"Will your ladyship explain?" he demanded, placing a chair for her.
Evidently the brandy or something or other had strung up Lord
Vincent's nerves.
Claudia took the seat, and sitting opposite to him, fixed her eyes upon his face and said:
"Are you aware, Lord Vincent, that my servant Katie has been missing since yesterday afternoon?"
"Indeed? Where has the old creature taken herself off to? She has not eloped with one of our canny Scots, has she?" inquired the viscount, coolly lighting another cigar and puffing away at it.
"Such jesting, my lord, is cruelly out of place! It has not been many days since a very horrid murder was committed on these premises. The murderer has eluded detection. And apparently such impunity has emboldened assassins. I have too much cause to fear that my poor old servant has shared Ailsie Dunbar's fate!"
Before Claudia had finished her sentence Lord Vincent had dropped his cigar and was gazing at her in ill-concealed terror.
"What cause have you for such absurd fears? Pray do you take the castle of my ancestors to be the lair of banditti?" he asked in a tone of assumed effrontery, but of real cowardice.
"For something very like that indeed, my lord!" answered Claudia, with a terrible smile.
"I ask you what cause have you for entertaining these preposterous suspicions?"
"First of all, the assassination of Ailsie Dunbar and the successful concealment of her murderer. Secondly, the mysterious disappearance of my servant Katie, just at a time when it was desirable to some parties to get her out of the way," said Claudia emphatically, and fixing her eyes firmly on the face of the viscount, that visibly paled before her gaze.