Chapter Twenty-Six
“Make way!” Lady Darby swung her walking stick at the people gathered around Mrs. Harley. “Crowding her won’t help. She needs to breathe.”
The crowd, threatened by the lady’s stick, stepped back, and Mr. Harley took the opportunity to step forward and scoop his wife up in his arms.
“Be careful! She’s with child!” Lady Darby barked.
“Put her on the settee,” Nate instructed. “And someone fetch the smelling salts and call for a doctor.”
Just then, Mrs. Harley’s eyelids fluttered open, and she attempted to sit up. “There’s no need for the salts or a doctor,” Mr. Harley said. “She’s fine. It was only a fainting spell.”
Bridget stopped, confused. Surely, they needed a doctor.
“What are you saying?” Lady Darby thumped her walking stick on the floor. “The woman is with child.” She lifted her stick and thrust it in Bridget’s direction. “Send for the doctor—immediately!”
*
“Please, you have to help me.” Harley cornered Nate. “Cancel the doctor—turn him away at the gate—anything, but he cannot examine my wife.”
“She’s not with child,” Nate said, recalling what Harley had told him the first night he’d arrived.
Harley shook his head.
“In here.” Nate ushered Harley into the study and poured the man a brandy.
“I don’t think we can stop the doctor from carrying out his examination, but you needn’t worry.
You are the husband. He’s not obligated to share information about your wife with Lady Darby.
” Nate leaned against his desk and folded his arms. “But tell me, what do you plan to do? Tell Lady Darby that she lost the child?”
Harley lifted his glass and swallowed some brandy. “No, we had another plan.” He bounced his leg as he spoke.
And suddenly Nate knew what had happened. He remembered Frederick suggesting that Harley impregnate a housemaid—that also explained Mrs. Harley’s fainting spell. She had lost a child after all.
“Abigail was pregnant!” Nate said through gritted teeth. “With your child.”
“Not necessarily mine.” Harley continued to bounce his leg. “The child might have been Frederick’s.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I wanted a guarantee that at least one of the housemaids would get with child, and Frederick already has a string of them, so I paid him to—”
“One of the housemaids!” Nate curled his hands into fists but restrained himself from hitting Harley. So that was Frederick’s secret.
“I’m sorry,” Harley said. “I was desperate! Don’t you understand? We can’t have a child of our own. And my aunt will cut me off.” He dropped his head in his hands. “What am I to do? When Lady Darby discovers that Mrs. Harley is not with child—indeed never has been with child—then all is lost.”
“I think you have bigger problems at hand!” Nate said. “You seem to forget that Abigail has been murdered!”
“It wasn’t me. I wanted her to have my baby—Mrs. Harley wanted it too. Why would I kill her?”
“I never suggested you did. But you created a situation that could have led to murder.”
“How? All I did was offer her a better life. I was going to pay her a large sum. She’s a—she was—a servant, for goodness’ sake!”
“Shut up!” Nate said. He could not believe Harley’s level of selfishness. “Is Sarah also with child?”
Harley shook his head.
“Then there is a possibility that she was jealous that her friend had been successful where she had not. Abigail was going to get a large payoff and a new life to go with it. Whereas Sarah would be stuck in service for the rest of her life.”
“Good Lord! Are you suggesting that Sarah killed Abigail?” Harley gaped at Nate.
“It’s certainly possible.” Nate pushed back his hair with both hands, and Harley hung his head in shame. “Did you give my maidservants fungi?”
“What?” Harley jerked his head up.
“Did you give the housekeepers vision-inducing fungi?” Nate repeated, his jaw aching with tension.
“Not me. But Frederick may have done—did. He said it made them more”—Harley licked his lips—“compliant.”
“Good God!” Nate massaged his aching jaw. He must have been clenching his teeth for ten minutes straight.
“Why is that important?” Harley asked.
“Who else knew about this?” Nate said, ignoring Harley’s question.
“Just the four of us and…”
“And?” Nate said.
“Mrs. Harley. She knew. I couldn’t keep it from her. I wanted—needed—her consent for obvious reasons.”
“Did she consent? Or did you leave her no choice?”
“My aunt left us no choice.” Harley drained the rest of his glass and set it down.
Nate shook his head. He could barely contain his fury. “Well, it looks like your plan has come to naught.”
Harley stood up and gave Nate a pleading look. “They were both willing. It would have benefited us all—”
“Get out!” Nate growled.
Harley hesitated. “Please, try to understand.”
“Go!” Nate said.
After Harley rushed out of the room and closed the door behind him, Bridget stood up. She’d been sitting next to the window, listening silently to all that had been said. Nate was not even sure that Harley had been aware of her presence in the room.
“I’m sorry you had to hear that,” Nate said. “It was quite distasteful and not at all meant for a lady’s ears.”
Bridget gave him a hard stare. “I told you not to worry about that. I need to hear the facts—all of them—no matter how distasteful. That aside, it wasn’t the first time I heard that conversation.”
“You knew about this?” Nate frowned. “How?”
“I didn’t know that I knew until I heard Harley talk about it again.” She sat on the chair Harley had vacated.
“Again?” Nate put both hands on the desk and leaned slightly back.
“That was the information erased from my memory after my fall. I heard Mr. Harley and his wife talking in the library after you left.”
“And they didn’t see you in the library?”
She shook her head. “I was concealed in a nook. I must have decided to go down to the lake to stop what was happening to the housemaids.”
“But why didn’t you speak to me? Why go by yourself—” Nate stopped, remembering with fresh shame his conversation with Bridget that night and the comments he’d made about her papa. “Never mind. I’m sorry,” he said. “I was insensitive to you that night. It’s no wonder you avoided me.”
“My memory of that night is still unclear,” she said, brushing off his apology, “but I do recall my utter shock at overhearing the conversation between Mr. and Mrs. Harley. I don’t know what possessed me to venture out on my own—I don’t know what I thought I would do if I caught the housemaids with the Harley and Frederick, but I do know that someone must have followed me.
And whoever it was wanted to stop me from going to the lake. ”
“Someone must have been watching you and waiting for an opportunity to catch you alone.”
Bridget shuddered visibly, and Nate imagined the idea of someone watching and waiting for an opportunity to kill her.
“Thus far, we’ve assumed that the same person who killed Madam Bouffant and Abigail also wanted to silence you—do you still think that way?”
“I don’t know. Lady Eamont had reason to kill Madam Bouffant, and she clearly blames me for your refusal to marry Adelia, but what reason could she have to kill Abigail?”
“Abigail may have discovered something. Perhaps, she witnessed more than she revealed when she found Madam Bouffant’s body. Maybe she saw Lady Eamont and used that information to blackmail her.”
“But Sarah was with her. Wouldn’t her life be in danger too?”
“Abigail said that Sarah was a few seconds behind her. She’s the one who screamed and alerted you. Abigail may have caught a glimpse of Lady Eamont before Sarah arrived.” Nate drummed his fingers on the desk. “Unfortunately, we have no proof whatsoever and barely time to find any.”
Suddenly, Lady Darby’s shrill voice sounded outside, along with Harley’s muffled voice.
“It seems that Lady Darby has been given the news after all,” Nate said.
Bridget exhaled. “Yes, it does. I imagine it must be awful for Mrs. Harley. She cannot help it if she is barren, and then to be made to feel like a failure and to have her husband punished and humiliated for something that cannot be helped.”
“I agree. She’s lucky that Lady Darby doesn’t have the authority to chop her head off. I have the feeling that’s exactly what she would do if she had the power.”
Bridget bit her lip. “I’ve just thought of something.”
“Are you going to share it with me?” Nate asked.
“We’ve been going off the assumption that there’s only one offender, but perhaps there are two.”
Nate tilted his head, interested to hear more.
Bridget stood up. “I think I need to spend a bit of quality time with Mrs. Harley.”
“You what?” Nathan asked, but Bridget was already out the door.
*
Bridget knocked on Mrs. Harley’s chamber door and was greeted by her lady’s maid.
“I’ve come to check on Mrs. Harley.” She smiled. “How is she feeling?”
“She’s still poorly.” The lady’s maid held the door ajar. “I’ll let her know you came—”
“Oh, the poor dear.” Bridget pushed past the maid and stepped into the darkened room.
“Is that Miss De Lacey?” Bridget heard Mrs. Harley’s faint voice.
“Yes, ma’am. I tried to tell her you were indisposed but—”
“Wait outside,” Bridget instructed the servant before she could finish her sentence.
The maid hesitated.
“How kind of you to come, but I’m afraid you’ve caught me in an awful state.” Mrs. Harley lay on her settee with a damp cloth stretched across her forehead.
“Mrs. Harley requires a strong cup of tea,” Bridget instructed the maid.
“Lady Darby said—” the maid began.
“Tea would be lovely.” Mrs. Harley’s faint voice sounded from within the darkened room.
“Do as your mistress asks,” Bridget said. “She requires tea.” And, seeing the uncertainty on the maid’s face, she added, “You’re not to worry. I am here to cheer her spirits.”
This seemed to placate the servant, who nodded and exited the room.
Mrs. Harley sat up. Her eyes were swollen, and her face was red from crying.
“Oh, my dear,” Bridget said, sitting next to her on the settee. “I’m so sorry.”
The woman nodded and fresh tears spilled down her cheeks.