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Dante, who’d noticed something was going on, joined them. Without a word, Tessa handed him the tablet. As he read the comments, his eyes went wide. “Suzy wrote this?”

“This and a whole lot more,” said Odelia.

“See!” he cried. “I told you to put in stricter background checks!”

“This is not the time for ‘I told you so’s,’ Dante,” she said, stalking off. The others all followed her into the living space. “Suzy!” she snapped when she caught up with the maid, who was turning down the bed in Gran’s room.

“Yes, Ma’am?” said Suzy deferentially. She looked as mousy and reticent as ever. Hard to imagine she wrote the kind of stuff she did, Odelia thought.

“What’s going on?” asked Chase, attracted by the sound of shouting voices.

“I think we’ve found our guy, and it’s a girl,” said Odelia.

“Suzy? Impossible,” said Chase.

Suzy, who’d been handed the tablet, had turned as white as the sheets in her hand.

“Why did you do it?” demanded Tessa.

“I—I don’t know,” she stammered.

“It’s obvious you hate my guts,” said Tessa. “So why work for me?”

“I just figured—I…” She broke down in tears, but Tessa wasn’t placated.

She took her by the arms and shook her.“You’re the one who’s been trying to kill me, aren’t you? Answer me, dammit!”

The girl’s eyes went wide. “Kill you? No, I swear I would never—”

“Of course you would. It’s obvious from the stuff you wrote that you hate me so much you wouldn’t hesitate to take matters into your own hands.”

“No, I would never do you harm, Ma’am—never. For the baby and… and the Duke…” She directed a shy look at Dante, whom she obviously idolized.

“Oh, don’t give me that bullshit. You decided to come and work for me so you could remove me from the equation and save Dante and the country.”

“It’s true that I was very upset when you and the Duke first started dating. And it’s true I wrote all these things. But I’ve since changed my mind. Now that I’ve met you in person, I can see how wrong I was. How kind you are. And how good you are to the Duke and how much he loves you. And since the baby was born, I think you’re the most wonderful mother and…”

“These comments—they were all written on your Facebook,” said Tessa. “They paint a completely different picture. A very hateful, disgusting picture.”

“I wrote those comments a long time ago. Since I started working for you I’ve stopped writing them—I swear,” she said, directing her words to Dante.

“You wrote at least one comment after you started working here,” said Odelia.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, hanging her head. “I-I didn’t know the Duchess the way I do now. I’m so ashamed of myself. I-I feel like…” She gulped. “I almost feel as if a different person wrote all these things. Not the real me but someone else entirely.”

“You tried to kill my wife, Suzy,” said Dante. “You have to understand there will be consequences. That we have to hand you over to the police now.”

“But I didn’t do it! I would never—”

“I’m very disappointed in you, Suzy. I really am.”

“But sir!” she cried, tears springing to her eyes.

Odelia almost felt sorry for the girl. She was obviously delusional, to write the stuff she had—to do the things she did. She was also an accomplished liar.

“We can’t involve the police,” said Tessa. “It will create the biggest fuss.”

“We have to, sweet pea,” he said. “She needs to be punished to the full extent of the law, and that’s something we can’t do ourselves.” He smiled as he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Or did you think I was going to play judge, jury and executioner and sentence her all by myself?”

“No, of course not. I just…”

“This isn’t the Middle Ages, darling. We don’t lock people up in the Tower anymore. We let the police handle things—and the justice system. We’re citizens of this country, just like every other person.”

Tessa nodded.“Of course.” She then directed a look of relief at Odelia. “You got her. You finally got her.”

“Actually your cousin did,” said Odelia. “Your real cousin.”

Tessa threw herself into Nesbit’s arms and the big guy actually blushed.

“It’s over,” said Angela with a smile. “It’s really over.”

It was, and Odelia sighed with relief. The ordeal was finally over.

Chapter 31

I was just about to break into song again, on Harriet’s instigation, when voices drifted in our direction, interrupting my practice session.

“This place is infested with humans,” Brutus grumbled, quite harshly I thought. After all, humans have a right to walk around free and untethered.

“England is a lot smaller than America,” Harriet said. “Which is probably why there are humans everywhere.”

She was right. Even though Hampton Cove isn’t exactly the countryside, it’s much more peaceful than the parts of England I’d seen so far.

“There are quiet parts,” said Dooley now, much to my surprise. “In fact there are whole swaths of countryside where not a single person lives.”

“And how would you know?” scoffed Brutus.