The Wedding Night Affair--An Historical Mystery by L.C. Sharp (i have read the book .TXT) 📗

him. He found them in the smaller parlor on the first floor, sitting either side of Juliana’s maid. Wood was crying, but neither woman showed her any sympathy. That concerned him until Juliana explained what she had discovered. That was all she did, gave him the blue bottle and told him where she’d found it. She must know Ash would come to the same conclusion she did.

One sniff gave him the answer. He stood in front of the maid, boxing her in. “So you poured this into the decanter of wine you served to her ladyship and her husband. Then you returned and put it in her pocket.”

“No!” Wood cried out. “I—I only went back into the room to tidy up. I didn’t see no bottle of laudanum.”

“But you didn’t tidy up,” Juliana said, glaring at the maid. “You only put the bottle into my pocket. My clothes were still on the floor in the morning.” She paused. “Making it look as if I’d had the bottle.”

“And you told no one,” Ash added. “If you saw your mistress and her husband alive, you should have told us.”

The maid said nothing. Ash leaned forward, confronting her face to face, not giving the maid a chance to breathe. “Why did you not tell us?” He had to repeat the words twice more before she answered. “Who told you to empty that bottle into the decanter?”

“I thought—I—I...” Tears rolled down Wood’s face.

Ash did not let her go. He had her now. Despite his sister’s pained, “Ash...” he stayed where he was, waiting for the maid to respond.

Juliana’s voice came from behind him, firm and unequivocal. “Tell him, Wood.” A pause, filled with tension. “Or we’ll send you back, and let everyone know that you told us everything we needed to know. Gossip spreads so rapidly in town.”

Ash remained in place, watching another fat tear roll down the maid’s cheek. His knees began to ache from the unnatural position, but anything he suffered would be worth it.

“It was my lover.” She hung her head.

They waited, the only sound the rustle of Amelia’s skirt when she shifted in her chair.

She spoke to her lap, but Ash heard her well enough. She started slowly, but then went into a rush of words. “I know I’m not supposed to have followers, but he was irresistible. He said he loved me, that he would do anything for me. He said he was worried about you, ma’am, that he knew things about Lord Uppingham.” She gasped and looked up, past Ash at Juliana. “I knew, ma’am. When you went into that chamber, I knew what he would do to you.”

The room was so quiet Ash heard her swallow. But still she didn’t speak.

“My man said perhaps if I put something in the wine, you could get away. I meant to warn you, but I didn’t. He wouldn’t let me close to you, your husband. Then I thought at least you would both sleep, and that would help. Ma’am, I never meant...” More tears.

“When you came in to put the bottle in my pocket, was Godfrey dead?” Juliana’s voice was cold, dispassionate, as if the question meant no more than academic fact to her.

“No. You was both asleep.”

“What time was that?” Ash asked, softly, so as not to distress Wood any further. He’d have liked to have taken the maid’s slender throat between his hands and shaken her. Who did anything so stupid?

“At about two in the morning. I heard the clock chime as I went downstairs. My lady was sleeping at the edge of the mattress and my lord was on his back, snoring. I planned to take the decanter away, but all the wine was gone, so I left it and took the food.” She swallowed.

“Why didn’t you take the decanter, or the laudanum bottle?”

“There was no room for the decanter on the tray. I planned to come back for it, and the laudanum bottle.”

She cast one, scared look at Juliana. “I didn’t see you until I turned round with the tray. I nearly dropped it. You didn’t have the covers over you. I saw what he’d done.” More tears. “I thought if he woke up he might do it to me, so I ran. I’d come back later, I thought, when he’d gone. After all, a bottle of laudanum’s innocent enough. If anybody else but me had found it, they’d have thought nothing of it. Nobody knew her ladyship didn’t like it ’cept me.”

“I see.”

Finally, Ash straightened, and asked the least important question. “What was his name, this lover?”

“Jeremy Black. I couldn’t find him. I went to the place where we met and he never turned up. Nobody knew where he was.”

No doubt an assumed name. That was why it wasn’t important. He would make enquiries and find no trace of the man. “What did he look like, this Jeremy Black?”

“Tall, handsome, had a little scar, you could hardly see it, on his face. Long hands. Strong.” She shuddered and buried her face in her skirts, sobbing again.

“Would you know him again?”

Wood nodded vigorously.

They must keep hold of this woman, since she was their only witness.

Uppingham had been alive at two in the morning. That left four hours before Juliana found her husband dead.

He stared down at Wood, who was crying noisily. “You will sleep upstairs and I will lock the door. You will not leave this house, and I want you to sign an affidavit. You will swear to the truth of what you just said.”

“Will I...die?”

Ash glared at her, allowed his incredulity to show in his flat mouth, his hard stare. “Did you care that your mistress might die? Did you concern yourself with anyone else? When you tried to find your lover and you could not, did you decide to remain silent because of that?”

Dropping her head, the maid nodded. “I didn’t do it, but who would believe me?”

“The same people who refused to believe your mistress?”

The red tide rising in him was so