Page 5 of A Murder at Kew Gardens

"May I ask the matter?"

He permitted himself a small pause, a man savoring a dish before he passed it along. "A body has been found, my lady, at Kew Gardens. There are circumstances which make it necessary that I speak to His Lordship directly."

“You may speak to me."

"I cannot⁠—"

“Inspector. If there is something to be said about a body at Kew, you may say it to me, or you may say it to him in my presence, but you will not stand in my hall and tell me nothing.”

Honeycutt cleared his throat. “His Lordship is coming in from the greenhouse now, milady.”

Cosmos arrived in his shirtsleeves, his hair pushed back, a smear of soil on his chin. He took in the constables, the Inspector, me. He wiped his hand on the rag in his pocket.

“Inspector.”

“My lord.”

“What has happened?”

Dodson reached into his breast pocket and drew out a folded square of cloth, which he laid carefully on the hall table and opened it. Within was a pistol.

I have never fainted in my life, and I did not faint then. But I put my hand on the edge of the hall table because I had come very near to doing so.

What Dodson held was Cosmos's pistol. A gift from our father on his twenty-first birthday. He had kept it carefully in its case, in a desk drawer in his study. I had taken it without asking, because asking would have required an explanation I had not wished to give. And then, during a previous investigation, it had been taken from me.

I had never told Cosmos. I had never told the police. I had only told Steele.

Thankfully, Dodson was watching Cosmos, not me. “Do you recognize this weapon, my lord?”

Cosmos looked down at it. A line appeared between his eyebrows. “It appears to be the pistol I kept in my study. That’s where it should be.”

“When did you last see it, my lord?”

Cosmos gazed at me, a question in his eyes, but did not say a word to me. “I cannot be certain,” I heard him say as if from a distance. “Months, certainly. It’s something I treasure, not something I regularly use.”

Dodson nodded once. He refolded the cloth over the pistol.

“My lord. I must ask you to come with me to Scotland Yard.”

“Why?”

“A body was found at Kew Gardens. This pistol was found nearby.”

Cosmos grew pale. “You don’t think—I would never.”

“No charge has been laid, my lord. You are being asked to assist us with the investigation. Certain questions need to be asked regarding the circumstances surrounding the man’s death.”

“What’s the man’s name?”

“All in good time.”

Cosmos’s shoulders slumped. “Allow me to change.”

“Of course.”

Cosmos climbed the stairs without looking at me again. He walked the way he always walked, unhurried, methodical. He had known me all my life. He knew I had taken the pistol. But he hadn’t said a word.

Dodson turned to me. “I am sorry, Lady Rosalynd.”