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Fellows gave her a wry suardian Why did you send for utter, but I apparently learned better manners than you, Mr Fellows Shall we sit down?"

Fellowsfor her to sit before he lowered hie of a Belter arton’s horsehair furniture was hideously unco Fellows shift against the chair’s unyielding surface "Give up, Inspector; the chairs are i for tea, then I shall siin" She leaned forward "I want you to tell h Holborn house five years ago Start at the beginning and leave nothing out" Fellows looked surprised "You are supposed to be telling me what happened"

"Well, I don’t know, do I? If you explain it to o first" He stared at her a moment, and then one side of his otiator, Mrs Ackerley--forgive me--Lady Ian Do the decadent Mackenzies knohat has descended aentlemanly They care deeply about one another, have been kind to s"

Fellows looked unimpressed "Are you certain you wish to hear the story? Soruesome" "Be remorseless, Inspector"

He had remorseless eyes, did Inspector Fellows "Very well Five years ago, alate a cri woh the heart with a knife, according to the coroner She bled some, and her blood had been smeared on the walls around her"

I tried to wipe it off on the walls, on the beddingBeth shut her eyes, trying to forget the harsh sound of Ian’s voice as the words tumbled out

Fellows continued "It took some time to pry out of Mrs Palentleht before You do know that the place was once owned by Hart Mackenzie? He bought it to keep Mrs Palmer, a famous courtesan he’d taken as his an to rise"

"I presuentleht before Hart Mackenzie and Ian A gentleht hiauest of Mrs Pal ladies, and his friend Major Thoed to leave well before the murder occurred, very convenient for the, but not Ian Mackenzie, who had been bundled off to Scotland by his brother Hart"

Beth smoothed her skirt "You speak of them familiarly, Inspector You say Ian and Hart, instead of ‘his lordship’ and ‘His Grace’"

Fellows gave her a deprecating look "I think about the Mackenzies more often than I do my own family" "Why, I wonder?"

His color rose "Because they are blights on society, that’s why Rich men who spend money on women, clothes, and horses and don’t do an honest day’s work They’re useless I’m surprised you take to them, you who know all about an honest day’s work They’re nothing"

Bitterness rang in his words Beth stared at him, and Fellows flushed and tried to compose hientlemen but Ian Why don’t you suspect the a brothel is respectable, the vicar’sasks with her brows raised?"

"They were all bachelors No wives breaking their hearts at home Mr Stephenson and the two military officers were astonished by the news of the murder and were able to account satisfactorily for their one near Sally Tate, and they’d departed the house just after , according to the doctor They left Hart and Ian Mackenzie behind Ah, I mean, His Grace and his lordship" "And Ian’s servants swear Ian had returned ho what Fellows had told her before

"But they’re lying" Fellows sat forward "What I’ve pieced together fros his friend Stephenson and his brother Ian to enjoy an evening with high-class courtesans At about ten, in the parlor, the four ame of whist Ian declines the invitation to play cards and reads a newspaper According to Major Tho to hi for about a quarter of an hour, and then she convinced hio upstairs with her"

"Ian talked for a quarter of an hour?"

Fellows s"

Beth fell silent She burned up inside, thinking of Ian leading a woh she reminded herself that she hadn’t known Ian then He’d had no obligation to her at the time Jealousy wasn’t rational, however She forced herself to think over what Fellows had told her Sally had talked to Ian for a quarter of an hour, but she couldn’t have been trying to entice him upstairs all that ri Ian Mackenzie to do anything he didn’t want to was an impossible task He would have made up his one upstairs with the wo to persuade him, what had they talked about?