He tightened his fingers around her arm in silent warning.

“Yes, of course.” She gave Beaumont a steely smile. “Good night, sir. I do hope that there are no more accidents among your guests after we take our leave. Heavens, only consider the possible effects of another such incident. Why, you and your lady might find that your house parties were not quite so fashionable in the future if it got around that guests are inclined to suffer unexplained accidents while attending your affairs.”

Tobias winced, but it was too late. The damage had been done.

Beaumont’s whiskers twitched in fury. “How dare you, madam? If you are implying for one moment that I am deliberately attempting to conceal an act of murder”

“That is certainly open to question, is it not?” Lavinia shot back much too smoothly.

“Enough,” Tobias said in her ear. He looked at Beaumont. You must make allowances for her, sir. I fear Fullerton’s death has shattered her nerves. You are quite right. It is best that I take her home to London as soon as possible. Never fear, we will be on our way first thing in the morning.”

Beaumont was somewhat mollified. “Mrs. Lake is obviously quite overwrought. I’m sure she will feel much more herself when she is back in her own home.”

Tobias sensed Lavinia preparing a scathing response to that observation. Fortunately, he had got her as far as the door. He managed to haul her through it and out into the corridor before she could add any more fuel to the flames.

He could feel her vibrating with outrage on his arm. The air around her almost sizzled.

“Correct me if I am mistaken,” she said, but I believe that Beaumont just tossed us out of the castle.”

“Your observation concurs with my own. So much for our jolly little outing in the country. Perhaps you and I were not made for such fashionable entertainments, madam.”

They started up the main staircase in silence.

“I suppose you feel that it is my fault that we have been asked to leave,” Lavinia said on the first landing.

“Yes, but you need not concern yourself overmuch with the matter.

“As it happens, I had already concluded that it would be best to return to London.”

She glanced at him, astonished. “But what of our investigation here at the scene of the crime?”

“I believe we have already learned as much as we can here. The killer has completed his work. I doubt he will hang around for long.

“I would not be surprised if he has already left the neighborhood.”

“Mmm. I take your point. He planned for Fullerton’s death to take place here because he knew that you would be in the immediate vicinity, did he not? He wanted to make certain that you were aware of his handiwork.”

“I suspect that is the case,” Tobias said.

They emerged on Lavinia’s floor and found a small gathering in the narrow hall. Two women of indeterminate years, garbed in chintz wrappers and voluminous nightcaps, stood talking animatedly to a man who appeared to be in his early twenties. It was obvious that Fullerton’s death was the topic of conversation.

“Some of my neighbors on this floor,” Lavinia explained in low tones as they walked toward the group. “Lady Oakes’s hairdresser, Mr. Pierce, and two ladies who are here as companions to two of Beaumont’s guests.”

All three heads turned toward Lavinia and Tobias. Avid curiosity glittered in each pair of eyes, but there was something particularly penetrating about the gazes of the two women, Tobias noticed. They

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were staring at him with an oddly riveted, albeit slightly dazed expression.

Even if he had not been warned by Lavinia, he would have had no difficulty determining the role of these two, he thought. Both possessed the resigned, self-effacing, slightly faded quality one associated with impoverished ladies who have been obliged to undertake careers as professional companions.

Tobias suspected that the women had gone to bed early this evening. Their posts had likely excluded them from the evening’s festivities. Companions generally found themselves in the same peculiar, uncomfortable, in-between world as governesses. They were not servants, but neither were they the social equals of those they served. The combination of gentle breeding and poverty had doomed them to a profession in which they were expected to keep silent and remain discreetly in the background.

It occurred to him that this late-night gossip about violent death was probably the most exciting thing that had happened to this pair in some time.

He had met only two companions in his entire life who did not fit the usual mold of the species, he reflected: Lavinia and her niece, Emeline. They had not remained in the profession for long, and with good reason. Neither of them possessed a temperament that was suited to such a career.

“Mrs. Lake!” the hairdresser exclaimed. “We were just speaking of you. We feared that perhaps you had been overcome by the ghastly sight down below in the garden. Are you all right? Do you need a vinaigrette?”

“I am fine, thank you, Mr. Pierce.” Lavinia gave him a reassuring smile and then looked at the women. You must allow me to introduce you. Miss Richards, Miss Gilway, this is my friend, Mr. March.”

Tobias inclined his head. “My pleasure, ladies.”

They both blushed furiously.

“Mr. March.” Miss Gilway beamed.

“Sir,” Miss Richards whispered.

“And this is Mr. Pierce.” Lavinia swept her hand out in a gracefully dramatic gesture, as if heralding the arrival of a noted actor on stage. “He is the one responsible for Lady Oakes’s enchanting headdress this evening. Surely you recall it, sir?”

“Can’t say that I do,” Tobias admitted.

“Tier after tier of the most intricately fashioned curls piled high in the front?” She held her hands above her forehead in a little pyramid shape to demonstrate. “The chignon in back, braided and coiled with more curls across the top? I vow, Lady Oakes looked very impressive.”

“Huh, certainly.” He had no recollection at all of Lady Oakes’s headdress this evening, but he nodded once at Pierce. “Striking.”

“Thank you, sir.” Pierce made a deep bow and assumed a demeanor of artistic modesty. “It came out rather well, I thought. The row of curls at the top of the chignon and the loop around the coil are my own inventions. I consider it my signature.”

“Mmm.”

Lavinia smiled. “I was delayed returning to my bed chamber because Mr. March and I felt the need to make a few inquiries into Lord Fuller-ton’s accident.”

“I see.” Pierce regarded Tobias with a brief, considering look. Yes, I recall that you did mention that you and your associate occasionally engaged in a rather odd hobby. Something to do with taking commissions for private inquiries, I believe. But, really, you should not have subjected yourself to such a shocking scene, madam. That sort of thing can give a delicate lady such as yourself nightmares.”

The hairdresser’s concern for Lavinia was irritating. It occurred to Tobias that Pierce was one of those men whom young ladies such as Emeline and her friend Priscilla described as so terribly romantic looking.

He was no expert on such matters, he conceded silently, but he was fairly certain that the seemingly negligent arrangement of the curls that tumbled so artlessly over Pierce’s forehead was no random act of nature. Several of Anthony’s acquaintances currently affected a very similar style. Anthony had explained that he had avoided it primarily because it required the use of a dangerously hot curling iron and extended periods of time in front of a mirror.

Pierce appeared to have been interrupted in the act of getting ready for bed. He wore a frilled white shirt and a pair of stylishly pleated trousers. A dashing black ribbon was knotted carelessly around his neck in the tradition set by Byron and the romantic poets. It did little to veil the expanse of bare skin that was exposed in the opening provided by the unfastened shirt.