Page 69 of A Dangerous Vision

“We had a row, as I mentioned.” The young man lifted a shoulder, but he seemed anything but careless over the matter of his break with Mrs. Devlin. “A lover's quarrel, as they say.”

“And what was the cause of the quarrel?”

Muscles shifted in the man’s jaw, and he cast his gaze to the carpet before speaking in a low voice. “I wished for Demeter to come and live with me. She insisted that she was content at Regent Square.”

“Miss Mahoney mentioned that her lodgers were temporary at Regent Square, when she allowed it.”

Pennington nodded. “Nell didn't want her there long term, it is true. And I know she wanted more for her sister, just as Demeter wanted more for herself. I even offered for us to find a place of our own. Somewhere more spacious. Fashionable, if we could manage the expense.”

“Miss Eleanor Mahoney, who you call Nell, is Demeter Devlin’s sister?”

“Did you not know, Inspector?”

“Not until this moment.”

Pennington nodded. “They are very protective of one another. I gather they were orphaned and raised each other.”

Gideon always felt sympathy for orphans, as he had been one himself and knew the fear and uncertainty of it. Yet, his thoughts went immediately to Electra. He understood Eleanor Mahoney’s connection to Percival Pennington, but why had her sister sought out Electra under a false name?

“Mrs. Devlin refused your offer?”

Pennington bowed his head a moment and looked utterly defeated.

“Yes,” he whispered. “She refused.”

“And when she departed that evening, do you know where she intended to go?”

“I assumed she returned to Regent Square.” He notched up his chin, gripped the chair arms as if bracing himself and said, “I…wasn't at the theatre as I told you previously. I did not want to admit that I spent the evening in the doldrums after our row. You know how it is. Surely, you've been in love.”

Gideon felt a pinch in his chest and thought all too quickly of Electra.

“You rethink everything you've said and wish you'd done differently. But you cannot turn back time.”

“Did you seek her out again that evening?”

“No, I…drowned my sorrows.” He lifted a finger to point to the glass on the table next to him. “But I tried to find her in the morning. Bought flowers in Covent Garden and made my way to Regent Square, but Mrs. Earnsley told me she had gone out.”

“So you saw her last on the night of your brother’s murder?”

Pennington shot him a bleak look. “Yes, it’s the last night I saw either of them, but I trust she will return soon.”

Gideon couldn’t quite sort out how Mr. Pennington could seem so passionately attached to the lady and yet express an almost complacent certainty about her extended absence.

“Were you jealous of your brother's involvement with Mrs. Devlin?”

Pennington scoffed. “No, I knew that there were no true feelings between them.”

“That wasn't quite the question I asked, Mr. Pennington.”

He traced his fingers along the edge of the chairs arm. “I once told Demeter that I wished I had met her years ago. Before she'd married anyone. She laughed at me. Told me I was a sentimental fool, which I suppose I am. Perhaps it comes with being a playwright.”

Lifting his head, he met Gideon’s gaze squarely. “So, yes. Would I wish that I had met her before she ever knew Percy? I would be lying if I said I didn't wish that.”

“But she had, and that provoked your jealousy.” Gideon didn’t phrase it as a question; he sensed he would not have to.

“A bit, but as much as I am a man of fancies and fiction, I accepted the truth of the situation. I knew my brother was infatuated with someone else. And I knew my feelings for Demeter were returned in a way they never were for my brother.”

Gideon nodded, acknowledging Pennington’s view of his relationship with Mrs. Devlin, yet he knew there was more to the lady he’d yet to meet. There were those meetings with Percival Pennington that his brother seemed unaware of and the matter of feigning a false identity.