The Lady shook her head. “I am unclear about this. I feel that if I had researched the information a little better, if I knew more about the plants I’ve brought onto the ship, I would have been able to immediately recognize the symptoms we are seeing.”
“You are not a doctor. You study herbs and spices and plants. I am quite sure you never expected to have one of them used in this manner. If that is in fact what happened.”
“How it was administered is a mystery to me, my lord. This makes me very uncomfortable.”
“There is a great deal about what is happening that is making me feel uncomfortable as well, my lady. But rather than think about what we could have done or should have done in the past, perhaps we should concentrate on the task at hand.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Would you like to choose a book or two?”
“Yes, I will.” She passed him once again.
“Choose one that you think I should also go through.”
She pulled several of the books out and set them on the desk. “The subject matter of these books will not help us in this instance.”
“Are you certain?”
She looked at him. “If I was not, I would not have said it.”
“I apologize.”
She shook her head. “I did not mean to snap at you, my lord. I am worried about my husband.”
“That is understandable.”
She picked up the lantern on the desk and held it over the trunk. “There are only a few left in here that we should go through. But…well, there are so many plants. How will we find one that I have on board? Should we be doing this a different way? Perhaps we should only look at the plants I have samples of.”
“How many do you have samples of?”
“They are all in various stages of maturation. Some are merely seeds.”
“Will a seed have an effect such as we’ve seen?”
She pulled in a breath. “I do not have that knowledge. There is much that is not known about these plants that I have yet to understand.”
“How long have you been studying them?”
“I have been interested in the subject since I was a child,” she responded, scanning the titles of the remaining books in the trunk. “I was discouraged from learning about it by my father, a very strict man. As the Earl of Devonshire, he was not only strict with me, but with the citizens of our territory. He was a firm believer that women should not be given the knowledge that only a man is capable of understanding. I grew up with the resolve to learn as much as I could about the subjects that only men should understand. I have idolized the women who have fought so hard for rights in America, women that my father talked about with much hatred.”
“It is understandable that he would have such an opinion. It is our soldiers that fought against the Americans in the Revolution.”
“Yes. But it is his hatred for them that pressed on me the need to be more like them.”
“You did not get on with your father.”
“Not at all.”
“I believe every human being should be given the opportunity to make the most of the brain God gave them,” William said softly, reaching out to take the book she was offering him.
She smiled at him. “I am grateful that you feel that way, my lord.”
“You are a valuable asset to this quest, my lady. I am glad you are here.”
“What if it should be discovered that one of my plants has harmed the princess?”
“Your husband has been affected by this as well, Lady Annette. You should bear no guilt in the matter, unless you administered the poison yourself.”
Her eyes widened. “My lord, I would never!”
“I know that, my lady. I believe that. Shall we begin searching again?”
“Yes. Let’s.”
15
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“I’m not frightened, Philip! I’m the one who wanted to help them.”
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CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THE AMERICANS
“What do you think of what is happening on this ship, Philip?”
“I have not one idea, Mark.” Mr. Philip Wilder looked down at the shorter man. “Would that I had a solution for these people.”
“Do you think we may be in danger? I do not want to be put into a deep sleep.”
“I don’t know why anyone would want to put you into a deep sleep, Mark,” Philip said doubtfully. “You know no one on this ship and neither do I. We cannot be expected to solve this issue for these people. They are part of the elite society of Britain. I’m quite sure they can handle it on their own.”
“Perhaps. Perhaps not.”
“You don’t think you can help, do you? What do you know about such things?”
“I don’t know anything, Philip. I just want to help.”
“Forget about it. You can’t do a thing. We should keep our noses out of the private business of these people. They aren’t stupid. I know they can figure it out on their own.”
Mark shook his head. “How can you be so cold? These people are trying to save that princess.”
“We don’t know what afflicted her, Mark. I’m not being cold. I’m being logical. There is no possible assistance we can give them.”
“I don’t like that. I don’t like the thought of someone on this ship dying, much less a young princess.”
“Then don’t think about it.”
“How can you think that we might not be afflicted with this mysterious illness?”
“Why would you assume that we will be?” Philip shook his head. “Stop worrying about it, Mark. It’s happened and we are just passengers here. Perhaps the princess was cursed. Have you thought of that? We don’t know anything about magic or curses.”
Mark stared at his companion. “Magic? Curses? Who said anything about that?”
“You might as well have, my friend. You are talking about us helping them find a murderer on this ship.”
“What makes you think it’s a murder?”
“Well, it’s not official until the princess dies.”
“Philip!” Mark narrowed his eyes. “Have you done something?”
Philip sighed. “Mark. I don’t know the princess and have nothing against anyone who is on this ship. I’m just of a mind that there is someone on this ship who does have a grudge and the furthest I stay away from this, the better. If we get involved, there’s no telling; we might be next.”
Mark sighed. “I suppose you are right, Phil. I don’t want to get killed.”
Philip nodded. “I didn’t think so. I don’t either. Let’s move on from this subject, shall we? I’m not interested in being cursed.”
“Haha, Phil. You’re just trying to scare me.”
Philip snorted and pressed his lips together in disgust. “You must be one of the most frightened men I have ever met. It must be your short stature.”
“I’m not frightened, Philip! I’m the one who wanted to help them.”
“And my explanation for why I think that is a terrible idea has already been stated, has it not?”
“Yes, but…”
“Are you hungry? We should see if there are any biscuits left over. That’s what the British like to eat, isn’t it? Lots of biscuits.”
“You’ve been in Britain too long, Philip Wilder. You know what they like.”
“Yes, I do. They like biscuits. And tea. Maybe some jam on the biscuits.”
“Marmalade.”
“For some, yes, for others, perhaps not. I don’t care for the stuff myself.”
“I haven’t…” Mark stopped. Philip looked down at him. He was staring across the deck. Philip looked in the direction Mark’s eyes were focused. He squinted against the sun, seeing two people speaking to each other near a set of steps that led up to the bridge of the ship. They were hunched together under the steps, their heads close to each other.
Philip began to walk in their direction pu
rposefully and quietly, as if to go up to the bridge. Mark followed closely behind him. When Philip got fairly close, he moved to the side, grabbing Mark’s arm and pulling him with him. They could just hear the murmured words of Max and Naomi.
“They aren’t speaking English,” Mark whispered.
Philip raised one hand to shush the man. He gave him a hard look and looked down at the ground.
Mark leaned closer. “What are they saying? Do you know?”
Philip nodded, leaned toward Mark and hurriedly explained in such a low voice Mark had to lean toward him as well. “It sounds like Dutch. My father and uncle took me to Amsterdam before Papa was killed. They taught me some Dutch. I might be able to understand them. But you have to shut up.”
“Translate for me.”
Philip lowered his eyes again, concentrating on the sound of the two voices. After a few moments, his eyes moved abruptly up to Mark’s face. “They are talking about the princess.”
“What are they saying?”
“He asked her…what she did. She said she used some kind of…plant from…something that other passenger, the lady on board, something she had in the storage compartment.” He stopped talking for a moment.
“What else?”
“Shhh.” Philip narrowed his eyes, listening intently.
“What about the scientist? Why would you target him? We have nothing against him,” Max asked Naomi quietly.
“That was unintentional, Max. The scientist was in the way. He should not have drunk the tea I made for the woman. It does not matter. The attention has been taken away from the princess. They are confused.”
“They may be confused, but they are not going to stop looking for reasons, for someone to accuse and for a solution.”
“Yes, that is true. But if the Lady had drunk the tea, perhaps there would be less chance of them finding the solution.”
“There is nothing that can be done about it now.”
“I should have taken care of this myself. I should have taken matters into my own hands. I should never have let you take control of this.”
“You didn’t exactly have a choice, Max. When was the last time I listened to anything you had to say?”
“You should. You have no place other than at the princess’s side. We are both going to be accused and we must have a defense.”
“Our defense is that we were together. We both conspired to make this happen. If I am accused and not believed, you will be in the same situation as me. We will both be hanged.”
“Or worse. The king will be livid. He will torture us.”
“I will not be tortured.”
“You may not be. If you are not, you will be hanged and I will be tortured and then hanged.”
“It is too late to think of such things, Max. Much too late.”
“Yes. It is. And it is too late to rid ourselves of the Lady Burkinshire. You have failed.”
“I have not failed. The princess may survive until we reach New Bedford, but she will not remember anything and will not know what has happened to her. She will be weak and frail.”
“What did you use?”
“I told you. It was a plant that my mother used when I was young. It put her to sleep. I suspect she used it on me a few times as well.”
“To get you to go to sleep?”
“Yes.”
“If I were your mother, Naomi, I would want to put you to sleep too, if only to make you quiet your mouth.”
“You are not funny, Max.”
“I was not trying to be funny, Naomi.”
Philip translated the conversation to Mark, whose eyes grew wider and wider in disbelief. “It wasn’t witchcraft,” he murmured, his voice dismayed. “What a couple of horrible people!”
Philip grabbed his arm again and dragged him forcefully to the other side of the ship’s mast, away from the couple.
“What are you doing? Where are we going?”
“You wanted to help?” Philip said. “Let’s go help.”
“We going to find the captain?”
“And Sir William. I’m fairly certain he will want to know about this.”
“Yes. He will.” Mark moved to get next to and then in front of his companion. “Do you think they realized we were there?”
Philip looked over his shoulder, but saw no one. “If they did, they aren’t pursuing us.”
“It’s a good thing. We have nowhere to run.”
“They could throw us overboard,” Philip replied.
Mark snorted. “You are the worst person to be with in a situation like this. You have such great ideas about how to kill people. Specifically, us.”
“Be quiet, Mark. You aren’t the best companion to travel across the seas with either.”
“You could have picked someone else to travel with.”
“Who else needed to get out of Britain fast? You’re lucky I was ready to go on short notice.”
“We’re lucky these people don’t have a way to check our backgrounds, Philip.”
“Well, we didn’t do anything, did we? It was those two that tried to kill that princess. And we’re about to be heroes, aren’t we?”
“Do you think they’ll believe us?”
“I think they’ll be pleased to get the information. I don’t see why they wouldn’t believe us.”
“We’re Americans. That would probably be enough for any Brit.”
“You act like they hate us. Brits don’t hate us. You’ve been out of America for a long time, too. You ever get attacked by a Brit?”
Mark snorted. “Of course not.”
“It doesn’t matter. They don’t know what is happening. They are searching for answers. Look.” He pointed in front of them. The captain and the ship’s doctor were sitting on iron chairs outside a cabin door. Both Lady Burkinshire and Lord William were standing just outside the door, flipping pages in the books they held in their hands, scanning the pages.
“What are they doing?”
“How would I know what they’re doing, Mark?”
“I was just asking.”
“Well, let’s go find out.”
The two men hurried directly to the captain.
“Captain, we have some information for you.”
The captain stood up, placing the book on the chair behind him. “What is the problem, Mr. Wilder?”
“We have information that you need in your investigation.”
William looked up from his book. He slapped it shut, trapping his finger between the pages he was perusing. He stepped up the few steps to the deck to meet the American men as they approached the group. “You have information? You know who has done this to the princess and the doctor?”
Philip looked at George curiously.
“Not that doctor,” William said, dismissing the notion. “Doctor Burkinshire.”
Mark frowned, looking up at Philip. “Why would they do it to the doctor?” he asked in a curious voice.
“That’s a good question.” William looked at Mark. “But who is they?”
“It was those two that came with the princess,” Mark said hurriedly. “The guard and the assistant.”
“Are you sure?” William’s heart pounded in his chest. “How do you know?”
“Yes,” the captain stepped closer to the Americans, his face flushing with anger. “Tell us how you know this to be true.”
Philip smiled. “We heard them talking about it. With our own ears.”
“Well, he did.” Mark pointed at Philip. “They were talking in another language. I heard them, but I couldn’t understand them.”
“Tell us what happened, Philip.” William took another step toward the men. “Tell us how to fix this.”
16
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“What if they refuse to answer your questions?”
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CHAPTER SIXTEEN
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
Philip spent the next
ten minutes recounting what he’d heard.
Captain John responded quickly, calling to two of his largest crewmen and waving them over. “We’re going to get them, William,” he said, his face betraying his outrage. “You get as much information as you can and then come to the brig. We are going to get answers from those two.”
William nodded, watching as John and the two men hurried away. Then he turned his eyes back to Philip. “Please tell me you heard the name of the plant that was used on the princess and the scientist.”
“I’m sorry. She didn’t say it, and if she did, I either didn’t hear it or it was said properly because they weren’t speaking English.”
“Have you ever met the princess before this trip?”
Philip shook his head. “No, sir.”
“Have you met Lord Burkinshire before?”
Again, the American shook his head. “No, sir. Please trust me, sir. I have no grudge against either of these people. I did not know them. Believe me.”
William nodded. “I do believe you, Mr. Wilder. I would have liked it if we could have had a notion behind the type of plant that was used to poison our two friends.”
“I understand, Lord Montgomery.”
“Did they say why they did this?” Lady Burkinshire spoke through a tight throat, making her sound like a small child. “Why they would want to poison my husband? What could they possibly have had against him?”
Philip looked at her sympathetically before answering in a gentle voice. “I don’t think they were trying to poison him, my lady. I think they were trying to poison you.”
She looked shocked and moved her eyes to William for a moment. “Wh…why would they want to do that?”
“Well, it makes sense,” Mark said, stepping forward, also speaking in a gentle tone. “You are familiar with your plants. If anyone can spot the type of plant and find one to fix the problem, it would be you, would it not?”
Regency Romance: The Marquess’ Curse (The Fairbanks Series - Love & Hearts) (CLEAN Historical Regency Romance) Page 10
