“I’ll have you know we love this old pile of rubble.” Rex said that loudly and for Carmen’s benefit, too, then he pressed his toe harder against Olivia’s forearm.
Olivia cursed. “He promised he’d leave a share to my boys. My sons. He left it to her instead.”
Her sons? Were her two henchmen her sons?
She threw a disparaging glance in Carmen’s direction. “Charles went back on his word, so I decided to burn his pretty house down. If my boys didn’t get what they are owed, why should you?”
Rex almost didn’t want to know for sure, but it was staring him in the face so he had to hear it said aloud. “By ‘your sons,’ surely you don’t mean...?”
“Charles’s sons,” she hissed at him, and her face twisted in an ugly, vengeful smile.
Carmen was close by and Rex looked at her in order to ground himself, to convince himself she was safe. He was suffering from information overload, and all he wanted was Carmen—to know she was real, to hold her.
When he caught her eye he saw the horror there in her expression, but also the concern. She reached his side and clung to him. “The police are on their way.”
Never had Rex been more glad to feel her soft warmth against him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“I’LL NEED TO take a statement
from you now, Ms. Shelby.”
Carmen stared at the constable who was speaking to her, and tried to focus. She was a mess of emotions. Shocked by what had happened, and bewildered by the aftermath—the arrival of ambulances and police cars, arrests and medical treatment going on throughout the manor—she felt dizzy and nauseous. The ramifications of all that had been revealed left her reeling.
“Yes, yes, of course,” she managed to reply.
The constable gestured into the drawing room, and she followed, walking alongside him. “I apologize for being so vague. I’m just so shocked,” she said as they went.
“You’re bound to be. This won’t take too long.”
The police constable—thankfully a vaguely familiar face from the Beldover area—took her into a quiet corner of the room where he pulled two chairs together so that they could talk. While he made notes, Carmen kept looking out at the reception area beyond, the hallway where it had all taken place. It had been so sudden, and although she’d had some warning, it was so outrageous that she’d hardly processed the information Rex had given her before the situation got out of hand. For a few minutes there she’d really feared for her life. And Rex’s, too.
Yes, even though she was furious with him for keeping her in the dark this past week, she’d kept quiet and done exactly what her assailant had told her to do, out of fear for Rex’s safety. When he’d found her and taken over the situation, she’d never felt more relieved in her life.
Now that relief had morphed into a battalion of questions—and overwhelming doubts. She was currently going through the motions, acting according to social norms, when what she really wanted to do was go out there and demand an explanation, tell all these people to get out of their home and then confront Rex. She was still angry with him for keeping things secret, for hiding the danger. He claimed to be protecting her from it, but she’d been kept in the dark. The black clouds of their history had gathered into a perfect storm while she’d been blinded by his brilliance.
Too much had unfolded, and she felt herself withdrawing from it all, estranged by things that were beyond her control and outside of what she knew and understood. That reaction brought about the most overwhelming emotion of all—heartbreak. They weren’t close enough for him to confide in her, that was the bottom line. Those past two days had been so different. She’d begun to believe him, to trust him, and hoped the way she used to, for something more than the physical affair. But Rex was a lord unto himself, and she was alone.
She felt it as she looked around the house after the police arrived. Things were happening. People were talking to one another, and she was alone and bewildered and she had to slide her emotional armor back into place in order to cope.
“Were you aware that you were under threat before you arrived at the property today?”
“Yes and no. I had a small accident the week before and Rex was concerned. In fact, we didn’t stay here last weekend.” She pieced it all together as she spoke, realizing that he had indeed been trying to protect her all along. “I came up from London today because it was the anniversary of my mother’s death. Rex met me at the church. On the way to the house, he was trying to warn me, but it was already too late.”
“Did you know this woman, Olivia Fordyce?”
Carmen shook her head. “No, I’d never heard of her before today.”
Rex had known all along, though; he said she was the reason his parents split up. “I’m sure that Rex can shed more light than I.”
The constable went over the details of the actual attack, checking each point with her before ticking it off. She watched as he made notes. At one point she heard the ambulance leaving the property, the lights that had been flashing outside the sitting room window fading away.
Mrs. Summerfield appeared at the door.
“I’m making tea for everyone,” she called in. “How do you take yours, Jim?”
The constable nodded and waved. “Two sugars please, Mrs. Summerfield.”