“Joan,” Colin said suddenly, frowning down the table at her, “you haven’t eaten and it doesn’t please me. I must insist that you regain your strength. Philpot, please serve her ladyship a noble plate.”
At that, both brothers and both wives looked at each other, then burst into merry laughter. Colin blinked; then, to Sinjun’s surprised delight, he flushed, again.
Colin, a celibate for too many weeks, had no difficulty in pleasing his wife yet another time before they slept. And Sinjun, laboring under misapprehensions for too many weeks and delighted with her newfound knowledge, was nothing loath.
They both slept deeply until suddenly, without warning, Sinjun was instantly awake, her eyes wide open to the darkness of their bedchamber.
There, shimmering in a soft light with her brocade gown weighted down with dozens and dozens of glistening pale cream pearls, was Pearlin’ Jane, and she was upset, Sinjun knew it, deep down.
“Quickly, Aunt Arleth’s room!”
The words were loud in Sinjun’s mind, so loud she couldn’t believe that Colin hadn’t come roaring awake.
Then Pearlin’ Jane was gone, vanished from one instant to the next. Not like the Virgin Bride, who gently eased out of view, slowly moving away until the shadows and she became one. No, Pearlin’ Jane was there and then she wasn’t.
Sinjun shook Colin even as she threw back the covers.
“Colin!” she shrieked at him as she pulled her discarded nightgown over her head.
He was awake and confused, but her urgency shook him. “What, Joan? What’s the matter?”
“Hurry, it’s Aunt Arleth!”
Sinjun ran from the bedchamber, not bothering with a candle. There was no time.
She shouted as she passed by each brother’s door but she didn’t slow.
When she reached Aunt Arleth’s room, she flung open the door. She stopped on the spot, frozen with horror. There was Aunt Arleth hanging from a rope fastened to the chandelier in the ceiling, her feet dangling at least a foot from the floor.
“No!”
“Oh God.”
It was Colin, and he shoved her aside as he ran into the bedchamber. Quickly, he grasped Aunt Arleth’s legs to push her up, relieving the pressure of the rope around her neck.
Within moments, Douglas, Ryder, Sophie, and Alex were crowding into the room.
Colin held her firmly against him, yelling over his shoulder, “Quickly, Douglas, Ryder, cut that damned rope. Perhaps we’re not too late.”
There was no knife to be found, so Douglas stood on a chair so he could reach the knot at the base of the chandelier. It took him several moments, moments that stretched longer than eternity, to untie the knot. Slowly, Colin eased Aunt Arleth down into his arms and carried her to her bed. He gently untied the knot about her throat and pulled it away.
He laid his fingers to the pulse in her throat. He slapped her face several times. He rubbed her arms, her legs, slapped her again, shook her. But there was nothing.
“She’s dead,” he said finally, straightening. “Dear God, she’s dead.”
Serena said from the doorway, “I knew she’d be dead. Your mother’s kelpie lover came for Arleth because she told Joan about your origins. Oh yes, the kelpie was your father, Colin, and now Arleth is dead, as she deserves to be.”
She turned and left the bedchamber, her pale nightgown floating around her as she walked. She paused and said over her shoulder, “I don’t believe in that kelpie nonsense. I don’t really know why I said it. But I’m not sorry she’s dead. She was dangerous to you, Colin.”
“Oh God,” Alex said, and to her own astonishment, she crumpled where she stood.
CHAPTER
20
“SHE DIDN’T KILL herself,” Colin said.
“But the stool beside her,” Sinjun said, “it was kicked over, as if she—” Her voice simply stopped. She swallowed, her head lowered. Colin hugged her tightly to him.