Chapter 35
‘Well, I’ll be…’ said Thea as they stood over a blackened sand bed in the remains of the glasshouse.
Frankie stood with her hands on her hips. A fragment of burnt beam crunched under her weight as she shifted. ‘I just don’t know how,’ she said, a crease remaining in her brow.
‘Why on earth didn’t I think of it before?’ asked Martha, leaning forward to pinch a morsel of the ash covering the bed’s surface. Her words caused both Thea and Frankie to tear their eyes away from the small forest of Protea seedlings newly sprouted in the bed.
‘You know?’ they both said at once.
‘It makes perfect sense,’ said Martha, straightening and brushing hair out of her eyes. It left a black smear on her forehead, almost in keeping with her funeral dress.
‘What does?’ asked Thea and Frankie, again in unison.
Martha looked at them both for the first time since entering the wreckage of the glasshouse.
‘Protea are part of the Fynbos flora at the Cape. Every few years, wildfires take hold and burn the vegetation to the ground. Then the whole landscape regenerates from seeds.’ Martha nodded at the litter of seedlings. ‘Just like that.’
Frankie stared at her.
‘So, you’re saying they need to be burnt to germinate?’ asked Thea.
‘I suppose so,’ said Martha, looking thoughtful. ‘I didn’t see it as it was never burning while I was there, but the local guides are clear that it is a regular occurrence.’
‘The fire removes competition from other plants, I suppose?’ said Thea as her brain wrapped itself around the idea.
Martha nodded. ‘I suspect it is the same with many of the species that grow there.’
‘So, people thought eyeballs were strange,’ said Frankie, ‘But what I really needed to do was to set them on fire. Who would have thought?’
‘I suppose the duke did make a contribution in the end,’ said Martha.
‘Shame we did him in,’ said Frankie. ‘He could have helped with the Vitex.’
But as she skipped through the second half of the sentence, Thea noticed that Martha had tensed. She looked between Martha and Frankie, whose eyes now widened.
‘I thought you were going to tell her?’ she asked Martha. Thea’s gaze flicked to the countess.
‘I was,’ said Martha through slightly gritted teeth. ‘After the funeral.’
Frankie paused, and Thea’s gaze slipped back to her. ‘Well, I suppose now is after the funeral,’ she said quietly. ‘What is it you have to tell me?’
‘Well,’ said Martha, for once seemingly at a loss for words. Or actions. She stood stock still.
Frankie looked at her for what seemed like long seconds and then sighed. ‘We killed the duke,’ she said, managing to look both contrite and defiant at once. ‘Me and Lady Foxmore.’
‘I know,’ said Thea a little hopefully. ‘You told the constable. But by accident and it was only contributory…’
‘No,’ said Martha, seeming to have found her voice but not any movement. She still stared at the bed ahead of her, arms clasped around her. ‘Not by accident. We at least tried to kill him absolutely on purpose.’
Frankie nodded in confirmation.
‘How?’ asked Thea, when no other information was forthcoming.
‘With the Abrus,’ said Martha. ‘The seeds that were in the rain stick that I brought for the children. They’re extremely poisonous. Fine when they’re inside the stick for the children, obviously.’
Thea blinked, not knowing what to make of it. ‘How did you get them down him? Wasn’t he unconscious from the shovel and massive amounts of laudanum?’
Martha swallowed nervously, so Frankie went on. ‘Lady Foxmore made some pellets from the mushed-up seeds. Then I helped her turn him over and we poked one into him with a grafting knife.’
‘Where?’ asked Thea, not sure why that was her question.
‘In his arse,’ said Frankie, apparently a little pleased with herself. ‘Intramuscular. I knew how to miss the arteries because of our lectures with Doctor Hunter.’
Thea, eyes still wide, took a breath to speak and then let it out again. The silence stretched a little. ‘Did nobody notice?’ she asked, wondering how the doctors had missed it.
‘It is a form of poison difficult to detect,’ said Martha.
‘Only a small incision is required, then the pellet dissolves and the organs fail slowly. The insertion of the pellet would have caused a bruise, but he was already bruised from damaging himself while setting the fire.’ She shrugged.
‘Idiot,’ she added, as if she couldn’t stop herself.
‘Did you say tried?’ asked Frankie, looking to Martha.
‘Mmm,’ said Martha. ‘He woke up after it and he shouldn’t have. It might be that the seeds were old and not as potent. We may never know if it was that or the laudanum.’
‘How did you know about it?’ asked Thea. ‘The Abrus and the pellets?’
‘I witnessed its use in the East Indies,’ she said. ‘They use it to kill cattle. But they administer it with bamboo skewers.’
‘You tried to kill my husband like a cow?’ asked Thea, attempting to keep her voice low, still disbelieving what she was hearing.
‘Like a bullock,’ corrected Martha. ‘Far more appropriate. They are less useful.’
‘Why?’ asked Thea.
‘Because they don’t produce milk,’ said Martha.
‘Not that.’ Thea closed her eyes for a second. This was a lot to take in. ‘Why did you kill George?’
Frankie ejected an impromptu laugh. ‘You really have to ask?’
Martha turned to look at her now, wiping hair from her face and smearing further black streaks across her cheek.
Her stare was intense. ‘It was you or him, Thea. He would have killed you that night or another, quickly or slowly. He would have isolated you and controlled you – he said as much himself in the walled garden. I could not leave you with him if he was to send me away.’ Her passion was so intense that despite Thea’s shock, she longed to take Martha in her arms.
‘I’ve seen plenty,’ said Frankie, ‘the bad ones. ‘They are out for control and will do anything to get it. Rich or poor it makes no difference. Just here.’ She nodded at the house. ‘There’s a pretence of politeness. But it’s all just a wrapping around the same rotten core when they’re like that.
People are all the same on the inside. They choose to be kind, or choose to hurt those around them.
That’s what he chose. We both agreed we would never forgive ourselves if anything happened to you. ’
Thea considered hugging Frankie but thought better of it. She blinked again. ‘You were in cahoots on this even though you hated one another?’
‘This was more important,’ said Martha. ‘And it turned out she’s alright really.’ Martha and Frankie shared a smile. Thea raised an eyebrow.
‘And then you lied to the constable?’
‘Not at all,’ said Frankie. ‘I admitted it, and so did Lady Foxmore to get me off the hook. But then the rest of them stepped forward and the constable just assumed it was laudanum we had given him too.’
Thea’s heart was racing. She knew they were right – she wouldn’t have lasted long under George’s control and isolated from her support, one way or another. But was it really that clear cut? Was it her life, or his? She felt Martha’s hand on her waist.
‘He would have done it, Thea. I saw the look in his eyes as he pushed you towards that fire. It was only a matter of time.’
‘Mrs Jenkins was going to do him in with a shotgun,’ said Frankie. ‘After he didn’t drink enough of the laudanum, she and Mrs P tried to give him.’
Thea looked between them. ‘They meant it too?’
Martha and Frankie looked at one another and shrugged. ‘How will we ever know?’