AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh, Teddy! Why didn’t you talk to me?”
“For the same reason you didn’t talk to me, I imagine,” Teddy said. “Fear. I was terrified of losing you, Alexia.” Reaching out, he stroked her cheek tenderly. “Anyway, as it turned out I needn’t have worried. Not then, anyway. After he was released, he sniffed around your old haunts for a while, trying to find you. But after a few dead ends, he gave up. Got married, started a business, had a child. He seemed to be happy and I believed, I hoped, that that would be that. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. You were appointed home secretary, and everything changed. Barely a week later, Hamlin shows up at Kingsmere like a rotten penny.”
Slowly it dawned on Alexia. “You thought he’d come back to blackmail me.”
“Why else would he have come, after all this time?”
“I don’t know,” Alexia said sadly. “I never gave him a chance to tell me. But I didn’t want him harmed. I didn’t want him dead, for Christ’s sake!”
“Keep your voice down, darling,” said Teddy. “Remember where we are.”
Alexia looked around the holding cell with its stark walls and functional office furniture. In a few minutes someone would come and take Teddy away, lock him up for another murder. It was all too much to take in.
“If Hamlin had stayed away, got on with his own life in New York, everything could have continued just as it had been. But like Andrew Beesley, your friend Mr. Hamlin had an eye for the main chance. It was obvious what he wanted, darling: to extort money and drag the De Vere family name through the mud. I wasn’t about to let that happen. Not after all our hard work.”
“But, Teddy!” Alexia pulled at her hair in desperation. “You don’t know any of that. What if Andrew really did love Roxanne? What if Billy Hamlin wasn’t trying to hurt me at all? Maybe there was something he needed to tell me. Maybe he wanted my help, have you thought of that? He never asked me for money.”
“Only because he never got the chance.”
“He was such a gentle man,” Alexia said sadly. “You didn’t have to kill him.”
Now it was Teddy who became exasperated. “Don’t defend him! Don’t you dare! He never loved you like I do, Alexia. Never! I did it to protect you. I did it out of love. Do you think you’d have had the career you’ve had, the life you’ve had, if it weren’t for my protection? If I hadn’t been there keeping your secrets, covering your tracks? I made you who you are, Alexia. I gave you your life.”
It was true. Alexia had often thought so herself. She owed Teddy so much. She just hadn’t realized that the price for his love had been so high. Two innocent men had paid for it with their lives.
“What about Billy’s daughter, Jenny?”
Teddy’s eyes narrowed. “What about her?”
“I’m assuming you know she’s dead? Murdered, like her father. Drowned, in fact. You seem to know everything else.”
Teddy shook his head. “No. I didn’t know that.”
“So you’re telling me you had nothing to do with what happened to that girl?”
“Of course not. I just told you, this is the first I’ve heard of it.”
He could easily have been lying. But something deep inside told Alexia that Teddy’s ignorance was genuine. She didn’t know whether to feel relieved or disappointed. At this point it would almost be easier to believe that Teddy had murdered Jenny Hamlin. That his warped sense of justice and family pride had been behind all the bad things that had happened.
“I’m sorry, Alexia.”
She looked down and saw that her hand was still in his. Not knowing what else to do, Alexia left it there. But the comfort that hand had once held for her was gone now, gone forever.
Like everything else. Like my children, my career, my marriage, my future.
Piece by piece, brick by brick, the fortress that Alexia De Vere had built around her life was being dismantled by some unseen hand, some cruel, relentless fate.
“You haven’t told the police, have you? About Billy.”
Teddy pulled his hand away. “No. And nor must you. They’ve no reason to connect either of us to that case, and we’ve no reason to give them one.”
“Yes we do, Teddy. We should tell the truth.”
“Nonsense, Alexia. What’s truth compared to family honor? Compared to reputation? If the police knew about Billy, they’d have to know about your past life. Is that what you want? Is it?”
Before Alexia could answer, the door opened. Two court officers walked in, followed by Angus Grey.
“Time to go.”
