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While instinct told Audrey that Lady Susan was not a killer, she also knew to push through with her questions, if only to be absolutely certain. “Did that upset you?”

“Of course it did.”

“And were you envious of Miss Harwood?”

Here, the young woman seemed to realize what Audrey was alluding to. She glared, looking very much like her mother.

“You cannot possibly think I hurt Penelope?” she gasped.

“Can you tell me where you were two nights ago, when she was killed?”

If possible, Lady Susan’s glare became even more Lady Tenney-like.

“I was with Nigel Wheeler, if you must know. He’d asked me to the opera.”

That name was familiar. Audrey placed it. “Lord Sinclair’s friend?”

Tobias had mentioned the previous afternoon that he and Nigel Wheeler had gone into business together, investing in a gaming hall.

Lady Susan lifted her chin, suddenly appearing smug. “Yes. We have an understanding.” Her smugness fell away. “Though, I suppose it would be uncouth to announce our engagement at the dinner my mother is hosting in a few days. We’ll likely wait until after the funeral to post the banns.”

If Lady Susan and Nigel Wheeler were courting, then there really was no motive for her to have killed Penelope out of jealousy over Tobias.

“My congratulations to you and Mr. Wheeler,” Audrey said, though she felt no flicker of happiness. Only frustration. The young woman had brought forward a nameless, faceless man who’d suspiciously drawn the victim into a clandestine discussion, and yet Lady Susan knew nothing more than that. Only that it hadn’t been Tobias Sinclair.

“Do you know if Miss Harwood saw the man from the carriage races again?” Audrey asked.

Again, she worried her bottom lip before answering, “I don’t know. But she was different after that night. In fact, that is why I wanted to see you. There is something my mother didn’t know, and I am worried that maybe it had something to do with what happened.”

Audrey’s disappointment scattered, and she refocused on Lady Susan, hopeful once more. “Do tell me, please.”

“I would see Penelope a few times each week, though Mother would only allow us chaperoned teas and outings after learning of our night at the races. But Penelope started making little comments here and there about how stringent society was. How she longed to be free of it.”

Audrey didn’t think that too strange; many young ladies, and many older ones too, felt the same.

“She said she was determined to only marry for love. Never for money or status, even if it meant marrying in secret,” Lady Susan said, her eyes growing wider as if to impart some meaning.

Audrey grasped it. “She was thinking of eloping?”

“She didn’t specifically say, but that was when she began to truly fob off Tobias. And she began to feel poorly, too. She wouldn’t touch more than a few sips of her tea. She looked peaky. I began to worry that perhaps she was…well…”

Lady Susan appeared too mortified to finish her sentence, but she needn’t have. Audrey understood what she’d feared. She placed a hand on her own rounded abdomen, and the young woman gave a nod.

“Oh dear,” Audrey murmured. If Miss Harwood and Tobias had been intimate, then most likely he’d been the father. But then, who was this mysterious man who’d approached Penelope and turned her mind toward the idea of eloping? She’d been secretly courting Calvin Messinger. It didn’t seem plausible that she would begin to plan a secret elopement with yet another man.

If her closest friend had started to suspect she was pregnant, had Morris Harwood suspected? Or his wife? Choosing to remain silent about his sister’s condition when Hugh had been questioning him could have been to protect his sister’s reputation. But if they knew who the father was… Had that been the reason why Mr. Harwood was so insistent that Tobias was the one who’d harmed her?

Audrey had not expected her meeting with Lady Susan to only point more suspicion toward her former brother-in-law. And yet, it had.

“Thank you,” she told the young woman, though her spirits were steadily sinking. “You’ve been helpful.”

Lady Susan bobbed her head, then hastened back toward her carriage. Audrey turned to Greer, and the housekeeper’s somber expression hinted that she’d overheard much of the conversation.

“Should we return home, my lady?” she asked as they walked toward Carrigan.

“Not just yet,” Audrey replied. “I have one more person I want to call on first.”

Chapter