“You sound as you always did when we were young, and I was unwell. Caring and loving. I missed it, so very much.” Her words came out as groans more so than anything else.
“I’ve always loved you. I am angry, I have been. As I told you I do not know who I am anymore but I… I love you. I hate to see you so unwell.”
Ruth leaned her head back, looking at the sky. The stars danced in the deep dark firmament, the crescent moon illuminating the garden.
“I am sure it was the tea. It was ghastly, so bitter. It almost made me want to spit it out.”
Sophia’s eyebrows furrowed at this. “Bitter? It was not bitter at all Ruth. I saw you place three lumps of sugar into it and you do not even like sweet tea. I had one lump and it was very sweet to me.”
Ruth shrugged. “Perhaps I drank from another teapot as you and mine was stronger.”
Sophia shook her head again, her eyes growing wider by the moment.
“No, the Duchess served us both tea from the same pot, I watched her, hoping she might engage me in conversation while you were at the other end of the table, serving tea to our Papa. It was the same teapot. The same tea.”
“Why… then I do not know what to say.” Ruth blinked; the world out of focus before her. “I…I wonder if you might fetch Rimbault. He can be trusted. I think I require my bed. I must rest.”
“Ruthie,” Sophia sat in front of her, her hand gripping Ruth’s chin. “Are you hot? As though you are feverish? And do your legs feel heavy? As though…”
“I feel as though I were a horse on the field, pulling the plow. Such is the heaviness.” The words danced out of her mouth and for a moment, a strange yet beautiful moment, Ruth thought she saw the notes swimming before her eyes.
“You are poisoned!” Sophia called out with horror.
“Poisoned?” The word fell from her lips as the other words had but instead of dancing in the air, it dropped heavily from her mouth.
“I believe the Duchess poisoned you. “Oh, Ruth…. Stay here, do not go to sleep. I must get help at once!”
Ruth watched as her sister ran, her sky-blue gown fluttering in the evening’s breeze.
“Poisoned,” she said to herself, marveling at the word, the idea. “How silly my sister is.” She giggled but when she attempted to get up, she found herself falling forward onto the grass unable to rise again.
Resigned, she lay there, unable to think of anything other than the stars above her, and how bright and yellow they were. Almost like the flames of candles. Almost like a fire in the sky.
Chapter 33
Kenneth and Jack, having escaped from his mother’s never-ending chatter, made their way down the grand hall, to catch up to the two young ladies when Lady Sophia ran their way, her face a picture of panic.
“Please come quickly,” she called. “Ruth – she is ill. Poisoned, I am sure of it! Come quickly!”
At the declaration, Kenneth broke into a sprint, followed by Jack. Together the three of them ran, filling the hall with the sound of their hasty footsteps. Lady Sophia broke through the French doors, pushing them open with the palms of her hands and jumped down the stairs.
“She felt unwell at tea and grew rapidly worse. I believe it is a poison, administered in her tea.”
To Kenneth’s horror, he saw at once what she was talking about. Ruth was half sitting, half lying against a bench. Sweat running down both sides of her face, her eyes wide and glowing as if ravaged by a fever. He was at her side within a moment.
“Ruth?” Her head turned but her eyes rolled back in their sockets.
Jack squatted down beside him, touching her arm. “Her pulse is racing, and she is burning up.” He turned back to Sophia who stood with her arms around herself.
“You say she is poisoned? What makes you say that? Quickly, tell us all you know lest it is too late to save her.”
“I believe it was your mother who poisoned her. When we were in Brighton, she attempted to convince me that it was the only way for you to see sense. To make Ruth so sick she could not marry you. Your mother told me she had a powder that would make her so ill she would not recover. She wanted me to slip it into her drinking chocolate when we returned, but I refused.”
Kenneth’s mouth dropped open. How could this be? His mother had reluctantly accepted Ruth as his future wife and now she was poisoning her?
Beside him, Jack grunted. “We should have seen this coming, Rotham. Your mother was never one to give in or give up this easily. I suppose once Lady Sophia refused to poison her sister, your mother decided to act as though she were perfectly amenable to her being your wife, while using the opportunity to do the deed herself.” He looked back at Lady Sophia.
“Do you know what it was? The powder?”
