A Crimson Warning Read Online Free PDF Page B

vandalized. Someone had thrown red paint all down the front step and the door. He hadn’t particularly thought anything of it beyond it being a nuisance. But now I’ve heard said someone has given the Sanderses’ house the same treatment—and did so right before the rumor broke about Polly. It just seemed to me there must be some connection,” Miss Dalton said.
    “You’re a brave girl to come to us,” Colin said. “And you’ve done the right thing. This is extremely valuable information.”
    “I want you to find him, Mr. Hargreaves,” she said. “I want you to promise me the villain who killed my fiancé will be brought to justice. He took away all my happiness, and left me not even a widow. I’ve barely a right to grieve.”
    My heart broke for her. She’d have a relatively short period of mourning, but before long her parents would have her back on the Marriage Market.
    “I promise you, Miss Dalton, I will find the man who did this,” Colin said. “You have my word. I cannot return your happiness, but you will have justice.”
    “Thank you, sir. I know there’s no one more dependable in the empire,” she said. “Please forgive me, I must rush off if I’m to try to get home before my mother notices I’ve gone.”
    We bundled her back into her carriage and watched it pull away.
    “What do you think of this?” I asked.
    “I’m baffled,” Colin said.
    “Is there a connection between Polly Sanders and Michael Dillman?”
    “There must be.”
    “How can I help you find it?” I asked.
    “Do you have any ideas?”
    “One,” I said.

 
    4
    No trace of red paint remained on the Sanderses’ door when I reached their house after leaving Colin, who was off to Scotland Yard. Questioning the family seemed to me the most direct, and, hence, best way to begin looking for a connection between the family and Mr. Dillman. Furthermore, the scurrilous gossip about them that was flying through the park disgusted me. Society was delighted to be able to unite against a single family. Perhaps people felt their own shortcomings would be overlooked so long as they had someone else’s reputation to tarnish. This was an attitude I abhorred, and I wanted to make an obvious statement in support of the Sanderses. Calling on them would be a good start.
    I knocked on the door. A lanky servant, awkward in what should have been elegant green-and-gold livery, did a terrible job disguising his surprise at finding a caller. He assured me his mistress and her daughter were at home, and urged me to follow him. I waited in a wide corridor while he secured permission for me to enter.
    When I entered the sitting room, Mrs. Sanders and her daughter shared similar drawn expressions on faces gray with worry. Polly’s eyes, swollen and red, lacked all sparkle. Her mother, dignified and old-fashioned, stood to greet me.
    “Lady Emily, I am more grateful than I can say to see you. As you must imagine, our plight is such that most of society is unwilling to receive, let alone call on, us.”
    “I’m so sorry.” I ran my hands along the cool, smooth surface of the horsehair sofa upon which I sat. “My heart goes out to you, Polly. Have you heard from Lord Thomas?”
    “His father wrote, ending the engagement,” Mrs. Sanders said. Polly sniffed behind a handkerchief. “Their family cannot tolerate such a connection.”
    “Forgive me, Mrs. Sanders, if I speak out of turn. I know not the truth of Polly’s birth, but it seems to me irrelevant. You have never questioned her position as your daughter. Why should anyone else?”
    “You’re very kind,” she said. “But we both know discretion is essential in such matters. Society will accept nearly anything so long as it’s not spoken aloud. Once such a secret’s out, however…”
    “Have you any idea who might be responsible for the rumor?” I asked.
    “It’s no rumor, you may as well know. These things happen, and distraught though I may have been at the time, I can’t