Oliver nodded.
“Caroline was always a little wayward. Growing up, she was always the twin who got into mischief. It used to drive our parents wild because she refused to do as my father asked. He threatened to throw her out every time she got into trouble. One day, he followed through with his threat. Well, really, Caroline took him up on his threat and left before he could order her to go. She refused to come back, even when he commanded her to. She – Caroline - took up lodgings in town but soon deteriorated.”
“Deteriorated?” Oliver’s brows rose.
Emmeline’s voice lowered. “She spent most of her life drinking. It shamed my parents. They were horrified, humiliated, and tried desperately to persuade her to come back, but Caroline refused.”
“Why didn’t she come back when your parents passed? Were you at odds with her?”
“My cousin, who owns the house now, didn’t want her living here. He said I could stay but Caroline was on her own because of her behaviour,” Emmeline explained. She had no idea why she was telling this man so much, but suspected it was because she was trying to stave off the news that he had to tell her. Deep inside, though, she knew what he was here for.
“Did your cousin give her an allowance?” Oliver eyed the basket of sewing behind her chair.
“No. She told him where he could put it during an argument when she said she wanted a portion of my father’s estate. My cousin, Charles, inherited it all, you see?” Emmeline fell quiet for a moment and worked hard not to cry. It happened every time she was faced with just how tenuous her life had become. If anything happened to Charles as well, she would be out on her ear just like Caroline and everybody knew it.
God knows what would happen to me then.
The only way she had been able to survive had been not to think about it.
“Where is she?” she asked quietly.
“Dead, I am afraid,” Oliver murmured gently. His tone was so quiet, so tender, that it seemed to come from a completely different person to the man he had been on her doorstep just now. The man before her was dark, dangerous and huge in her tiny, somewhat humble home, yet he had spoken with such compassion that all she could do was stare at him.
“You have found her then?”
Silly question, Emmeline. If he knows she is dead. Of course he has found her.
“Where?” she asked before he could answer her previous question.
“She was strangled. We think by the people who kidnapped her. We don’t know why she had to die and wasn’t just released to find her way home. We think it was because she would have been able to identify who snatched her. She was found near here yesterday.”
Oliver closed his eyes as the haunting memory of Caroline’s corpse flitted about in the back of his mind. To think of that being Emmeline was enough to make him want to draw his gun and keep guard over her, and do everything possible to avoid it ever happening.
God, what is happening to me?
Oliver had no idea. He wanted to think it was because he was now looking at a living version of the newly deceased woman that he had spent yesterday morning trying to forget. After their meeting with Sir Hugo, the men had discussed who was going to locate a new safe house before Oliver had packed his things and set off to find Miss Emmeline Elkins. Now he had found her, he wasn’t at all sure the next phase of his plan was going to work. He couldn’t just ride off to the safe house and come back to find her when they had their plan set up to use her to lure out the kidnappers.
“What I want you to tell me, Emmeline, is what Caroline was like when she was alive. What did she do with her day? Who were her friends? Did she have anything to do with anybody who worked at Smidgley Hall?” Oliver kept his gaze trained on the delightful woman opposite while he spoke, searching for any sign that she was going to cry. It was a little disconcerting to note that she merely looked perplexed, as if facing a new puzzle that she didn’t know how to solve yet.
“Caroline’s friends were some questionable characters, if you get my meaning? They were all known to the magistrate, which is why he didn’t seem inclined to want to find her when she first disappeared. Oddly, it was only when her friends, those questionable characters, all said she had been kidnapped that he paid me any attention.”
Oliver nodded. “Those questionable characters are usually good judges of character. If they say someone has been kidnapped, and are upset over it, then that person has invariably been kidnapped. They wouldn’t cause a rumpus with the magistrate if they suspected they were wrong.”
“They didn’t cause a rumpus. They just told everyone in town that Caroline had been kidnapped. The magistrate was obliged to investigate it,” Emmeline sighed. “Otherwise, I doubt he would have bothered. His previous altercations with her, of which there were many, had given him cause to cast her into the questionable character realm and she was therefore unworthy of his
time.”
“Well, he did investigate it. She was kidnapped but unfortunately has been murdered. It is murder because she was strangled, we suspect by the kidnappers,” Oliver murmured sadly.
Emmeline sighed. “I suppose you think me quite callous for not grieving for her.”
“It isn’t for me to judge you.” Oliver leaned back in his seat, a little surprised but greatly relieved.
“I tried everything to help my sister when she was alive,” Emmeline began in defence of herself. Even though she had no reason to need to explain herself, she felt it important that he fully understand her connection with her sister. “Caroline always saw everything in life as a competition. She always wanted to be the one to go somewhere first, and see something first, or try something new first. She wanted to be in the finest clothing, and attend the best balls in the area, no matter what she had to do to get inside. It led to many problems, especially when she took it upon herself to creep into Viscount Elder’s ball. She wasn’t just thrown out. Caroline was delivered back home, and my father was sharply reminded of his place. It caused an awful time for the family. It wasn’t the only scrape that Caroline got into either. As she got older, she tried more and more daring things. Nothing seemed to mean anything to her. She had no qualms about breaking the law or flouting something in someone’s face. She goaded and taunted and didn’t seem to care who she upset along the way. So long as she had everyone looking at her, Caroline didn’t care what anybody thought, said, or felt.”
“Did she see you as competition?” Oliver lifted a brow when she looked at him. He was unsurprised when she nodded.
“I tried to help her, especially when Charles took over and made it clear she wasn’t welcome to stay here, and that she wasn’t going to receive an allowance for bringing the family name into disrepute. Caroline refused to accept any help from then on.”