Sixty-One“Let’s put it this way, Hector, man to man.” John Russell took a sip of brandy and regarded the Senator coolly. “We have every reason to implicate you in the attack on Mrs Stockton.” He raised his hand for silence as de Vile began to protest. “Come on, Hector. It’s me and Sebastian you’re talking to. We didn’t come down in the last shower.”
The three men sat in John’s study, following a remarkably cordial evening where the Senator had been introduced to Isabella and acquainted with the feared daguerreotype. He’d had no option but to gracefully accept the family reunion as a fait accompli, and Huldah and he shared some private reminiscences about the woman who’d let them both down as sister and de facto wife.
He’d given them a brief account of his time with Bertha and confirmed i
