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Back The Ninth Daughter
Chapters (37)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Dedication
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Twelve
  16. Thirteen
  17. Fourteen
  18. Fifteen
  19. Sixteen
  20. Seventeen
  21. Eighteen
  22. Nineteen
  23. Twenty
  24. Twenty-one
  25. Twenty-two
  26. Twenty-three
  27. Twenty-four
  28. Twenty-five
  29. Twenty-six
  30. Twenty-seven
  31. Twenty-eight
  32. Twenty-nine
  33. Thirty
  34. Thirty-one
  35. Thirty-two
  36. Thirty-three
  37. Thirty-four

“I did. It wasn’t Danvers, but Townsend, a hamlet in that direction—and in fact it wasn’t even in the village, but some distance away. A vile journey.” She shivered at the recollection of those shuttered-up houses in Gilead, of the twisted little cripple-boy working the spinning wheel with his withered hands, a task he would pursue, Abigail guessed, for life, having nowhere else to go nor any worth to anyone save for that simple chore. “Mistress Moore told me that there was none she could think of, who would have wished Mrs. Malvern harm. But if it is a madman, it would not be—might not be—anyone she knows.”

Except of course that it was, she thought, seeing in her mind the dim glow of firelight in the rain as shutters were opened into the alley, the pinched o and slightly twisted in of the forged note. The Linnet in the Oak Tree. Cloetia.

“I take it,” she said after a time, “that you have spoken to Mr. Pentyre?”

“I have,” said the Lieutenant.

“And did he have an account of his own whereabouts on the night of his wife’s death?”

“He did.”

“Did you believe it?”

“Madame,” said Coldstone, “there is no question of Pentyre’s involvement in his wife’s death—”

“Why is there no question?” asked Abigail. “Because Mr. Pentyre is the Governor’s friend?”

One corner of Coldstone’s mouth turned down, hard, a prim fold of exasperation.

“Why are you so convinced that my husband—and not, I notice, any more obvious member of the Sons of Liberty—had a hand in the killing?”

“Perhaps because the only people who claim to have been with your husband at the time of Mrs. Pentyre’s death are known to be speakers of sedition, if no worse, against His Majesty’s government?”

“Ah. And only traitors will lie to cover the movements of their friends?”

“You will admit that those who are known to be engaged in smuggling would be less likely to question a ‘friend’ if he asked them to lie.”

“I will admit that they might oblige if asked for an untruth, but I will not admit that they’re readier to such a lie than anyone else in Boston, up to and including members of the Governor’s family.”