“I considered warning lady Christiana,” he admitted. “However, I fear I could not see how that would help. There was still no proof of the man’s perfidy, and while she might be able to warn her father and prevent his going anywhere near Master George again, I worried it would force Master George to kill the whole lot of them earlier than intended, including perhaps Lord Madison since he would know what was going on and be suspicious of any accidents to befall the women. It seemed to me the only other option was to stop Master George myself, and so I dropped cyanide into his glass of whiskey before taking it in to him.”

He sighed. “I expected Freddy to be there when I took the poisoned drink in to Master George, and had not yet decided how to handle the man.

However, he was nowhere to be seen, so I simply left the master to enjoy his celebratory drink and waited for matters to develop. It wasn’t long after that Freddy claimed he wasn’t feeling well and Master George had excused him. For a short time I was quite concerned that he may have drunk the master’s whiskey in his place. However, when I checked on Master George, he was quite dead. I quickly emptied and wiped the glass to remove any proof of what I’d done, then refilled the glass halfway and set it back before returning to the kitchens to await his discovery. But of course it never came. Lady Christiana eventually went into the office, her sisters followed, and they were in there quite a while, but there was no hue and cry. Instead, the three ladies came out some time later lugging the dead George about in a rug.”

“You knew he was in there?” Christiana asked with surprise.

“My lady, you really were not gifted with a talent for subterfuge,” Haversham said kindly.

Christiana flushed as she recalled that her first words on running into Haversham had been We’re just taking Dicky up to warm the rug. Honestly, she didn’t lie well at all .

“And then of course there were his fingers,” Haversham added.

“His fingers?” Christiana echoed with confusion.

Haversham nodded. “The three of you apparently rolled up Master George with his arms stretched above his head?”

“We thought the rug would seem less lumpy that way,” Christiana admitted with a frown.

“I’m sure it did. However, his fingers were sticking out the top end and waving at me the entire time as you struggled to hold the thing and lie about what the three of you were doing. It was most distracting.”

“Oh dear,” Christiana murmured.

Haversham smiled at her gently and continued, “I realized at once that you were going to hide the death in the hopes of finding a husband for Lady Suzette and so ordered the staff to stay away from that wing of the house for the time being. Of course, later that night I nearly had an attack of apoplexy when the Earl—the true Earl—” he added firmly, eyeing Richard, “came rushing out of his office as I was coming up the hall . I thought I had failed after all and that Master George was still alive. However, the moment his lordship spoke I recognized that it was he.”