“Oh, don’t put him there,” Miss Sedgewick said. “He’d be out of it before you could say ‘pick lock’. That’s just a scary room for the local drunks.”
“Where can I put him, then?”
“The old buttery. It used to be the prison, until the late Duke declared he was tired of the choice of letting prisoners die of pneumonia or having the doctor for them. It even still has some chains fastened to the wall. It has a good stout lock and steel bars on the doors and windows.”
“Excellent,” said the Inspector. “Miss Singer, I will be back as quickly as I can. Please tell the Duke that I have not forgotten him, and that I will report.”
“Certainly, Inspector.”
“I will go with you, Miss Singer,” Sister Agatha volunteered. “It is time I was getting back to Father Jacob anyway. He becomes anxious when his flock is too far out of his sight.”
Mr. McOwen, who had arrived on the scene just in time to see Sister Agatha’s roundhouse kick, called the dogs off Warner. Inspector Ravensgard and Constable McHenry pulled him out of the doorway so that the ladies could pass.
Celeste puzzled over recent events as they climbed the stair. She turned to Sister Agatha and asked, “How did you ever learn to kick like that? It was amazing!”
“I was a ballet dancer until I broke an ankle. That was at least fifteen years ago. The late Duke was my patron, and he brought me here to recover with the Gentle Sisters. I found their peaceful way of life to my taste, so I stayed.”
As they neared the servants’ dining hall, Celeste found that she could not bear to be away from the Duke any longer, so great was her anxiety for him. She gave Father Jacob and Mr. Hammonds a quick curtsy, then rushed through the door to his side.
The Duke looked surprisingly young as he lay on his pallet, with his eyes closed. When she entered, he asked, “Did you find her?”
“We did, although she was preparing to flee. She had poor Mrs. Possinger trussed up like a Christmas goose.” Celeste had a dreadful thought. “Oh, I do hope someone thought to release her. We were all in quite a state.”
“That will never do,” Jonathan exclaimed. “Someone should check on her. He struggled up to his elbows.
“Please, be still Your Grace! Do not excite your heart! I will tell you all about it.”
Taking his hand in hers, she quickly described the events of the last few moments.
He lay there, mulling it over when she had finished. Then he said, “And Margery?”
“I don’t know, Your Grace. The doctors are with her now, I believe. They have given her a spot by the kitchen fire for both the light and the heat are best there. We shall simply have to wait.”
“What a muddle. And no true way to fix it. If wait we must, then that is what we shall do.”
They shared a few minutes of silence, the Duke lying on his makeshift cot and Celeste sitting in an armchair beside him, holding his hand in both of hers.
The Duke said, “I can’t bear just lying here waiting. Tell me again about Sister Agatha’s high kick.”
Celeste laughed softly, and described again how the Sister’s ballet move had brought Mrs. Whitehurst low.
The Duke gave a little chuckle that resolved itself into a hoarse cough. Then he sobered and asked, “Tell me again what Inspector Ravensgard said about Margery and Warner.”
“They were married, Your Grace. Apparently about two months before your ceremony.”
“No wonder she locked the door to keep me out. And that was who was helping her undress each night?
Celeste nodded. “I’m sorry, Your Grace. I should have considered it odd. But I’ve never been an abigail before. I really didn’t know what was expected.”
“I’m not sorry,” Jonathan assured her. “Thanks to their machinations, I gained a very able clerk to help with the household accounts, as well as a gentle companion whose company I prize highly.”
“Well, I’m sorry, Your Grace. If I had reported her odd behavior to Mr. Hammonds or to Miss Sedgewick, they might have been able to learn what was going on much sooner.
“I doubt it, Celeste. You aren’t her first abigail. She usually managed to throw a temper tantrum and get them turned off or they quit in high dudgeon before we could put together the pattern.”
“This has to have been a nightmarish experience for you, Your Grace.”
Later, the older doctor stopped by to tell them that the Duchess would live, although she had lost her baby and was unlikely to ever walk again. Her pelvis had been crushed in the fall, and one leg broken.
