“Hide from what?” Margaret demanded. “From you? I thought you were in Bath. And besides, Edward, you’re hardly a frightening figure to me.”
“I think you poisoned Lydia,” he said quickly, before he could stop himself. “I think she’s sick because you put something in her drink to make her sick, and then you fled the house.”
For a moment, the two of them just stood there, staring at one another in silence.
“How can you accuse me of that?” Margaret breathed.
“Is it true?”
Edward did his best to keep his expression stoic. He couldn’t lose his nerve now that the accusation was out there.
“Of course it isn’t true,” Margaret denied, and to Edward’s surprise and dismay, tears came to her eyes. “Edward, Lydia is like a daughter to me—like the daughter I always longed for but was never able to have. You know how it destroyed me when your father refused to give me a child of my own. I had Colin, of course, but you always withheld your affections from me. Even now, your wife is ill, and instead of coming to me for comfort, as a son should with his mother, you’re here to accuse me of having a hand in it! I just can’t believe you’d think me capable of such a thing when I have only ever done my best to be a loving parent to you.”
“Well, I’m only trying to figure out what happened to her,” Edward said. “And she told me her last memory is of drinking tea with you and of you inviting her to this place. The next thing she knew, she was too weak to move, and you were leaving without her. Is she lying?”
“I don’t think she’slying,” Margaret replied. “But the poor thing is obviously very confused. She must think I said I meant to bring her here with me, when in fact what I told her was that I intended to go away myself for a few days. She’s still getting adjusted to her new life. She doesn’t quite know what she’s saying or what others are saying to her. She can be forgiven for making a mistake like that. It could happen to anyone.”
“I don’t think she did make a mistake,” Edward said sharply. “Lydia’s not a naive young lady. She may be new to the dukedom, but she’s always had a keen awareness of what’s going on around her.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” Margaret argued. “Remember, the poor thing thought you were in love with her when both you and I know you’re incapable of any such emotion.”
“But she was right,” Edward said. “And she knew before I did.”
“Do you mean to say youarein love with her?”
“That’s the reason I came back.”
Margaret shook her head. “This isn’t you, Edward. Did something happen in Bath? Nothing you’re saying sounds like you. These wild accusations toward me, first of all, and now you’re telling me that you’re in love? Where is Colin? He’ll help us sort all this out.”
“You’re going to stay away from Colin from now on. I don’t think much of the influence you’ve had on him, and I don’t trust you with him. He thinks you’ve always cared for him, but I think he’s been nothing more than a tool to you—something you could use to convince yourself that Father and I were wrong for the way we dealt with you, perhaps, because if Colin could grow to love you, you must be innocent of wrongdoing. But Colin was only a child when he met you—a little boy in need of a mother. He was the most vulnerable of any of us, and you preyed on that weakness the way you’re preying on Lydia now.”
“Edward, I didnothingto Lydia! I’m sorry to hear that she’s ill, and of course, I’ll come back to the house with you and sit by her bedside until she’s recovered. But for you to blame me—well, it’s just ridiculous. I thought you were better than that.”
“I know you poisoned her,” Edward stated. “There’s no point in lying to me about it, Margaret. I know you did.”
“You can’t possibly know any such thing.”
He took a breath. “I know because she’s been seen to by a physician, and he told me she had been given poison. She’s on the road to recovery now. But she and the other members of the household all say the same thing—you’re the only one who could have done it. You served her the tea that made her ill, so it had to have been you.”
The smile faded slowly from Margaret’s face.
Edward waited.
He had taken an awful risk here because, of course, no physician had told him anything at all about Lydia. He was lying to Margaret, hoping to provoke her into a confession. But there was no doubt that if she discovered what he was doing, she would be angry with him.
And, indeed, she was scowling. “What you’re saying is impossible,” she said. “I know it to be untrue.”
“You can’t know anything of the kind. You’ve been here all this time. You don’t know what’s happened back home.”
“But I do know that there are poisons that aren’t recognized by physicians,” she argued. “If Lydia was truly poisoned, as you say she was, a physician shouldn’t have been able to identify what happened to her.”
“What do you mean? There are plenty of poisons that can be identified.”
“Yes, but some can’t. And I know that for certain! After all, no one was able to identify what I did the last time, so why would they be able to this time?”
Edward stared at her.
Margaret clapped a hand over her mouth as if suddenly horrified.
