“I think Jack’s had the most interesting morning,” Kate said. “Singing with a superstar, stripping off half-naked for some woman. He should tell us all.”
Sara raised her eyebrows. “Yes, do tell.”
“It was nothing, really,” Jack said with fake modesty. “Maybe I saved her life but...” He shrugged. “All in a normal day’s work.”
Sara and Kate groaned in unison.
“Okay, okay. I was climbing through the loft of the stables. That’s where our victim worked so I thought maybe there could be something there. Then I saw this beautiful woman walk in and—”
“Old woman,” Kate said, then looked at Sara.
“Age is relative,” she said. “In this context, forty-six-year-old Nadine is very old.”
Jack rolled his eyes. He knew when he was outnumbered. “Anyway, she was looking for something and—”
“Oh?” Kate and Sara said.
He smiled at having their attention. “I have no idea what she was looking for. Didn’t find out.” He went on to tell his story.
“How sad,” Sara said when he’d finished. “I’m glad I can support myself. Nadine has to find a man to give her a home.”
“Interesting that her husband didn’t leave her taken care of,” Kate said. “You’d assume that a viscount would have some inherited property.”
“Nicky would have owned this place but he had no money.” Jack looked at Kate. “So what about your banker boy? From what I’ve seen, I can’t understand why he wanted to stay with people who put him down, belittled him, despised him.”
“You adapt to your life,” Kate said. They knew she was speaking of her mother’s bouts of depression. She told them of all she and Clive had talked about. She waited for Jack’s snide remarks but he was quiet.
“Another poor, unwanted person,” Sara said. “This seems to have been misfit heaven. I read that if there’s one male abuser in a stadium of eight thousand people and there’s one woman who thinks she deserves it, they will damned well find each other.”
“In this case, they all found one another,” Jack said. “But one night two of them disappeared, then they all ran away separately.”
“Four years of being afraid of the world disappeared,” Kate said. “I think Clive was right when he said that the outside world was less scary than the little group at Oxley Manor.”
“Every group has its hierarchy,” Sara said. “And everyone has a place. They don’t take turns being the leader.”
“Sure as hell no one was going to take their turn at being a punching bag,” Jack said.
“‘Today is my turn to be on the bottom,’” Kate mocked. “‘Rip me apart.’”
“‘No! No! Let me get kicked around,’” Jack parodied. “Said no one.”
Sara was grimacing. “I bet if Poorwilla had tried to do something different, they would have stamped her down.”
“For all that Clive said he hated his job,” Jack said, “he was terrified of losing it.”
“Until Sean’s and Diana’s disappearance forced him to leave,” Kate said.
“I think they all know much, much more than they’re letting on,” Sara said. “Actually, I believe they’re putting on a show for us.”
“And getting truckloads of sympathy,” Jack said. “Poor Clive with his tossed-around childhood.”
“Nadine,” Kate said, “so beautiful, so well-dressed, but oh so lonely. The martyred maiden who must sell herself to the highest bidder.”
They looked at Sara.
“I agree. I think we’re being played. One of them is a murderer.”
“Or all of them,” Jack said. “For all that they seem to clash, I think they’re strongly bonded. I could see that Sean and Diana were about to interrupt their bond and they got rid of them.”