A Most Peculiar Circumstance (16 page)

How to respond? She opened her mouth, but Theodore didn’t allow her the luxury of a response.

“You didn’t set out to change my sister by pulling her into this ridiculous scheme tonight? She was happy and content being a wife to Harold until you got involved.”

His words hurt, as did his tone.

She dashed a hand across her face to brush away the angry tears that leaked from her eyes. “If you believe Katherine was happy and content, you’re delusional.”

Theodore shrugged. “Perhaps, but you can’t deny your goal was to change her, make her long for more, and . . . are you crying?”

She brushed away another tear and ignored the small bit
of concern she saw in his eyes. “Don’t let that discourage you from your rant, Mr. Wilder. Please continue.”

Theodore leaned closer and peered through the bars. “Did I hurt your feelings?”

She drew in a shuddering breath and then another as it suddenly dawned on her exactly why she’d been dwelling on Theodore over the past few weeks.

She was attracted to him, or had been until he’d shown up at the jail.

She was a fool.

They were complete opposites, and to even consider them together was absurd, and . . . she
had
thought she might be able to change him.

That thought caused a fresh bout of tears to dribble out of her eyes. They were right, Theodore and Dot. She did expect people to change to her way of thinking.

She was a horrible, horrible person.

She’d been using the excuse of working on God’s behalf, when in actuality she was simply trying to make everyone do what she felt was best for them.

Her life was a sham.

That idea forced her to draw in a shaky breath, but before she could think of something to say, Agatha slipped up beside her and put an arm around her waist, sending Theodore a glare through the bars.

“What did you do to Arabella?” Agatha hissed. “Why is she crying?”

Theodore didn’t answer right away, but took a moment to fish in one of his pockets, drawing out a pristine handkerchief, which he then thrust through the bars at Arabella. She turned and settled her attention on Agatha’s wig that was tilted back on her head, wisps of black hair now mingling with the red.

For some reason, the sight caused her lips to twitch, until
Theodore pushed the handkerchief at Agatha, who took it and began dabbing at the tears that seemed to still be streaming down Arabella’s face.

Theodore cleared his throat. “I’m not certain, but I think I might have hurt her feelings.”

“Of course you hurt her feelings,” Katherine said as she stepped between Arabella and Agatha and then shook a finger at her brother. “I am deeply ashamed to even admit we’re related. Really, Theodore, it is not well done of you in the least to blame Arabella for this situation. I readily admit to dabbling in a bit of blackmail to force them to allow me to come with them.” She smiled. “I told them I’d inform their mothers what they were really up to this evening, and they simply had no choice but to let me tag along.”

“Harold is going to have a fit when he sees you dressed like that,” Theodore said.

“You’re right,” Katherine said as she fluffed out the skirt of her gown. “I was quite distressed when I first laid eyes on this hideous monstrosity of a dress, knowing perfectly well Arabella chose it for me out of a sense of revenge. But now, well, I think it makes a statement, and that is exactly what I hoped would come of this evening.”

Theodore eyed Katherine for a long moment before switching his gaze to Agatha. “Eliza mentioned something about a story you’re working on. She was annoyingly closemouthed regarding the more pertinent details, so you’ll need to fill me in.”

Agatha planted her hands on her hips. “I hope you didn’t make Eliza cry.”

“I don’t make a habit of bringing ladies to tears.”

Agatha reached out, dabbed at fresh tears trailing down Arabella’s cheeks, and then waved the handkerchief at Theodore.

Theodore muttered something under his breath and caught Arabella’s gaze with his own. “I didn’t realize you had such
tender feelings, Arabella. I never meant to cause you this level of distress.”

His statement sent more hurt through her.

She was a lady, much as he didn’t seem to realize it. Most ladies did possess “tender feelings,” but his words gave testimony to the fact he didn’t see her as a normal lady.

She pushed aside the hurt, straightened her spine, accepted the handkerchief Agatha offered, and blew her nose loudly. She lifted her head and forced a smile. “I’m not distressed in the least. In fact, I’m perfectly fine.”

“You’re not perfectly fine,” Katherine argued. “Even though we’ve embarked on a thrilling adventure this evening down at the docks, we’ve still landed in jail, and you’ve been forced to bear the brunt of my brother’s anger. It’s no wonder you’re a bit distressed.”

Silence suddenly fell over everyone when Theodore took one step forward, crossed his arms over his chest, and settled what could only be described as a smoldering glare on his sister. “You were down at the docks?”

Katherine turned a shade lighter, but her voice didn’t waver when she spoke. “That is where all those poor women went missing.”

Theodore’s color turned the exact opposite shade of his sister’s. “What missing women?”

Katherine reached out a hand, snagged Agatha’s arm, and pulled her front and center. “You tell him.”

Agatha winced, but then drew in a breath, released it, drew in another, and then another, and . . .

Theodore was now an interesting shade of purple. “You’re stalling. Tell me now, and do not even think about leaving out any details. What missing women?”

Agatha blew out one last breath. “Fine. If you must know, women have been disappearing in rapid succession from the streets, and nobody, specifically the police, seems to want
to help them. We, or rather Arabella and I—Katherine was not involved at first—agreed to assist them. In order to help them, we had to travel to the docks, where the majority of women have gone missing. Unfortunately, we were not very successful gathering information, so our investigation tonight seems to have failed.”

Dead silence settled over the cell as everyone waited with bated breath for Theodore’s reaction to that startling bit of news.

They didn’t have long to wait.

 13 

T
heodore couldn’t seem to stem the flow of words that kept spewing out of his mouth. Things like “completely ridiculous” and “what were you thinking?” and “you’ve obviously lost your mind” continued to pour from his lips as he stalked back and forth in front of the cell. It was only when “all of you need a good spanking” burst out that he suddenly realized he might have gone too far. He came to an abrupt halt and winced when all the ladies—not just Katherine, Agatha, and Arabella—began making rather loud hissing noises.

He braced himself when Katherine, surprisingly haughty in her outlandish outfit, stepped up to the bars, pressed her face as far as she could through them, and sent him a glare he hadn’t received from her since childhood.

“While that was certainly uncalled-for, brother dear, I’m going to excuse your behavior just this once because it’s apparent that
you
have lost your mind, not the other way around.”

Before he could reply, she drew back and let out a huff. “Now then, you may feel free to continue your rant, but may
I suggest you do so at a later time? I for one am weary of this place. I’m sure your time would be better spent securing our release, so run along and do whatever it is you need to do. We’ll wait for you here.”

A flash of something he hadn’t felt in a very long time crashed over him. It almost felt like remorse, or perhaps it was embarrassment, or . . .

A snapping of a finger had him narrowing his eyes at his sister. “Don’t ever . . . do that . . . again,” he bit out.

Katherine lifted her hand, snapped her fingers, not once but twice, and then turned her back on him. She pushed her way past Dot, moved to the opposite side of the cell, and sat down on a bench without speaking another word as she began to inspect her fingernails.

A glimmer of reluctant admiration ran through him.

A loud clearing of a throat from behind forced him to drag his attention away from his sister and turn. He discovered a police officer standing a few feet from him, watching him warily.

“Is, ah, everything all right, Mr. Wilder?”

Theodore summoned up a smile. “Of course, everything is fine.”

“I thought I heard you yelling and, well, I must state most emphatically that we really don’t condone spanking prisoners.”

He really shouldn’t have allowed his temper free rein.

It wasn’t how he normally reacted to disturbing news, but the thought of the ladies blithely traveling around the docks had unfortunately sent him over the edge.

How to explain?

No explanation came to him, so he gave the officer a nod, hoped the man would take that as a sign he wasn’t going to spank anyone, and decided his only option was to change the subject. “What have you heard about women disappearing from the streets?”

The officer shook his head. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Theodore heard Dot mutter something less than ladylike under her breath. He turned back to the cell and watched as she strode up to the bars and glared at the officer through them. “I knew no one would believe me and file a report.” She caught Theodore’s eye. “That’s why some of the ladies got it into their heads to seek out Miss Watson and have her help us. She was their last hope, or at least that’s what they thought until she failed miserably tonight.”

“I didn’t completely fail, at least not yet,” Agatha said as she moved to Dot’s side. “I’m sure if I continue questioning people, something will turn up eventually.”

These ladies were going to be the death of him.

Theodore glanced over his shoulder at the officer. “Are you certain that spanking isn’t allowed?”

The officer laughed, but then smothered another one with his hand when the ladies began grumbling.

Theodore’s lips twitched, yet he sobered when he glanced at Agatha and found her nodding at him, as if she believed he should be in full agreement with her plan. “Let me be perfectly clear, Agatha. Your involvement in this matter is now at an end, and just to refresh your memory, I don’t need any assistance, not from you or any of your friends.”

“I don’t remember offering you my assistance,” Agatha snapped.

Theodore blew out a breath. How had it come to this?

The world had once been a relatively pleasant place to live, back in the days when men and women knew and kept to their respective roles.

Now everything was upside down, and he didn’t care for it at all, not one little bit.

He wanted things to go back to the way they’d been before,
when life was easy and women weren’t running amok, when men were taking care of business.

His gaze traveled over the collection of ladies, taking in Katherine’s outlandish pink gown and black wig, and then moved over the ladies of the night, all of whom were dressed in shabby outfits. He narrowed his eyes as he noticed each outfit seemed to be individualized, as if each lady had taken pains to retain a certain amount of self. He shifted his attention to Arabella and felt something strange settle in his stomach. She was only standing a few feet away from him, but for some reason—perhaps because she wasn’t looking at him—she seemed unapproachable, and that . . . disturbed him. He took a step forward, unable to help but notice that even though her gown dwarfed her curves and her white wig was askew, she was beautiful. He tore his gaze away from her, unwilling to dwell on her beauty, wanting instead to dwell on how furious he still was with her.

He conjured up a smile as he returned his attention to Agatha, who was now tapping her foot against the floor and appeared to be grinding her teeth. “Perhaps you and I could agree to compromise?”

Agatha stopped grinding her teeth. “I’m listening.”

“From what I can surmise, there’s probably a killer or, at the very least, a kidnapper on the loose. You cannot argue the point that it’s safe for you to continue investigating this matter, so here’s what I’m going to suggest. I will pick up where you left off and I’ll share everything I discover with you.”

“You won’t let me go with you?”

“No, you can’t go with me, and if you don’t agree to my terms, I’m going to tell your mother what you’ve been up to, and both of us know how that will work out for you.”

“You’re being completely unreasonable,” Agatha snapped.

“I’m never unreasonable.”

Katherine let out a loud snort, rose from the bench, and glided up to the front of the cell, shaking her head as she came to a stop. “What about the time I chopped off all the heads of your toy soldiers?”

“What?”

“Come now, surely you remember? You’d made me angry, and to get back at you, I took a knife and lopped off all their heads.”

“You’re bringing that up now?”

Katherine sent him a beautiful smile. “You stated you’re never unreasonable, and yet you were completely unreasonable when you discovered your soldiers had taken leave of their heads. I can still remember your fit of hysterics.”

“I was not hysterical, and just to clarify, not only did you chop off their heads, you stomped on them and broke their bodies into little pieces.”

“Ah, so you do remember.”

“This is a ridiculous conversation and certainly does not prove your point. I was a child when that happened, and I can assure you, I would not be the slightest bit concerned if you were to chop the heads off of toy soldiers now.”

“You don’t have any toy soldiers left for me to chop,” Katherine said with a smug nod of her head. “Otherwise they would be in danger.”

“Kate, enough,” Theodore said, although his anger had cooled to next to nothing. He’d forgotten how well-equipped she was to divert his temper. He’d also forgotten she used to be mischievous and fun. He released a breath and forced himself to concentrate on the situation at hand.

“I need to know how many women have gone missing.”

Dot began ticking them off on her fingers, every tick causing him to realize the situation was dire indeed.

“Ten,” she finally proclaimed, “and all ten of them within the past week and a half.”

Theodore turned and set his sights on the police officer still standing in the same spot. “I’ll need for you to arrange an appointment for me to see the chief. If ten women have disappeared, we have a problem on our hands.”

“But . . . no bodies have shown up, at least not that many,” the officer said.

“Which makes it even more concerning,” Theodore said. He began to pace again, trying to collect his thoughts, and stopped to address the ladies of the night. “I need all of you to think. Someone has to have seen something unusual, no matter how small it might be. Ladies don’t just disappear without a trace.”

Agatha drew his attention when she suddenly hit her forehead with her hand. “I completely forgot about that man Arabella saw tonight.”

Trepidation flowed over him. He gripped the bar with one hand and gestured with his other to Arabella, who was watching him with something indescribable in her eyes, something he almost believed was hurt.

He was responsible for that look.

He pushed that thought to the back of his mind, knowing full well it would push front and center again soon enough, and tried to smile at Arabella, realizing he failed miserably when her eyes turned from hurt to stormy. He winced. “What can you tell me about that man you saw?”

For a second, he thought she was going to refuse to answer, but then she shrugged, pushed her wig further back on her head, and opened her mouth. “I didn’t get a good look at him because he’d pulled his cap low over his face. I don’t believe he was as tall as you are, nor as broad, but he was . . . scary.”

“Scary, how?”

She shivered and then wrapped her arms around her middle. “He had this air about him, it was . . . evil, and he watched me for a long moment, and then . . . he started
walking toward me. I felt the distinct urge to run.” She shivered again. “Before he reached me, though, a police officer grabbed me, and when I looked over my shoulder for him, he’d disappeared.”

A feeling he’d never before felt in his life swept over him, stealing the breath from his body. She was in mortal danger. He knew it as well as he knew she’d been just feet away from the killer.

He swore then and there he’d do everything to protect her, because . . . well, he couldn’t think about that now. Her life was at risk, and that’s what he needed to concentrate on from this moment forward.

He began striding back and forth as his thoughts whirled. Arabella was an uncommonly beautiful woman, so uncommon that people tended to never forget her face, as he’d learned while he’d traveled the country looking for her.

A killer of women would remember her face and would go to great lengths to find her again.

That idea shook him to his very core.

He strode over to the officer and stopped. “I need to get these ladies out of jail as soon as possible.”

“Their bail has already been paid, Mr. Wilder,” the officer said. “It’s one of the reasons I came down to find you. They’re free to go.”

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Katherine exclaimed. “We’ve been dawdling down here for no reason at all.” She smiled. “I just might be able to beat Harold home, and that will save me some uncomfortable questions.”

As a distraction to get his emotions under control, dealing with Katherine worked wonders. “I hate to be the one to tell you this, Kate, but Harold’s waiting for you upstairs.”

Katherine blinked. “He is not.”

“I assure you, he is. The last time I saw him, he was attempting to post your bail.”

“Why didn’t you post my bail?” Katherine snapped. “I know you have more than enough money at your disposal. Why did you have to involve Harold in this? I cannot believe you sought him out and tattled on me.”

A slice of sadness stole over him. Did his sister really believe he would choose Harold over her? Didn’t she realize that he loved her, or . . . maybe she didn’t. It wasn’t as if he told her on a regular basis, or ever, now that he thought about it. “I didn’t seek out Harold, Katherine. He sought me.”

Katherine let out a breath. “Let me guess, he wanted to complain to you about my abysmal behavior of late.”

“Well, yes, that is about the gist of what his complaints centered around, but enough of that for now. We really do need to get all of you out of here.” He gestured to the officer, who stepped forward and placed the key in the lock.