The Twisted Tragedy of Miss Natalie Stewart Read Online Free

me that you were dead, suicide, some rushed burial—”
    “Samuel, you know you can’t believe everything you read in the papers—”
    “Denbury, my friend, is this some miracle?” he asked, turning then to me, curiously wondering if I were a part of this surprise.
    In that moment, when Jonathon nodded to me and I was about to be introduced, everything changed.
    I noticed a man step into the hallway behind Samuel, a small man in a fitted tweed suit, perhaps around the age of thirty. His eyes were so haunted that I thought he might be a specter.
    “I told you, my friend,” the man said, with a quiet accent similar to Jonathon’s upper-class standard British. “That with me, you would see many impossible things.”
    If I hadn’t spent the last month so intensively studying Jonathon and everything about him, I might not have noticed his body tense. But I did.
    “You speak truth, Dr. Preston,” Samuel said. “Let’s not dally here by the door. Denbury, you must introduce me to this fine young lady.”
    “This is Miss Rose ,” Jonathon said. I reeled to hear our secret code so soon. Something was wrong. His gaze flickered to the other doctor in the hall. “And she doesn’t speak or hear, but she can read lips, so don’t say anything rude. She’s become…somewhat of a project of mine.” He said the word “project” carefully.
    I quelled a shiver. Jonathon turned to me, gesturing me to nod, that I’d been presented. I curtseyed briefly to Samuel, who was looking at me not with pity, thank God, but with curiosity. I nodded toward the man in the hall. A moment of irritation flared through me—what, didn’t Jonathon think I could speak for myself?
    Jonathon had said his friend could be trusted. Clearly this doctor in the hall could not. What had he and his friends gotten wrapped up in?
    “Let me send off my driver and take our bags while you seat Miss Rose in the parlor,” Jonathon directed. “I assume she and I are welcome to stay the night? I apologize for not sending a wire, but things have been rather…complicated.”
    Preston’s mouth curved slightly. I didn’t want to stay a night here. Had we been followed? Anticipated here? I suddenly didn’t want to be around anyone other than Jonathon. He was the only one I could trust. And clearly, he was treading carefully too.
    “Of course my best friend is welcome in my home!” Samuel said. “I saved a stash of Earl Grey tea just for you.” Jonathon gave a sound of relief as he darted back down the steps toward the hired carriage to pay the driver and deal with our bags.
    Samuel gestured for me to enter. A fine wooden-paneled entrance foyer led to wooden pocket doors open to a pleasant parlor, open and trimmed in blue. “ Danke , Mrs. Strasser,” Samuel said warmly as his housekeeper wheeled in a tea tray to serve us.
    With no obligation to speak, I considered Samuel. He was tall and fair with straight blond hair and an open, friendly face. If there was danger surrounding him, he evidently didn’t know it. Jonathon had said Samuel thought the best of everyone. Such a disposition would have made him an easy target for the unsavory.
    Mrs. Strasser was out of the room before anyone spoke again.
    “Your friend is not the man he was, Dr. Neumann,” Dr. Preston said. His tone was eerie and quiet, and he seemed to have purposely turned away from me. Not bothering to include me. That’s right. I couldn’t hear. Why bother addressing me? That was rather brilliant of Jonathon. I was perfectly poised to listen in while assumed to be the least threat.
    I appeared busy with my tea but watched out of the corner of my eye. Samuel frowned. “How’s that?”
    “He’s been through a…great deal,” Preston continued. “My associates chose him, too, as you and I have been chosen. But unlike us, his body and soul were changed in the process. The body and the soul have distinct uses. We proved them separable in Lord Denbury’s case.”
    “Separable?