Amanda nodded. "I know. You forget. I've known him since birth. But why didn't you realize, if Conlan said the murderer looked like you-"
"I thought he'd made a mistake, one others had made often enough."
"Confusing you and Luc?"
He nodded. "We're alike enough now, but then… it was easy at a glance to confuse us. Only… it wasn't until I heard Conlan describe the scene just now that I realized about the light."
Amanda looked up at the escarpment. "It was as it now is on that day?"
"Yes. A clear sky with weak sunshine bathing the entire Edge. Quite aside from the quirt, I can't believe Conlan would have missed the difference in coloring-not in that light."
"Which means it isn't Luc." Amanda turned to Martin. "So who…?" Her voice trailed away; she felt her eyes grow round. "A gentleman who looks like you." She grabbed Martin's arm. "The highwayman!"
The frown in his eyes told her he'd already made the connection, and would have preferred that she wasn't so perceptive; she ignored that. Her mind was racing."That's why he was waiting at the c
rossroads-he was waiting, not for Reggie, but…" She frowned. "How could he have known you were on the road north?"
"I don't know, but I seriously doubt Reggie was his target."
"Reggie said the shot came immediately he leaned forward."
"And the 'highwayman' didn't check his victim, so we don't know whether he realized he shot the wrong man."
"But why does he want to shoot you?"
"To stop me from investigating the events surrounding Buxton's death-and Sarah's." Martin was silent for a moment, then, jaw firming, he jumped down from the wall. "Come on-there's someone else we need to speak with."
Mrs. Crockett stared at him for a long moment, then stood aside. "Come in. Can't say as I'm surprised to see you."
Amanda glanced at Martin; unperturbed, he ushered her past him, then followed her into the cottage's small parlor. Mrs. Crockett waved them to a sofa; she returned to a rocker that was gently rocking.
"Well." She faced them across the hearth. "I have to say I thought it was you who'd done the old man to death, given they'd found you with the rock in your hand. You could of done it easy with that temper of yours-damned righteous, just like your Da. And it'd be just like you to fly to Sarah's defense. But then Conlan said otherwise, and there's no one hereabouts had sharper eyes than he, not then."
She started rocking, her gaze drifting from them. "Truth was, I wasn't agin seeing old Buxton dead, not after what he did. The sins of the fathers was all on his head, and rightly so. But"-she paused in her rocking, refocusing on Martin-"there was one thing I knew you didn't do, and that was take advantage of my Sarah."
Her voice had grown fierce. "I tried to tell them it wasn't you, but they saw it as all of a piece. Everyone knew she was yours if you wanted, anytime you'd thought to crook your finger." She shook her head. "But you never saw her that way, not that 1 ever saw. You never had brother nor sister-she was a little sister to you."
"Yes."
"Aye." Mrs. Crockett drew her shawl tighter. "Nitwits, the lot of them, thinking it was you. I knew. I saw the bruises."
Amanda felt the room-felt Martin-grow still. Then he asked, softly, "Bruises?"
Mrs. Crockett's lips worked, then she blurted out, "Whoever he was, he forced her. I saw the marks-aye, and the change in her. All laughter and smiles, then the next day it was all I could do to get her to look at me. Cried all night, she had. I didn't know, not then. But she was never one to make a fuss, my Sarah, and with a father like she had, well, no wonder, was it?"
She rocked faster, shot a fiery glance at Martin. "If you'd been here, like as not I'd've sent word-seen if you could talk her round, but she wouldn't say naught to me, no matter what I knew."
"She was forced." Martin's voice was even. "You're sure?"
Mrs. Crockett nodded. "As I'm sitting here. On the second of the year, it was, two days after the ball at the big house."
When both Martin and Mrs. Crockett remained silent, Amanda prompted, "You said you knew it wasn't Martin."
Mrs. Crockett looked directly at her. "Stands to reason, don't it? If he"-she nodded at Martin-"had wanted her, all he had to do was say. He wouldn't have needed to hold her down." She sent another glance at Martin; her lip trembled, her voice softened as she added, "He wouldn't have hurt her, either-there were enough lasses round here, even then, would have sworn to that. But my Sarah had bruises, big black bruises, all the way down her back. The blackguard had thrown her down on rocks to have his way with her." Mrs. Crockett jerked her head at Martin. "Wasn't him."
Martin stirred. Amanda could feel his suppressed rage vibrating through him; he was tense as a coiled spring. But his voice remained even when he asked, "Did she say anything, drop any hint over who it was?"
Mrs. Crockett snook her head. Never. You may be sure I'd have remembered if she had." After a moment, she continued, staring at the fire, "I still remember how she gathered her courage and faced her father when it had to be done. She tried to make him see reason, but him?" She snorted. "Locked her in her room, he did, then the beatings and the preachings began."