There were shadows beneath her eyes and entreaty in the glance she gave him.
“Have you heard from Dmitri?”
“Not a word since midnight. I left him then; why?”
She sank into the chair as he stooped eagerly to rouse the fire to a blaze. “Why, it is almost laughable to find you here just as always, perfectly safe, and you even seem happy.”
“I am happy. Jacobelli has just left me and we are great friends. He came to tell me the operetta is accepted by Casanova. Isn’t that great news, dear?”
“And you have heard nothing at all of what—what happened last night? No one has been here?”
“No one. What do you mean?” He rose as Maria crossed to the window and watched the Square below.
“The Marchese came and told us. Oh, Griffeth, it is all so horrible, and I know, I know that you had nothing to do with it. You do not need to tell me so.”
He held her close in his arms as she reached out to him, and Maria told the news quickly, of the robbery and attack on Ward.
“They have implicated you because of your association with one of the men who is dead and the man who is missing, Dmitri.”