
"No."
'You are very nearly as young as I am. How could you possibly set yourself up to be my guardian? It's absurd."
"I am nearly twenty-six, not so very young an age."
"Not so great an age either."
He grinned suddenly. "My brother would like to hear you say that. The poor fellow is only twenty-eight and all the Sherbrookes were pounding and pounding at him to get himself wedded and produce an heir."
"What happened?"