Chapter 29 #2
Cat managed one sip and nodded, trying not to grimace. Lord, the sugar was cloying. She wished there was cream. But alas, that was one of the many luxuries she got only when the servants were at work, making the whole house run so smoothly it didn’t look like work at all.
“What have you been doing these past few weeks, Miss Fairchild?” she asked politely as she took another tiny sip. If she got the liquid level down halfway she could pour more tea in, diluting the intense sweetness.
“I’ve been in an agony of waiting,” the lady confessed. “And I must say, I’ve been wondering where you’ve been, Miss Ross. To disappear from a scene of such drama, and then no one in the whole city could say where you’d gone! It’s all very mysterious. Can you not give a hint?”
“I was in the Highlands,” Cat said, knowing that it was statement of such vagueness that she might as well have said nothing at all. “I felt I needed to get away for a while.”
“You could have told someone!” Miss Fairchild chided, wagging her white-laced finger playfully.
“I told my aunt Tacita.”
“Who also absconded a few days later, so what good was that?” Miss Fairchild chuckled, then nibbled a biscuit.
“Wait, you knew she left?”
“Well, I called at the house, didn’t I?” Miss Fairchild replied. She tapped the remaining half of the biscuit so that the crumbs fell to the carpet.
Cat found herself annoyed by the gesture, even though it was probably done without the slightest thought. “Would you like a plate?” she asked, leaning forward to pick one up from the tray.
The sudden motion made her head spin. Cat lost her hold on the plate and it fell on the floor. The thickness of the carpet was the only thing that kept it from shattering.
“Goodness,” Miss Fairchild said, her eyes widening, though a smile played on her lips. “How are you feeling, dear?”
“A little dizzy,” Cat confessed. “I may need to lie down.”
“You want a nap,” her guest said, nodding. “That’s quite understandable.”
“Yes, I’ve been under rather a strain the past few days. The travel down from the Highlands and being alone in the house…” Cat had to stop a yawn with her hand. “Excuse me!”
“Take more tea,” Miss Fairchild said, lifting Cat’s cup to her mouth.
She drank another sip, grimacing at the sugary sweetness. Then she leaned back in her seat. “It was very kind of you to call,” she said. “I truly didn’t mean to worry everyone.”
“They’ll manage, and after all, people have such short memories, don’t they? I do like this house,” Miss Fairchild said, looking around with a gleam in her eyes.
“Oh…thank you?” Cat was getting rather muddled, and she wasn’t entirely sure where this conversation was going.
Miss Fairchild looked directly at Cat and smiled. “It needs a dog.”
“We had a dog. He died not very long ago.”
“I know. It was unavoidable, but it was necessary. I didn’t do it to be cruel, of course.”
Cat heard the words, but they didn’t make any sense. At least, not in her head. Meanwhile, her stomach dropped. “What…what do you mean? What was unavoidable?”
Miss Fairchild said, slowly and patiently, as if to a child, “Killing the dog. We put poisoned meat out in the yard, and he went for it immediately. We were going to get in the house that night, just as soon as the dog went to sleep. We needed him to not bark an alarm, you see. But then some damn housemaid was awake when everyone ought to have been asleep, and we had to retreat anyway. Very frustrating.”
“You…killed Check?”
“Yes, Miss Ross. Goodness, do try to keep up. The tea is supposed to make you sleepy, not stupid.”
“The tea?” Cat inhaled. “The sugar! You poisoned my tea with something in the sugar lump.”
“Full marks! Yes, it was easy. And fast. And you needn’t worry.
Once you drop off, I’ll get you all comfy on the chaise over there.
It will look like you swooned, and then your heart just failed.
Happens all the time! Healthy women seem to be full of life one day, and the next day they’re in the kirkyard in their finest gown. ”
“Are you talking about marriage or burial?”
Miss Fairchild actually leaned back and laughed. “Clever to the end, Miss Ross. Your funeral will be well attended, I’ve no doubt.”
“Why do you want to kill me, Miss Fairchild?”
“ Mrs Fairchild, in fact. Speaking of marriage, I feel I ought to share the good news about mine. My husband is a cousin of yours, actually. Not that anyone in this house ever recognized him or offered the slightest hint of familial warmth. But he is the closest male descendent in your father’s line.
When Brodie Ross died, my husband should have been the next heir. ”
“But I’m Brodie’s twin. I’m the next in line.”
“And a blow that news was, I assure you.” Miss—no, Mrs Fairchild glared at her.
“What need have you for the inheritance? You’ve got a pretty face and fine manners.
If you did what you ought to have done, you’d have found a gentleman to marry and he’d take care of you.
The estate belongs to my Thomas. He needs it to take care of me. ”
“If you believe that, why did you even join the League?”
“Not for the yammering about ladies’ rights!
” The woman rolled her eyes. “Such caterwauling! The system we have works very well so long as everyone knows their place in it. I joined to get closer to you, Miss Ross. To learn your movements and make it easier to get rid of you when the time was right.” She smiled happily.
“And after a few missed opportunities, the right time has finally arrived!”
Cat tried to stand. She needed to get out of the house, now. But her legs felt wobbly as she rose, and she collapsed back down onto the seat.
The other woman shook her head indulgently. “Just go to sleep, dear. You always have to make such a fuss. For once in your life, do as you’re told.”
“I will not.”
Miss Fairchild picked up the embroidered pillow, the one Catriona and Brodie had worked on so painstakingly as twelve-year-olds, determined to give their mother the most beautiful gift in all of creation.
Her tormentor gave it a cursory glance, which turned into an expression of actual curiosity.
“My word, this is hideous. What possessed anyone to create such a thing, let alone keep it?”
Cat could have told her about the sort of love that resulted in an object like that, mocked and mourned, teased and treasured. But she could barely speak now. Just keeping her eyelids open was a chore. All she got out was “My…family.”
Miss Fairchild just laughed. “The plan worked well up till you. You proved rather difficult. But now I’ve got you, and it’s time for you to rejoin your family, dear.
” She held up the pillow and stepped toward Cat.
Cat lifted up her hand to ward off the descending pillow, but her muscles had turned to water, and there was no force in her arm.
She inhaled, aiming to get as much air as she could, to fight the inevitable attack. But it was not a fair fight, and despite her struggle, within moments she was swallowed up in enveloping, eternal velvet night.