I felt like I should do something, but what? Davina was clearly out of her mind with grief. What could I possibly do to stop her when her own husband just stood there, looking impotent?

“No, what do you think?” Piper asked. Her voice was just above a whisper.

“I think the thought of marrying you, of being stuck with someone so out of his own social class, caused him to die of a heart attack,” Davina hissed. “You are so far beneath him and he knew it, but he did it for—”

“Davina, stop it right now!” This time Sirus’s voice was a command. Davina didn’t care. She turned on him. Her hair was falling around her face; her mascara circled her eyes. She looked like the grief was shredding her from the inside out.

“Stop it?” she spat at her husband. “We wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for you and your mismanagement of your inheritance. You speculated and lost and our son, our only child, took it upon himself to marry this—” She waved a dismissive hand at Piper. “This parvenu.”

That didn’t sound good. I hadn’t gotten the warm fuzzies off Davina and Sirus from the moment I laid eyes on them, and I didn’t particularly like Piper either, but right now, after that horrible woman said those vicious things, I was 100 percent Team Piper. I wasn’t the only one.

“What did you just call my daughter?” We all turned around to see Rita storming down the hallway. Gone was the ingratiating smile. Instead, she looked like she would happily slap Davina across the face.

“It’s all right, Mum,” Piper said. “Something terrible has happened and Davina is upset.”

Rita moved to stand beside Piper. She stared down at Davina. “What could possibly have happened that she would speak to you like that?”

Davina turned away from them as if she couldn’t bear to look at the mother and daughter. Piper turned in to her mother’s arms and put her head on her shoulder. Then she sobbed.

Carlton cleared his throat and said to Mr. and Mrs. Portis, “You’ll be wanting to sit in the drawing room, I expect.”

“No, I don’t—” Davina argued but Carlton cut her off.

“Follow me.” He looked at Sirus expectantly, and Sirus nodded. He took his wife’s elbow and they followed Carlton to another room down the hall.

At that moment the detective inspector stepped out of the library. He saw Carlton leading Sirus and Davina away, and he glanced at Rita and Piper.

“How are you, miss?” he asked. His voice was kind. I didn’t know if he had heard what Davina had unleashed on Piper, but I suspected he might have.

“Who are you?” Rita asked. “What is this all about?”