Her father nodded, not appearing surprised. “I shall go check on the girls then.”

Christiana walked with him to the door, but as he continued on to the parlor, she turned toward the front door, relieved when she spotted Richard and Haversham there, speaking quietly.

“Richard, you can’t let him go like this,” she protested rushing to join them, but paused with surprise when she saw the small chest and bag waiting to the side of the front door. The butler was already packed and ready to go. Frowning at that, she turned to Richard and added, “He only killed George to save my sisters and me.”

“This is for the best, Christiana,” Richard said quietly, slipping his arm around her waist and drawing her against his side.

“He is right, my lady. Besides I wish it this way. I am getting far too old to perform my duties as I should. It is time I retired,” Haversham said, opening the door before bending to pick up his chest and bag. Straightening, he turned back and added, “I wish you both a happy and healthy life together.” Then he turned and strode out the door.

“Richard,” Christiana begged, trying to pull free and go after the man.

“Let him go, Christiana,” Richard said quietly. “It really is for the best.”

“Why? Killing George was a spur of the moment, desperate effort to save my sisters and me. He—”

“He used cyanide, Christiana,” Richard said quietly. “That is not something a person typically keeps sitting about the house. It suggests premeditation.”

Her eyes widened as she realized what he said was true and then she turned to watch Haversham get into a carriage waiting on the road. The man had planned his exit down to the last detail.

“You don’t really think it was premeditated do you?” she asked with a frown.

Richard hesitated and then said, “Haversham plans everything. He is a very careful man and always has been. I suspect he intended to kill George eventually, probably as punishment for his killing me, but also to rid you of the man and the miserable marriage he’d trapped you into. I suspect Haversham had been planning it for some time before actually doing it. He was most likely just waiting in the hopes that you would produce an heir.”

When Christiana glanced at him with surprise, he shrugged.

“Haversham is traditional. He would see the continuing of the family line as important,” he explained. “No doubt by the time he overheard George talking to Freddy, he’d realized that George never visited your room and there would be no heir. There was no longer a reason to wait, so he killed him.”

Richard closed the door as the carriage pulled away. “He knows I would realize all this, and that the only way my conscience would allow me to stay mum on the murder was if he was gone and beyond the reaches of English law.”

“Surely you wouldn’t have turned him in?” she asked with amazement. “Everything would have had to be revealed then, what George did, that we weren’t legal y married . . . everything.”