Mina Wentworth and the Invisible City Read Online Free PDF Page A

some weeping openly.
    “His lordship’s in the garden, Your Graces. I’ll escort you there.”
    Mina didn’t move. “Just a moment, Mr . . . ?”
    He stopped, wringing his hands. “Prescott, ma’am.”
    “Mr. Prescott. You oversee the domestics in this household?”
    His gaze flicked to Rhys before returning to Mina’s face. “Yes, ma’am. Eighteen men and women.”
    She looked toward the stairs. “I only see thirteen. Where are the others?”
    Prescott glanced round at the servants, almost seemed surprised that they weren’t all there. Almost immediately, the man seemed to steady. “Cook and her girl are in the kitchens, ma’am. I sent James and Reginald after the physician. Mrs. Kenley is locking up the rooms.”
    “Mrs. Kenley is the housekeeper?”
    This time, the butler didn’t look to Rhys before answering. “Yes, ma’am.”
    “All right. Mr. Prescott, after I’ve seen to Lord Redditch, I’ll need to interview every member of your staff. I ask that they don’t speak of the incident with each other until I’ve had a chance to question them. Will you please make certain of it? Then I’ll ask you to show me to the garden.”
    With a short bow, the man immediately complied. God, that had been beautifully done. Rhys would have ordered the butler to find his balls. But with a few simple questions, Mina let the man find them on his own and steered him into recognizing her authority.
    Now he watched her study the servants, as if measuring the authenticity of their grief. In person, Redditch had been an affable, fair-minded man. The servants’ distress suggested that he’d been the same at home.
    Prescott returned, his expression stoic. “It is as you requested, Your Grace.”
    “Inspector, please.” She corrected him in an easy tone, and continued before the butler had a moment to worry if he’d erred or offended, “Is his lordship’s family at home?”
    Redditch had told them during dinner that his wife and son were in the country, avoiding the heat and London’s smoky air. She nodded when the butler told her exactly the same thing. No discrepancy there, then.
    “And did you see what happened to his lordship?”
    “No, ma’am.”
    “Did anyone see it?”
    The butler shook his head. “I only went out to the garden after I saw the brass wheel rolling past the library window. But James, the footman, said that he heard his lordship crying out for help shortly before that. He’s the one who found his lordship’s body.”
    A brass wheel? A slight furrow formed between Mina’s eyebrows. She quickly met Rhys’s eyes, as if to confirm that she’d heard correctly. But though he nodded, she didn’t immediately pursue more information about the wheel.
    “When did you last see his lordship alive?”
    “At half-past seven, when he informed me of his intention to walk in the gardens.”
    “What did you do then?”
    “I took my dinner. When I finished, I walked through the parlor and library to make certain that everything had been straightened after his guest departed.”
    “He had a visitor? Who?”
    The butler hesitated for a moment, as if uncertain whether to divulge the information. Rhys glanced at Mina, saw the speculation in her gaze. Had Redditch taken a lover while his wife was away? Someone might consider that reason to kill a man. God knew Rhys would kill any man who ever touched Mina.
    If she didn’t do it first. He knew she’d never invite another man’s touch, which meant she’d shoot any bastard who dared without permission. Rhys would only be left with an unconscious man to beat into a pulp or a corpse to rip apart.
    Not ideal, but still satisfying.
    “Who was he with, Mr. Prescott?” Mina’s tone had steel in it.
    The butler folded. “Mr. Percival Foley came for dinner, ma’am.”
    Rhys saw that she recognized the name—and no surprise there. Redditch had mentioned the man several times the night before. A bounder and the owner of a spark lighter manufactory,