“How many times,” he said, “have you been in here?”
“This is the first.”
He closed the door behind him and turned the latch.
“And my bedchamber?”
He took one step toward her. She took one step back.
“I… Once.” Her voice shook. She hated that her voice shook.
“Why?”
“I wanted to understand…”
He moved toward her. She maintained the distance. When he reached the desk, he picked up the stack of letters and examined the one she had been reading.
“Jealousy? Or fear?”
“No. Neither. Perhaps. I don’t know.”
“What were you looking for?” He tossed the letters back onto the desk then leaned against it.
Violet rubbed her palms on her dressing gown. “I am not sure what I was looking for. I wanted to understand the women who came before me.”
The duke’s face hardened to marble. “You mean you were looking for evidence against me. You believe me to have murdered my wives as thetonbelieves.”
“That is not what I said.”
He stared at the candle, or at nothing, she was uncertain.
“It is the name. There has been a curse on this blood. My father. My brother. Then our mother.” He shook his head. “I have turned it over and over and I have nothing to show for it.”
Violet moved to go to him, then stopped. “I find it hard to believe the deaths were a coincidence or results of a curse.”
She pulled the dressing gown tighter across the front. Her husband’s gaze briefly hovered there before catching her eye.
“I have thought about who could have caused their demise and why.” He swallowed, his voice strained. “I cannot think of one person capable of committing all those murders and certainly not one with a concrete motive. No one would benefit from their deaths except for Edmund, but even then, why kill three women? Why not kill me instead?”
She spoke carefully. “Perhaps because you are family. Or because that would make him the chief suspect. And if he is willing to wait, a dead duke without an heir would only be a matter of time.”
Henry righted himself. “I cannot believe it. Edmund has always been the pleasant sort. He has no malicious bone in him.”
“A pleasant face is the cheapest thing a man can wear.” Her voice was thin. “He could have it on.”
The duke pinned her with his gaze. Tension spread through her body.
“Edmund is the only family I have left.” His voice was quiet. “Best to have evidence before laying such a serious claim.”
She ignored the knot that was forming in her chest. “What am I then, Your Grace?”
Henry stiffened.
Violet took three steps before turning to face him. “He is the one who buys my tea, the tea that is tainted.”
“It could have occurred during the making of it,” he said.
“It seems odd that your cousin would concern himself with my… childbearing.”