Chapter 11 #2
They sat together in silence for some time. Saffron continued thumbing through the pages. “I was home for the Easter holiday when we heard. My father was stationed at Ypres. He was among the first attacked with mustard gas.”
Glancing up, she saw Alexander’s eyes had widened in understanding. He swallowed hard. “I’m sorry.”
“Thank you. It was quick, at least.” She remembered the strangeness of that sentiment, so often repeated, that it was better her father had died right away rather than linger with some of the horrifying effects that only became apparent months later.
Her eyes seemed to drift to Alexander’s scarred arm of their own accord. “Where were you stationed?”
“In France, Fromelles.”
She nodded. She didn’t know what to say. Coming of age during the Great War and immediately after, the false hope and positivity that came with the end of the War left a bitter taste in her mouth. There was nothing hopeful about her father being gone or her first love dying.
Alexander reached for the book. “We don’t have to talk about it.
It was all anyone talked about for years.
It’s probably time to find something else to discuss.
” He turned to a random page. “For example, this terrifying creation.” He pointed to a flowering Dracula simia, whose jeering face peeked out ominously from within its pointed petals.
The click of the lock and the squeak of the door, followed by a long-suffering sigh, announced Elizabeth’s arrival.
Her voice carried through the flat, complaining that the lord requested her to work on Saturday to prepare for a special event.
She turned into the sitting room and stopped with a delighted smile when she noticed Saffron sitting with Alexander on the couch, obviously not spotting the open book in their laps.
In a dramatic swirl of magenta and with a brief, “Oh, beg pardon!” Elizabeth noisily retreated to the kitchen.
“You’ll have to excuse me a moment,” Saffron told Alexander with a grimace.
In the kitchen, Saffron found Elizabeth fighting a smile as she filled the kettle.
“Saff, you bad girl, you haven’t offered your guest a refreshment! You must have been distracted by something to so neglect your hostess duties,” she scolded.
“I know what you’re thinking, Elizabeth,” Saffron said in a dignified voice, “but you’re entirely wrong.”
“I’m wrong to think that you’ve made up with your biologist and you were in here studying … biology?” Elizabeth didn’t try to hide her grin.
“Eliza!” Saffron couldn’t help but smile too.
“All right—you are very nearly correct. You did rather interrupt, though.” Saffron was actually glad of her interruption.
It didn’t feel right to be so happy sitting on the couch with Alexander after discussing her father and Wesley.
It had gotten easier, but that guilt was never far from her mind, even after five years.
“Shall I recall a sudden appointment?” Elizabeth offered.
“At eight in the evening? That might be a little obvious,” Saffron replied with a sigh. “Come along, then.”
Elizabeth followed Saffron back into the sitting room.
“So, how goes the preparation for your expedition, Alexander? Have you gotten your itinerary?” Elizabeth asked smoothly, busying her hands with preparing tea.
Alexander accepted a cup. “We’re to sail on the seventh of next month, arriving the twenty-first.”
Elizabeth continued peppering him with questions as they sipped their tea. Saffron was pleased Alexander didn’t balk at her friend’s polite interrogation, though he responded without embellishment to each question.
Finally, he said, “We’ll land in Brazil at S?o Luís, but our base will be Macapá, at the mouth of the river. Several groups will go much farther up the river. Dr. Henry seems—or rather, seemed—very sure most of our time would be spent camping out along the river.”
Elizabeth asked, “Do you think Dr. Henry did it? Poisoned his wife?”
Unperturbed by the shift in conversation, Alexander said, “More likely him than Dr. Maxwell, no doubt.”
Elizabeth nodded as though this was the correct answer, her penciled brows arched.
Caught by a sudden thought, Saffron set down her teacup and said, “But Dr. Henry would be more likely to go at her in a rage, don’t you think?
Plus, he was completely drunk by the time the poisoning happened.
I should think that most murderers would want to keep their senses about them.
It’s hard to think on your feet and come up with alibis and all that if you’re stewed. ”
Elizabeth nodded and said sagely, “I don’t think it was Dr. Henry. I’ve seen his type many times, definitely not the sort for poison. I believe they say that poison is a woman’s weapon. Any ladies on the scene who make good suspects?”
Saffron shook her head. “There weren’t that many women there—mostly the wives of the professors and researchers.
Lady Agatha wouldn’t have poisoned her. What would be her motivation?
They talked as if they were friends, anyway, when she suggested that Mrs. Henry try to reason with Dr. Henry about his dalliances.
Unless Lady Agatha was secretly having an affair with Dr. Henry …
” Saffron tried to imagine the muscular Dr. Henry sweeping the wispy, graying Lady Agatha off her feet and shook her head. “That is highly unlikely.”
“I didn’t see Dr. Henry speaking with any women.” Alexander frowned. “Apart from the young woman, Miss …?” He looked to Saffron. “Dr. Henry followed her out onto the terrace.”
“Miss Ermine?” Saffron recalled Lady Agatha mentioning something about a terrace. “Eris Ermine was very interested in Dr. Henry.”
“Eris Ermine?” Elizabeth turned to Saffron with a scowl. “Saff, you didn’t tell me Eris Ermine was at the party! Well!” She picked up her teacup again.
Alexander and Saffron exchanged a confused glance. Elizabeth huffed impatiently at their clueless expressions.
“Eris Ermine, the heiress of the Ermine fortune? They’re nouveau riche, made their money in watches during the war.
Their familial drama lined the pockets of the scandal sheet publishers for weeks a few years ago when Mrs. Ermine ran off with a foreign count or something.
A bit cliché, of course, but the man apparently made it out of Bulgaria with heaps of jewels, and they now reside in Switzerland, of all places. ”
She finished her recital to their blank stares.
Elizabeth shrugged. “Well, it might not have been quite so melodramatic. Scandal sheets aren’t exactly known for getting all the facts right.
The point is, when the wife ran off, Cedric Ermine threw himself into all kinds of charitable activities in an effort to pull his family’s name from the gutter.
Or just to distract himself. Eris was left to herself, more or less. ”
“How old was Eris when her mother left?” Saffron asked.
“I’m not sure, but part of the scandal was her coming out not too long after.
She had no one but her father to take her around.
As he was often too busy, he made a sordid deal with the Kentfields.
Lord Tyrell—the earl, you know—he was in terrible debt because his son, James—” Her waving hand paused as she noticed she was losing her audience.
“Anyway, Cedric Ermine essentially paid Lady Tyrell to take Eris around, and the gossips made a point of bringing it up whenever possible.”
Saffron frowned. It would be too easy for a flashy man like Dr. Henry to charm a lonely young woman like Eris. The thought made Saffron’s skin crawl.
“Perhaps Eris Ermine was going after Dr. Henry, Mrs. Henry caught wind, then Miss Ermine poisoned her?” Elizabeth suggested.
“I didn’t see her in the room during the poisoning.
” She considered it for a moment before letting out a frustrated breath.
“But we don’t even know if the poison was in the champagne!
It could have been mixed in with her food or something.
Or she could have ingested it hours before, and the effect wasn’t apparent until she fainted. ”
“The poison could easily not have been intended for her. Plenty of other motivations for getting rid of Dr. Henry,” Alexander said.
Saffron poured herself more tea, a bitter smile on her lips.
“My favorite thus far has been that Dr. Maxwell and I are in on a plot to get revenge on Dr. Henry for rejecting him from the expedition party and Dr. Berking for being … well.” She didn’t need to remind Alexander of her humiliating confession.
“You’re a suspect, Saff?” Elizabeth gasped. Her hazel eyes widened with what Saffron suspected was excitement. “Who would think you’d try to kill anyone!”
“Remember, Maxwell and I have access to all sorts of poisonous things, including the xolotl vine,” Saffron said. “And, according to ‘a source’ of the inspector’s, the professor argued with Dr. Berking and threatened him in addition to Dr. Henry.”
“Did he?” Elizabeth said with an approving smile.
“You and Dr. Maxwell are meant to have accidentally poisoned Mrs. Henry in an attempt to kill Dr. Henry? How does Berking play into it?” Alexander asked, frowning.
“Perhaps Maxwell was meant to poison Dr. Berking, and I was meant to poison Dr. Henry.” Saffron sighed. “Or something like that. It appears we’re his top suspects.”
“He arrested Dr. Maxwell,” Elizabeth said slowly, her spoon making idle circles in her tea, “but not you. Maybe he was trying to get you to admit something, rather than actually accusing you.”
Saffron certainly hoped so. Though what further information she was supposed to have revealed was beyond her. She pursed her lips, looking down at the amber liquid in her cup. She really ought to have told the inspector about her experiment.
Later, when Saffron walked Alexander to the door of the flat on his way out, he asked, “Are you planning on sharing your experiment with Inspector Green?”
“I am,” she replied with more confidence than she felt. Given the inspector’s suspicions, she didn’t think it was likely to go over well. Hopefully Mr. Winters had bolstered Maxwell’s case.
“I’d like to come with you, if you don’t mind,” Alexander said. “I don’t think he’ll take too kindly to one of his suspects offering up evidence she created herself. I was there, I can corroborate.”
A smile tugged on her lips, even if his words did make her a little anxious for the conversation with Inspector Green. “I’ll feel much better about seeing the inspector with you along. Thank you for helping me. And Dr. Maxwell.”
They paused before the front door. Alexander looked uncharacteristically uneasy. “Saffron, I know that you’re determined to help Dr. Maxwell, but you need to consider that he might be guilty.”
“You can’t be serious,” Saffron said, shocked. “I’ve already told you that he couldn’t have done it. You watched me prove xolotl wasn’t the poison.”
“I am serious,” he said quietly. “I don’t want to believe him guilty any more than you do, but you must consider that he could have done it using another poison. Or that the police will find enough evidence to be convinced that it is him.”
Saffron hoped for a hint of disbelief in his expression. There was none. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Henry told me what Dr. Maxwell said when they argued. Maxwell apparently told him that he’d regret not having someone versed in poisonous plants on the trip because Henry was too idiotic to see a poison when it was right before him.”
Saffron’s breath caught. “No!”
Alexander looked down at her with a grim expression. “It’s incriminating, especially combined with a motive and convenient materials. I don’t want you to get your hopes up that your experiment will be enough to save Dr. Maxwell.”