“You would have. It was made only a few days before your father’s death, but I know he would have told you.”
“How can I believe you?”
“I’m sure your mother knows. She’ll tell you.”
“It doesn’t matter anyway,” Thomas said, recovering himself. “The debt is paid. There can be no agreement now.”
“Yes,” Lady Deborah said, narrowing her eyes. “When you came to my father with the money—the money he thought you would never be able to pay back—he was so surprised and delighted that he decided to forget all about the original agreement. He would rather have his money than have a duchess for a daughter. But I never forgot the original agreement. I always remembered that you and I were supposed to be together.”
“What’s done is done,” Thomas said firmly. He could believe that what she was saying was the truth—it did sound like something his father might have agreed to, out of fear, if nothing else. But it didn’t matter now. He was lucky enough to have escaped that arrangement. He wouldn’t stand here and argue with Lady Deborah over what might have been.
“You may say so,” she said. “But I never stopped hoping. I never stopped believing that you and I would find our way to one another.”
“Then you’re out of your mind,” Thomas said firmly. “You must be, to believe such an outlandish thing.
“We were always close. We cared for one another. You can’t tell me you never cared for me.”
“That’s precisely what I’m telling you. Especially now, after you’ve been so callous and cruel toward my wife! How could you imagine I’d want anything to do with you, Lady Deborah?”
“I don’t believe you,” she said. “I’ve seen the way you look at me. Even now, you wonder about me. You do want me for yourself.”
“This is a horrible thing for you to be saying to me. Talking this way about my late father, insulting my wife.”
“Your wife is putting your life in danger! Thomas, even if you don’t want me, I care about you enough that I need you to see that.”
“She had nothing to do with it.”
“Nothing to do with it? How can you say that? Whose poison was it in your drink?”
The words shocked him. “What—what did you just say?”
Perhaps she realized she had said too much. She fell silent, staring at him.
“What did you say?” he demanded.
It was Madeleine who spoke. “She said poison. She said my poison was in your drink.”
“But you couldn’t have known,” Thomas said, staring at Lady Deborah. “Nobody knew. My family told no one.” He looked at Madeleine. “Did you tell anyone?”
“I wouldn’t ever have told anyone,” Madeleine said. “Even when we were apart, I always cared about you. I wouldn’t have told anyone your secrets, Thomas.”
He nodded. He believed her. “How did you know what had happened?”
“I—” she stammered.
“You knew somehow. Nobody should have known about that because we told no one. You shouldn’t have been able to find out so quickly. But you did. Tell me how.”
She looked frightened for the first time since he’d arrived. She looked like a cornered animal. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Yes, you do. You know. You knew that I had been poisoned. How did you know that?”
“Thomas,” Madeleine breathed.
He was so angry that he was afraid to be near Madeleine. He released her and took a quick step away. “You could have killed me.”
“But you must know I never would.”
“I know. Believe me, I see it all now. It’s so obvious. The herbs were never intended for me, after all. You meant Madeleine to drink them. You were trying to killher.”
