It wasn’t until I crossed the room that I realized what subtle, but clever battle lines they had drawn. Each man sat on a settee, Trevor on the sage green damask and Gage on the cream and gold toile, with the tea table positioned between them. No other chairs were drawn close enough to the table to reach the tea things, so they would force me to choose. Would I sit next to my brother or the man with whom my relationship was undefined?
A less observant person might have thought nothing of the arrangement, but I knew better. I could see the way their eyes cut to one another, the twitch of their fingers on the arm of the settee, especially Trevor’s, who was far less skilled at subterfuge than Gage.
I slowed my steps, dismayed and then frustrated that they should do this to me. I could not choose without upsetting someone. It was impossible.
I could feel my smile tightening on my face as the choice was upon me. So I selected the man who had least offended, settling beside Gage on the cream and gold toile. I glared at Trevor over the tea set. Gage was a guest in our home. My brother should know better than to try to discomfort him.
I’m certain Trevor knew what my glare meant, but far from being chastened, he scowled right back. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, and I set about preparing everyone’s tea.
Once we had each settled back with our cups of tea and the little lemon cakes our cook prepared that I so adored, Gage introduced the topic for which he’d been summoned to Blakelaw House. I filled him in on the details we’d gathered so far concerning Dodd’s murder, and the theft of the eleventh Earl of Buchan’s bones. Gage listened thoughtfully, asking the occasional question, but mostly just absorbed the information I related. The data I imparted about Lewis Collingwood and his interest in the late earl’s burial seemed to intrigue him particularly.
“Though,” he puzzled, leaning his fair head back against the settee, “if the grave robbers had only wanted the torc, why would they also go to the trouble to steal the rest of the body?”
“I wondered the same thing,” I admitted. “But what if they took the bones to distract us from the fact that they took the torc?”
A slow smile curled his lips. “Devious.”
I couldn’t help but smile in return. “Yes.”
Trevor leaned forward to take another cake from the tea tray. “But all of that hinges on the assumption that the torc was buried with the earl, and so far we have no proof of that.” He arched his eyebrows to make his point and then popped the cake in his mouth.
“Well, our best bet for discovering the truth about that is to speak with Mrs. Moffat in St. Boswells. She prepared the earl’s body for burial.”
“Then we shall have to pay her a visit tomorrow.” Gage lifted his head, sitting up straighter in his seat, and crossed one booted foot over his knee. “Now,” he declared, eyeing us both closely. “I’m afraid there’s something I must tell you that may have bearing on this investigation.”
I shared a look of astonishment with Trevor and then leaned forward from my corner of the settee toward Gage. “What do you mean? You’ve uncovered something already?”
He tapped his fingers against the leather of his boot. “Indirectly. It relates to another inquiry I conducted recently. One that is disturbingly similar.”
“How so?”
“It was another body snatching. This one of a grave that was over eleven years old.”
“So nothing but bones,” I clarified. “And the deceased’s effects? They were left behind?”
“Yes. The same circumstances. Except . . .” He paused, glancing at both of us again.
I strained even closer, curious what he would say.
“About a week after the theft . . . the family received a ransom note.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
“A ransom note?” I gasped in disbelief. “For a corpse?”
Gage nodded. “Yes. Very odd.”
I sat back, slightly stunned, and then amazed as the possibilities began running through my head. “And fiendishly clever.” The gleam in Gage’s eyes told me he had also considered the implications.
“What do you mean?” Trevor demanded, frowning in confusion.
“I take it the family of this other victim is wealthy?” I asked Gage, just to be certain that my speculation lined up with the facts.
“Very.”