Page 27 of Honor Unbound

I blinked. “Well…I saw the body, didn’t I? We all saw the body.” I nudged Jane.

She looked up, her pen hovering over the document. “What? Oh, yes. Clear as day.”

Sir Kelsey leaned back. “That’s good. I would hate to hear that it had been one of your representatives who spoke to my coroner without authorization.”

“Coroner?” I shook my head, trying to look innocent. “No, I haven’t spoken with him. Though I must tell you it would be to your benefit if I did. I do have some experience at investigations. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first murder I’ve come across.”

Jane laid the pen down and returned my spectacles. “She seems to attract dead bodies.”

I glared at her.

“I am aware of the incident at your club last year.” Sir Kelsey hooked his thumbs in his waistcoat pockets. “And the officer of Bow Street who solved that murder was most complimentary to you in his reports.”

“Hesolved it?” I said, my voice tinged with outrage.

“But it is not your place to interfere in my investigation,” he continued. “I must ask that you leave the matter to me.”

I drummed my fingers on the armrest of my chair. “And how far have you come in the investigation, Sir Kelsey? Have you any suspects yet?”

“Well, we’re still talking with the victim’s known associates.” He spread his hands wide. The top button of his waistcoat slid free.

“You’re talking to them as an investigator. I can speak to them as a friendly acquaintance. An equal.” I didn’t mean to be rude, but murder investigations tended to call for bluntness. “I can learn information that you may not.”

He dipped his chin and smiled. “I find that claim very difficult to believe. You may be adept at gossip but I work in facts.”

My shoulders inched upward. “You don’t have much use for my ideas, do you?”

“Should I?” He chuckled. “I am a trained investigator. You are…” He cleared his throat. “Well, I understand that women in your position might suffer from bouts ofennui, but I can assure you that poking about in a murder isn’t a sound way to alleviate that condition.”

Heat clawed up my neck.Ennui?I had never, not once in my life, wanted for diversion. I knew my interest in investigationwas unusual, but the man had taken his condescension a step too far.

“A wager then?” I raised one eyebrow.

“Oh, lud, here we go,” Jane muttered.

The magistrate settled more deeply into his chair. “What would the terms be?”

I pursed my lips. “Nothing too difficult. If I uncover the killer before you, I want an apology that you ever doubted my mental faculties.”

“I never said I doubted your faculties, milady,” he protested.

“You implied it. Heavily.”

He sighed. “I am sorry if I gave that impression.”

“Not good enough.” I stood. “When I solve this case, I want you to acknowledge that women of my station, women of my age, still have something to contribute. That my mind is just as sharp as yours. Do we have a deal?” I was most likely pressing my luck but I was tired of being disregarded because God had seen fit to put a few more wrinkles on my face. The magistrate would understand when he reached my age.

He rose to his feet and gave a short bow. “Of course, Lady Mary. If you solve this case, I will have no problem admitting to such.”

Jane snorted. “An easy thing to promise when you have no doubt she will fail.”

“And when you don’t solve this case, what is it you will give me?” he asked.

I pursed my lips. What on earth would I give the man?

He snapped his fingers, as though a thought had just occurred to him. “I know. I need a space, one evening a month, where some fellow members of the Royal Blackheath Golf Club and I can meet without interruption.”

“You’re a member of a golf club?” I knew that game was fashionable in Scotland but I’d never met anyone who’d actually played it.