“I did,” Byon said. “I did such a good job that the police didn’t notice.”
“We saw,” the police inspector said. “We just didn’t know it was covering anything—or that that much makeup was unusual on him.”
“Right,” Jack said. “No one has the right to question future earls about anything, and they can do as they damned well please.”
Chris had been silent through this. He sat down by Byon. Tonight he’d learned his birth was the result of a rape and that his father shot a man.
Teddy put her hand on Chris’s shoulder. “I think we need a break.”
“For how long?” Sara asked.
“As long as it takes an Englishman to drink a cup of tea,” Byon said.
“But that means another 350 years!” Sara said.
It took a moment before anyone responded, but it was a needed bit of levity.
“Puck to the pantry,” Nadine said. “And let’s not take so long with the tea. I want to see what’s where.” She looked at Kate.
“Me too!” They smiled at each other.
“Exposing more secrets,” Clive said. He was looking at Willa as she and the lawyer leaned toward each other. They seemed to be talking about something serious. Now and then, one of them would glance up at Clive, then quickly look away. The next act was about Clive and Willa. He had his script for what he was to say to her but not what her part was. The truth was, he didn’t remember saying the line as it was written for him—as Willa remembered the words. Since he doubted that he’d ever said such a thing, he felt he had a right to change the line to something kinder, something that presented him in a better light. The next time Willa looked up, he smiled at her. And she smiled back. Everything is going to be fine, he thought.
ACT FOUR
A BENCH ON A HILL OVERLOOKING THE STABLES
It was dark in the garden, but Clive, playing himself, knew his way around. The only light was from the stables down the hill. Both doors were open but there was no one there. Clive thought h
e should tell Bertram about that. Thorpe wasn’t doing his job.
Willa was sitting on a bench and staring down at the light from the stables. He remembered that back then it seemed that he could never get away from her. He sighed but she didn’t look up. “I should have known you’d be here waiting. I don’t have time—”
“Be quiet!” she said.
“What?” Clive was shocked at her tone. He didn’t remember her ever speaking to him this way.
“I’m listening. Something is happening here tonight, but I don’t know what it is.”
Clive groaned. “You and your drama. The group is breaking up, that’s all. They don’t know how they’re going to cope with life if they don’t have each other. Unlike me, who has to work all the time, they—”
“Diana rode away on a horse.”
“Diana is always on a horse.”
“Not at night. She’d be afraid the animal would be hurt. And I heard a sound.”
Clive sighed again, this time louder. “And what was that?”
“An explosion. It...” She looked up at him. “It sounded like a gunshot.”
Clive thought he’d told Sara and Byon that he remembered explaining to Willa that Thorpe had been dealing with rats. He just didn’t remember how the topic came up. He sat down on the far end of the bench and tried to keep to what had been said that night. “Thorpe didn’t tell you that he’s been chasing rats? He seems like the type to shoot at them.”
She turned to him. “I guess you would poison them. Let them die slowly.”
Clive looked shocked. This wasn’t the way their conversation went in the past! She’d said she thought he was right. “No, I meant... What you heard was probably him.” He needed to get this back on track. He’d remembered that she’d asked about their wedding. She was demanding that he set the date. “About when we get married, we—”
She stood up and glared down at him. “Married? Clive, of all the things I want in life, you are at the bottom.” She turned and walked away.