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He crossed to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “I understand your desire to protect your friend, and I know how loyal you are.”

Electra turned in her chair, looking up at him. “It is not merely loyalty. And it’s not clouding my judgement. I know both of them. I live with Cordelia. Would I not have sensed if she had murdered a man last evening?”

Gideon crossed to his chair and sat down again. “I know that you can sense a great deal, and I cannot begin to explain how⁠—”

“I touched her, Gideon. She asked me to take her hand, and I did.”

His eyes widened and he wore a look she knew too well. The prospect of new details about a case always put a spark in his eyes. “And what did you see?”

Electra thought back to the images. “That she spent time with Pennington walking through Hyde Park. That she was in a carriage with him, and he was pleading with her. She climbed out and left him.”

“When was the carriage incident? Did she tell you?”

“I believe it happened yesterday. And I saw that she did leave him well and alive.”

“At what time?”

“She was away from Russell Square between three and five. I saw her before she departed and when she returned. Earlier in the day, she’d invited me to dine at home with her and Kit. I declined because of our planned dinner, but later we did dine together at Russell Square. However, Kit was detained elsewhere, so it was just the two of us.”

Gideon pressed a hand to his mouth, pensive and quiet. “Any idea where Sir Christopher was last evening?”

“He said he attended debates in the House of Commons.” Electra drew in a deep breath. “What happens next?”

Gideon lowered his hands to brace them on his hips. “Lady Redmayne will be called to testify at the inquest.”

Electra’s eyes fluttered shut, but she forced them open. “Then there will be a scandal. An MP’s wife and a Queen’s Counsel barrister.”

“If what you saw was the last meeting between Percival Pennington and Lady Redmayne, then she may very well be the last person who saw him alive. The coroner will wish for her to testify to his demeanor and state of mind, at the very least.”

To her surprise, Gideon reached up and buttoned the top buttons of his shirt, then stood and retrieved his waistcoat and suit coat, which she hadn’t noticed resting on the back of a chair.

“I need to speak to them. Separately,” he told her. “Preferably tonight.”

Electra sat her teacup aside and stood too. “I want to be there when you speak to her.”

He ground his teeth. “I cannot allow it, Electra.”

“You have allowed me to be in the room with others while you've spoken to them. Even someone I was acquainted with.” Months ago, a school friend had invited her to Oxfordshire, and she had found herself caught up in a murder investigation with which Gideon had assisted.

“Not someone you reside with.”

“I would not interfere. I simply wish to be there so that Cordelia might feel less frightened.”

Gideon turned away to don the clothes he’d apparently removed when he’d come home. She knew he was pondering her request, and she prayed he would relent.

“Will you take her hand again?” he asked, glancing over his shoulder.

Electra frowned. “Are you asking me to, Gideon?” He had come to believe in her abilities, or at least express less doubt than when he first learned of them. “Or are you asking me not to?”

When he faced her, his expression was inscrutable. It was the look of unruffled control that he employed during a case. “If you do, I ask you to tell me what you’ve seen, even if it were a truth you would wish to protect Lady Redmayne from.”

“So you do suspect her?” Even saying the words shot a chill down her spine.

“I cannot make presumptions, Electra, about anyone’s guilt or innocence. You must know that. An investigation requires as much objectivity as I can muster.”

Electra nodded. “I know.”

And if she did touch Cordelia and saw something damning, she could never keep the truth from Gideon, not even to protect Cordelia.