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“Tobias,” Audrey began, as she thought about the clandestine meeting Lady Susan had arranged for the following day. “Have you met any of Miss Harwood’s friends? Lady Susan Ritchson, perhaps?”

His heel began to tap again. He rubbed his temple and distractedly answered, “I have made Lady Susan’s acquaintance several times, yes. She and Penelope were good friends.”

“Would she have known of Penelope and Calvin Messinger’s secret courtship?” she asked.

“Most certainly.” He faltered, his expression twisting into a frown. “She was quite supportive of the match, in fact.”

“Which didn’t please you?” Audrey asked, noting his frown.

“No, it did not, especially as I do not believe she was supportive for the right reasons.”

Michael groaned. “What does that mean?”

Tobias squirmed in his seat. “It means that Lady Susan encouraged Calvin for Pen because she—Lady Susan, that is—was envious of my attentions toward Pen. She holds a torch for me.”

“That is rather cocky of you,” Michael chastised.

Tobias shot to his feet. “That isn’t my intent. It’s the truth. I had to let Lady Susan down the last time we met. It was at a dinner soiree, and she was being quite forward in her attentions.”

“Is that so?” Audrey asked, intrigued by this revelation. If Lady Susan Ritchson coveted Tobias’s affections and knew she would never win them so long as Penelope was there, well that gave her motive to remove Penelope from the equation.

“When was this soiree?” she asked.

Tobias, his ire from Michael’s comment dwindling, sighed and retook his seat. “Two weeks ago.”

Recently enough for Lady Susan to still feel the sting of Tobias’s rejection. But to kill her friend because of it and then place the body on Victor Messinger’s property to be found seemed an extreme overreaction. And how would a young woman of genteel upbringing have had the strength needed to lift a body, thoroughly clean up the bloody mess, perhaps rent a cart for transportation and drive it to Cumberland Place, all in foul winter weather?

Unless she had recruited help. Her devoted mother, perhaps. Or a father, willing to do anything to protect his daughter from criminal prosecution.

But then, why did Lady Susan wish to meet with Audrey? She could easily continue to hide away in her home, indisposed, as the countess had claimed. There was something Lady Susan knew that could aid the investigation.

The door to the study opened, and Hugh entered.

“There you are,” Michael grumbled, plain in his accusation that it had taken far too long for the viscount to arrive.

Wise to Michael and his moods, Hugh focused on Audrey first, not allowing the duke’s ire to affect him. “How are you feeling?” he asked her as he went to the sideboard, presumably to pour himself a drink.

“Quite well, thank you,” she answered. She doubted he was, though, by the look of frustration on his brow and the immediate desire for a whisky.

“Tobias is not a murderer, Neatham,” Michael barked.

“I do not believe he killed Miss Harwood,” Hugh replied as he selected a decanter and poured. “In fact, I’ve been out attempting to find something, anything, to cast doubt on his guilt.”

“Have you discovered anything?” Tobias asked.

“Just a timeline that doesn’t quite add up,” he answered, filling his glass. “Taking into account where you were and when over the course of the evening, and when Miss Harwood was killed and delivered to Cumberland Place, it would be extremely difficult for you to have managed the different elements of the murder and then arrived when you did at the Seven Sins.”

Hugh sipped and met Audrey’s eyes over the rim of the glass. She read the look easily. The difficult timing would not be enough to completely exonerate the young man. The prosecution could argue Tobias could have had help in the form of servants, or that the witness at the gambling hell was not accurate in their memory of his arrival. Tobias’s confession that he was with Penelope within the hour of her murder, and that he’d been rejected by her, swung far more heavily against him.

“That is because I had nothing to do with her death,” Tobias replied.

“What I need is another suspect,” Hugh said as he came to stand beside Audrey’s chair. “Someone with motive.”

“Someone like Lady Susan Ritchson,” Audrey said. All eyes landed on her.

“The friend?” Hugh said. “What did she say to you?”

“Nothing. Lady Tenney wouldn’t allow me to see her daughter,” she replied, deciding not to speak of the countess’s contempt. It did not matter anyhow.