“As a matter of fact, I do.” She had almost forgotten why she’d come into the room. “Will you two gentlemen please help me go through my books? Earlier, Mr. Harrington, you said something about a logbook that I should have kept one for my plants. I do have one, as requested by the captain before my arrival on board. I had forgotten about it. I found it, but it does not give many details about the plants I have. It simply names them all and gives a description so that they can be recognized. Would you help me go through them to find what was used on Belle and Patrick?”
“Of course we will do that for you, madam.” Mark was by her side in three short steps.
Philip pushed himself up from the chair to get to his feet. “I will certainly try to help you, madam,” he said. “But Lord Montgomery offered up the ship’s whiskey and I am a bit tipsy.”
“I appreciate your willingness to help, young man.” Lady Annette smiled at him and turned around.
Behind her back, the two men gave each other curious looks before following her through the door.
In the small cabin, William knelt by Belle’s sleeping form and leaned over the berth in order to be closer to her. “Sweet princess,” he whispered. “We are going to bring you back. We are going to wake you up. Somehow. Surely the effects of this poison will not last forever.”
But it could last too long, he thought with a fearful heart. Without nutrition, the lady would starve to death. That made his heart pound hard. He reached out and took one of the lady’s hands in his, noticing her hands were much smaller than his own. She looked pale in the light cast from the lantern behind him and the sun shining through the porthole. He lowered his head and said a quick prayer.
“Lord God, watch over this woman while we work to discover what has happened to her. Give us wisdom, Lord, as we search for answers. Protect her from death, I plead with You. Be with us. Guide us. Give us strength.”
He looked up at her, wishing she would open her eyes.
But she remained the same, breathing steadily, unmoving.
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“This Valerian Root. Sir, it is a sedative. It is used to help with sleep, with a sedating effect.”
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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
THE HERB THAT SAVES LIFE
William entered the room, finding Naomi’s face and keeping his eyes directly on her. He wanted to see her reaction when she saw the mortar and pestle in his hands. He got the reaction he wanted. When the woman saw what he was carrying, her face fell and she slumped in her seat.
He approached her and plunked the stone mortar down in front of her. The pestle jostled inside it, rolling along its brim before settling in one spot.
“Do you recognize this?” He leaned in so that he was close to her face again. The captain leaned back, a look of surprise on his face. William looked at him. “Has she told you anything?”
Captain John shook his head. William turned his angry face back to Naomi. “Listen here, you fobbing, clay-brained harpy. You tell me what this powder is or I will throw you overboard myself.”
To his surprise, Naomi seemed to stiffen up. His words had angered her, rather than intimidating her. His rage grew even more as he watched her sneer at him. She leaned closer to him.
“I will never tell you.” She sniffed. “And you will never discover what it was. The princess will die and I will have justice.”
Unable to restrain himself, William slapped the woman across the face. Her head whipped to the side. When she looked back at him, her eyes had filled with tears once again, her cheek burning a bright red color. She narrowed her eyes and sat back against the chair, staring at him.
He reached out to grab her by the collar of her dress. He was going to pick her up, drag her across the table, take her out of the brig and toss her overboard. He could picture it in his mind. It gave him a feeling of sweet satisfaction.
John grabbed his arm, preventing him from grasping hold of the woman. “Do not do that, William.” He shook his head and hurried to explain when William gave him a look of blind rage. “That is what she wants. It is what they both want. They have made it perfectly clear that’s what they want.”
“Why? I shall give them what they want if that is the case.”
John shook his head. The look of amusement on his face made William stop, confused. “The King, Belle’s father, will put them in the torture chamber when they are back in the Netherlands. It is true that they will be hanged. But before they reach that point of sweet death, they will be tortured for what they have done to the innocent princess.”
William smiled devilishly, turning his face back to the woman, who had gone pale. The whiteness of her face brought out the red from the slap on her cheek. Her eyes widened.
“Throw me overboard, Sir William. Please Lord Montgomery, I beg you.” She groaned.
“Captain John has made a good point,” he said. “We will send you back to your homeland. Let your king and the rest of the citizens give you the punishment you deserve.”
“Please don’t, Sir William! Please don’t send me back there. We meant no harm.”
“Do not include me in your begging,” Max snapped at her. He had taken a seat on the floor in the corner and was resting his head against the wall behind him. “I care not what these men do. I will explain to the king and he will do what he sees as appropriate. I did not poison Belle or the doctor. You did. He may believe me. I will take my chances.”
William turned vicious eyes in Max’s direction. “He will not believe you, Max. I will be sure to write out a nice document stating the crime and the evidence to him. I believe the Americans will testify to your wrongdoing and what they overheard.”
“We were not speaking English,” Max said. “There is no way they understood a word of what we were saying.”
“You have simply admitted to your guilt!” William wanted to laugh. “Do you not realize this? Do you not see what you have done? If you are aware that you were not speaking English, you know which conversation we were talking about. The Americans will testify to it.”
Max’s face went through a range of emotions. “It matters not. I will take my chances with the king. He will not believe the Americans.”
William scowled at him. “Perhaps he won’t. Belle, however, will. And she will convince her father of your betrayal. You will be punished as you should be punished.”
When he saw Naomi fall into yet more tears and Max’s narrow, furious face, he knew he would be getting no more information from either of them. He shook his head, reining in his temper. “You do what you will with them, John. I’m not spending another moment of my time with either of them.” He leaned close to Naomi once more, a disgusted sneer on his face. “I shall ask Belle’s father for a seat closest to the gallows, you craven flax-wench. It will give me pleasure to see you hang.” He looked at Max. “I will suggest thick rope for you, lying hedgepig. I wouldn’t want to see it break.”
Max grunted and turned his face away so that he was not looking at William anymore.
William backed up to the door, glaring at the pair as he went. He didn’t speak another word when he went out, but he couldn’t help feeling a bit amused when he heard John saying, “You infuriated the wrong man. You will surely hang by your necks for this.”
He was given further reason to smile when he got back to the stockroom to see the Americans sitting cross-legged on the floor of the deck, flanking Lady Annette as they searched for the cause and cure.
“Have you any luck?” he asked half-heartedly. If they had, they would surely have already told him. The trio looked up at him at the same time.
“No but the answer must be in one of these books, my lord,” Lady Annette said. “It simply must be.”
“Agreed. Shall I help?”
“My lord, what would you like to do?”
“I have an idea.” He held out his hand. “Give me the logbook.” She handed it to
him. “Each of you take a book from the stack. I will give you the name of a plant and you look it up. But I want to do it differently than you have been doing.”
Lady Annette looked confused. He smiled at her. She was a pretty woman. If he was the man he used to be, he would have taken things a step further with her, whether she was married or not. But he was striving to be a different man and his heart had been taken by the sleeping beauty in the cabin below.
“Don’t keep us in the dark, Lord William,” Philip said, raising his eyebrows. “Tell us your plan.”
“I’m going to start from the back of the list.”
Lady Annette blinked a few times before leaning to the stack of books next to her and handing one to each of the Americans. “Do you want one, too, my lord?”
William sat on the top step leading down into the storage room. He set the logbook on his lap and opened it to the back. He nodded and held out one hand for a book. She handed him one. He set it next to him. “Okay. Let’s start with the…Good God, my lady, you have over two hundred plants on this ship? Why in heaven’s name are you taking all of these to America?”
“They are mostly healing herbs, a few spices and some nice flowers that I’ve picked up while traveling with Patrick. I have friends in America who would like to plant them there.”
William nodded. “I see.” He gave the three of them the herbs that were listed at the back of the book and took one for himself. “Mr. Wilder, please look up yohimbe. Mr. Harrington, yarrow root. Lady Annette, do you know what wolf’s claw is?”
“I can’t say immediately, no.”
“Please look it up and I will take wormwood.”
“That is not what this is’,” Lady Annette said immediately. “That one I do remember. It is bitter and helps people get up and on the go.”
“Do you think it would revive them?” William asked excitedly, almost closing the logbook.
“No.” She shook her head. “First, we must find out what it is that has caused this. Then, we shall find a proper solution.”
“All right. I will take…wood betony.”
“That’s a mint.”
William gave the Lady an amused look. He moved his eyes back down to the logbook. “Vitex.”
She shrugged with a smile. “You’ll have to look that one up.”
William chuckled and picked up the book beside him, flipping pages from the back forward until he found the V section. It was quiet for a few moments until they had all found what they were looking for.
Philip was the first to find his herb. “This book says that yohimbe is used…to…” He hesitated, glancing up at the Lady. He moved his eyes to William. The look on his face was priceless.
“What is it, Mr. Wilder?”
“It’s…used for…sexual…”
“All right,” William nodded, cutting him off. “That’s enough. It’s not going to put anyone into a sleeping sickness.”
“No sir. I don’t believe so.”
“Mr. Harrington? Have you found yours?”
“Yarrow,” Mark said, reading from the book, “is a treatment used for hundreds of years to cease excessive bleeding.” He looked up at William.
“Wolf’s claw is used for itching and skin irritants,” Lady Annette said.
“All right. It says here that vitex is typically used for female problems. I suppose I should have given this one to you, my lady.” William smiled at Lady Annette.
She shook her head, returning his smile.
“Mr. Wilder, take vervain and look it up. Mr. Harrington, look up valerian root. Lady Annette, your next one is uva ursi. I will take turmeric.”
A moment of quiet followed as the group looked up the herbs mentioned.
“It says here that vervain is used to…” He stopped talking when Mark suddenly rose to his feet, his eyes glued to the words in the book. He looked up at William, a stunned look on his face.
“What is it, Mr. Harrington?” Chills covered William’s arms. He closed the book in his hands and stood up. “What have you found?”
“This valerian root. Sir, it is a sedative. It is used to help with sleep, with a sedating effect. It is…my lord, I believe it could cause this reaction if used in high doses.”
William dropped the book to the deck floor and took the few steps to Mark, taking the book from him. “Where is it? Which…I see it. All right. All right.” He looked at Lady Annette, who had also closed her book and stood, looking anxious.
The three of them gathered around William as he pointed toward the picture of the herb and read the words written on the page. “It is a plant that resembles a fern, growing pink flowers. It is in the trunk that is labeled TUV-32. Do you know where this trunk is?”
“It is easily found, my lord. Come, help me look.”
They moved quickly through the door. William grabbed the lantern outside the door and lit it for extra lighting. “Here it is,” Lady Annette said quickly. “It is sitting alone, here.”
“Do you use locks?”
“No, I did not feel there would be a need.” She sounded ashamed.
“Do not feel guilty, my lady. There is no way you would have known.”
“I know, my lord. It does not stop my guilt.”
He put one hand on her shoulder. “Let me open it. Let us see if it has been disturbed.”
He gave the lantern to her before reaching with his fingers under the lid of the trunk, unlatching the hook and lifting the heavy lid. “Do you know which one it is?”
“It will be labeled, my lord. I wrote the name of each plant on the outside of the container.”
“Hand me the lantern.”
She did so.
He held it up over the open trunk and scanned the names on the containers. “It is…” He was about to say it was not there when he saw a lightly written word on top of one of the containers. He grabbed it and pulled it out. “This is it. This is it.” He found his heart was shaking in his chest. He looked up at Lady Annette. “Open it.”
She opened it. Her eyes widened and moved up to his face. “It has been disturbed,” she confirmed. “It has been cut, my lord. I think we have found the herb.”
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“We’re going to bring you out of this, Belle. Soon. I promise.”
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CHAPTER NINETEEN
REVIVING THE PRINCESS
As elated as they were to find the cause of the sleeping sickness, they were well aware that they would need to find a remedy. William left the Americans with Lady Annette with instructions to search for an antidote.
“My lord, what if we don’t find one?” Lady Annette’s pretty face was worried.
“We will find one,” William said confidently.
He went quickly to tell the captain and George what they had discovered. He found the doctor in the cabin of Lord Burkinshire, checking on his condition.
He turned, looking at William as he entered. William instinctively spoke quietly, as though he was going to wake the scientist just with his words.
“You have news, my lord?” the doctor asked.
“Yes. We have discovered the cause of the sleeping sickness. A strong sedative has been used. We believe it was mixed with a tea that was given to the princess and the scientist.”
“What is it, my lord?”
“It is called valerian. We have seen the disturbed plant. Have you heard of it?”
“I have, my lord, but have never seen it nor used it on a patient.”
“Do you know of a remedy that will bring these people back to consciousness?”
“I do not know of anything that can be used, my lord. I apologize.”
William shook his head. “You must not worry. We will find something. This herb has put them to sleep, but there will be a way to bring them back. I am certain of it. Do not leave the scientist’s side unless you are checking on the princess. Have you looked in on Belle?”
“I just came from there, my lord. She is the same. Sleeping soundly. Breathing. I was able to get her to swallow some water. But she is looking frail and weak. She will not be able to hold out for much longer.”
“We will bring her back shortly. We will find a way.” He turned and left the room as abruptly as he had entered.
He went from the scientist’s cabin to the door of Belle’s room. He opened it and put his head in, hoping the light would be bright enough that he would not need a lantern to see her face. The sun was setting on another day. He wanted to see her eyes open before it came up the next day. He could just see her body outlined on the berth. He went in, feeling his way through the dim light to reach her. He placed one hand on her shoulder, listening for her steady breathing. Shallow and weak, but he could hear it.
He inhaled deeply. “We’re going to bring you out of this, Belle. Soon. I promise.”
He leaned over and placed a soft kiss on her cheek. “I promise.”
He stayed in his position for a while longer, pressing his forehead against hers, his eyes closed.
Just as he stood up, the door opened and Captain John entered with a lantern, holding it up high. “Here you are, Lord William. I’ve been searching the boat for you.”
“That is very strange, Captain. Where would you think I would be?”
The captain chuckled. “I thought you might like to know how thing are going with the two in the brig.”
William snorted. “I suspect they are doing the same as before. Denying, lying or staying silent while they sulk.”
“That is very close to the truth, I must say. How is she doing?”
“The same. We have discovered the herb that was used to put her to sleep. It is called valerian. I must assume that she was given a high dose of it, or the effect was stronger on her than it might be on others. It is not supposed to be dangerous.”
Regency Romance: The Marquess’ Curse (The Fairbanks Series - Love & Hearts) (CLEAN Historical Regency Romance) Page 12
