Read When Gods Die for Free Online

would have been easy enough to open one of the windows from the inside. How many people had attended last night’s musical evening? he wondered. The presence of the dispossessed French royal family had attracted even those who normally avoided the Pavilion; the reception rooms had been packed.
    His eyes narrowing against the sun’s bright glare, Sebastian stared off across the park. It would take an extraordinary amount of sangfroid to carry a dead body across the Pavilion’s open grounds in the midst of one of the Prince’s musical evenings. Unless…
    Unless, of course, the body had been moved to the Yellow Cabinet from someplace else inside the Pavilion.
    “From the pattern of lividity,” Gibson said thoughtfully, “the body was obviously left lying on its back for several hours before someone slipped that blade into her.”
    “What?” Sebastian looked around in surprise. He’d noticed the lack of blood in the room and simply assumed it was because the actual murder had taken place somewhere else. It had never occurred to him that Guinevere Anglessey had already been dead when she was stabbed. “But if the dagger didn’t kill her, then what did?”
    “There’s no way to tell. Not without a proper autopsy.” Gibson looked up. “Any chance of it?”
    Sebastian let out his breath in an ironic huff. “You certainly won’t get the local magistrate to commission one. He’s already decreed the lady’s death a suicide.”
    “Suicide? How on earth did he come up with that?”
    “The Regent’s physicians have concurred.”
    Gibson was silent for a moment. Then he said, “I see. Anything to avoid casting suspicion on the Prince. Do you think her husband could be persuaded to order a postmortem?”
    “I suppose that depends on whether or not the Marquis of Anglessey had something to do with her murder.”
    Gibson reached to draw a white sheet over the body at his feet. “He does seem a likely suspect, does he not? What do you know of him?”
    “Anglessey? He’s generally considered a sober enough man—keeps his estates in good order, and divides his time between them and affairs at the House of Lords. Or at least,” Sebastian added, “he was considered sober until his latest marriage.”
    Paul Gibson glanced over at him in surprise. “Was she so unsuitable?”
    “By birth, no. Only by age. Anglessey is a year or two older than my father.”
    “Good God.”
    “It would give Anglessey a motive both to kill his wife and to attempt to implicate the Prince in her murder, if Anglessey discovered the Prince was cuckolding him.”
    “ Was she one of the Prince’s paramours?”
    “I honestly don’t know. The Prince claims they were barely acquainted.”
    “But you don’t believe him.”
    “He’s lying about something. I just don’t know what.”
    Gibson began collecting his scattered instruments to stow them in his black leather bag. “Did you actually see this note the Prince says he received?”
    “No. It’s gone missing.”
    “By accident, or by design, I wonder.” Gibson pushed up to a stand, staggering slightly as his weight shifted to his wooden leg. “More’s the pity. I should think if you could discover the origins of that note, you’d likely have your killer.”
    “Perhaps. Although I suspect our killer is much too clever to be caught so easily.”
    Sebastian became aware of Paul Gibson’s intense green eyes studying him. “What’s any of this to do with you, Sebastian?”
    With anyone else, Sebastian might have dissembled. But the friendship between him and the Irishman ran deep. Sebastian drew his mother’s necklace from his pocket. “Lady Guinevere was wearing this when she died.”
    “A curious piece.” Gibson’s brows twitched. “But again, what has it to do with you?”
    Sebastian held the necklace cradled in his palm. It had always seemed to him that the stones grew faintly warm against his skin. But in his mother’s hand, he’d seen the stones pulse with so much