Now that he was off and ranting, there was absolute quiet in the room. I saw Ian Chisholm text something on his phone. Otherwise everyone was still.
“When she came to me for the key, that’s when she told me. In the wine cellar. I’d thought she was taking me down there just to get me alone. And she was, but not for the reason I expected. Oh, she had triumph in her eyes, that girl. She said she had my son wrapped around her finger. If I didn’t marry her, she was going to marry Alex. I couldn’t have that.”
Now it was Alex’s turn to shout. “That’s a lie. Why would she want an old goat like you? When she could have me?”
I spoke up now because I knew the answer to that. “It was for the title. Alex, you might be young, and you’ve got lots ahead of you. But the title dies with your father. If she married Hugo Percival Brown, she’d not only be unimaginably wealthy, but she’d be Lady Percival Brown. Pamela had lots of money, but I think she came to England for a title. She was trading up.”
I looked at Hugo Percival Brown, who was panting now. His hands clasping and unclasping each other. “I think you’re right, Hugo,” I said, using his first name deliberately. “I think it was you she really wanted. But Pamela never cared what she had to do or who she stepped on to achieve her ends. And this time, using your own son to get to you, she took a step too far.”
“I didn’t mean to hurt her. It was an impulse of the moment.” He looked around as though he’d been in a dream and was just coming out of it. “Alex, I—”
Alex said, “I can’t hear this.” He got up and left the room, and this time, no one stopped him.
Hugo turned to his wife. Before he could say anything, she snapped, “Don’t say another word until our lawyer is present. You’re a fool.”
By this time, we could all hear the sirens. In another minute, Detective Inspector Ian Chisholm was reading Hugo Percival Brown his rights, and then the powerful man was being led away.
After the door shut behind him, Mrs. Percival Brown got to her feet. “Well, this evening’s entertainment is now over. You can all get out of my house.”
Chapter 21
“You were amazing,” I said to Miles. After driving back to Oxford, we’d all gone to The Bishop’s Mitre. All except Alex, that is. I suspected it would be some time before he wanted to socialize with his Gargoyle friends again. And who could blame him?
I felt vindicated, at least. I’d done the right thing by Pamela, and a killer would no doubt go to jail. Still, it was hard to imagine the Percival Brown family wouldn’t be forever broken. I wondered if Alex would even continue at Oxford. But that was his business. Right now, my business was letting Miles know that his acting had blown me away.
Of course, he was lapping it up. “You didn’t think the tears were a little much?”
“Honestly, my heart was breaking for you. I was the one who had coached you, and I believed you. You were absolutely amazing.”
Winnie looked over at him. “What are you talking about?”
Miles glanced at me and away again. I hadn’t told him the photo was a fake, but he was smart enough to get into Oxford. He was probably smart enough to figure that part out. All he said was, “Pamela hadn’t confided in me. Most of that was guesswork.”
“You made all that up?”
Miles looked suitably bashful. “I did. Pamela never gave me that picture for safekeeping. But Lucy knew she was having an affair with Hugo. My job was to make him believe that Pamela had confided in me about the affair and that she’d given me that photograph.”
Dolph looked stunned. “Lucy’s right. That’s the best acting I’ve ever seen. You can’t go into the sugar business, mate. You’ve got to be an actor.”
“I think you’re right. Lucy, will you come with me when I tell my father?”
“I’d be delighted to.”
And I thought, maybe even in darkness, something bright and wonderful would happen because of it. Miles had increased courage and confidence to stay out of his family business and go into acting.
And the way William Thresher and Violet were getting along, I wondered if something else might be beginning.
As for me? When the celebration was over, Rafe and I walked back down Harrington Street. He said, “The Percival Browns don’t give one a very good example of matrimony, I must say.”
“No. There aren’t many couples who can stay happy, I’m sorry to say.” I felt cynical and world-weary. We passed a charity box for used clothing, and I took off Pamela’s scarf and pushed it into the box. At least someone would get some warmth from it.
“I was extremely happy in my marriage.” He reached for my hand. “And I believe I could make you happy, Lucy.”
I felt my heart pick up its pace. He turned me to him and kissed me, slowly. I pulled away slowly but kept hold of his hand. “Are you proposing?”
He chuckled softly. “I’m offering everything I have at your feet.”
I was deeply honored. He’d been married only once in all the lifetimes he’d been alive. Now he wanted to marry me. If he’d been mortal, I’d be calling my girlfriends already and planning the wedding. But he wasn’t. And I was.
“How can you contemplate going through that again? Loving someone, marrying them, knowing they’ll live maybe another fifty or sixty years? You’d have to watch me grow old and fail and die. And you’d still be exactly as you are.”
He gave me a somewhat melancholy smile. “No one knows better than I the truth of the words, ‘’Tis better to
