by Rebecca King
“Why would that give you the idea that someone had tried to kill her?”
“Because I took tea with her, my dear,” the Dowager reported. “When I got home, I took ill as well. I started to tremble. I couldn’t keep anything down and, when I did stand up, the room moved around me so ferociously that I was sick. I was perfectly fine until I had tea with Alice. The following day I was back to normal.”
“It could have just been something you ate,” Aidan said thoughtfully.
“I didn’t eat anything everyone else in my house didn’t eat, and they were all fine. The only thing I had that was different to everybody else was the tea I shared with poor Alice, who told me about the symptoms she was experiencing. No, believe me; I think someone was giving her something. Whether it was the dizziness that made her fall down the stairs, or she was pushed, I am afraid we shall never know for definite. However, Petal may know what happened to her. Hopefully, she hasn’t had a sufficiently hard bump on the head that she will struggle with her memory.”
Now swayed by her deduction, Aidan nodded.
“Well, she isn’t going to eat or drink anything, and nobody is going to get near her without going through me first.”
“And me,” Jerry echoed. “Why attempt to kill them, though? I mean, for what purpose? I will admit that Alice’s death relieved me of a significant burden in my life I didn’t really want, but death is an extreme way of going about it. What reason could they have to want to do Petal any harm? Petal has never done anything to anybody.”
“Without Petal, I really don’t think I would be as well as I am today,” Aidan added. “Her reading to me kept me sane. She talked to me quite frankly when everyone else was walking around on tiptoes, afraid to look at their own shadow. Not only that but on occasion she actually pushed me to eat something when food was the last thing I wanted.”
“Aidan?” Petal whispered.
The world swam alarmingly when she tried to open her eyes, but she latched onto the sound of his voice. She clung to her husband’s hand while she tried to get her eyes to refocus on him. The pain in her head began to recede to a dull thud, but it still made thought difficult.
Aidan had never heard such a sweet sound in all of his life, and was choked with emotion was he watched her struggle to fight off the swirling mist of confusion he was so familiar with.
“Petal? Open your eyes and look at me, sweetheart,” he pleaded.
She blinked sleepily. At first, she couldn’t understand the worry in his eyes. He looked as if he had had endured a tremendous shock. Then she remembered something about horse riding, and looked at him in dismay.
“Are you alright? Did you fall off?” she asked in horror, her voice croaky.
“I am fine. It is you I am worried about. Can you remember what happened?” he asked in a voice that was husky with emotion.
Petal looked at him. The more she stared into his incredible eyes, the more she absorbed his quiet strength. The fog clouding her thoughts began to lift, and her memory flooded back.
“Can you remember what happened?” he prompted when she didn’t speak.
“I can,” she replied calmly. “Someone pushed me down the stairs.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“Are you sure?” he asked in a hushed whisper. He was horrified, and cursed his own foolishness to have left her all alone in the house so soon after they were wed.
“I am positive,” Petal assured him. “When you left I came upstairs. Something hit the floor behind me when I got to the top. I turned around to see what it was and went to pick it up. As I bent down, someone rushed up to me and pushed me.”
“Sweet Jesus,” Jerry swore and rubbed a hand wearily down his face.
“It will be alright,” Aidan assured her. “The doctor is on his way.”
He knew that she was in pain but didn’t know what to do to help her. He had never felt so bloody helpless in his life, and hated it. It took considerable effort to remain on the bed with her. He wanted to round all of his staff up in a line and refuse to allow them to go anywhere until one of them confessed to hurting her. However, he knew that if someone was cold blooded enough to consider someone’s life so insignificant they could willingly push them down the stairs they wouldn’t be honest enough to admit to their crimes.
“Can you remember what you saw?”
Petal blinked back tears and felt truly scared. “I can’t remember anything.”
“Alright,” he soothed, kissing her furrowed brow. “Firstly, and more importantly, have you hurt anywhere? I know you must be black and blue from landing on those hard steps, but have you broken anything? We have sent for the doctor, but I think it is wise not to move unless you absolutely have to until he has seen you.”
“I don’t think anything is broken. I am just a bit sore, and my head hurts,” she replied.
“Do you have any stabbing pains or anything?” He demanded.
“No, I just ache a bit.”
She couldn’t relax; not after what had happened.
“It will be alright, Petal. We will keep you safe. I don’t know what is going on at the moment, or why, but I promise you that whoever pushed you down the stairs will be put behind bars.”
“Petal?” Jerry prompted.
Petal jumped at the sound of her name. She released her tight hold on Aidan enough to be able to look at him. It was then that she remembered the dowager seated quietly beside him.
“I am sorry. I didn’t realise,” Petal said swiftly. She tried to sit upright but her aches and pains protested, and she ended up flopping uselessly back down onto the bed.
“Now, you stay here,” Aidan warned.
He pressed another kiss to her temple and settled her against him again.
Her cheeks flooded with heat. It felt wrong to lie in such an intimate embrace while the dowager looked on. A wave of helplessness swept over her at her inability to correct the damage she had just done to, well, what was left of her reputation in the eyes of Aidan’s mother.
Heaven only knows what she must think of me now, Petal thought morosely.
It was then that the awful memory of those fateful moments at the top of the stairs began to return in vivid detail.
“What is it?” He was so in tune with her that he could almost hear what she was thinking. “You remember something.”
She stared blankly at the fine material of his shirt while she fought to open up the memories hidden in her subconscious.
“There was a pair of hands. I can remember them coming at me. As I fell, I looked up.”
“Did you see who it was?” Aidan asked.
He tried to keep his voice calm for fear of frightening her and losing the precious memory. However, he was just as tense as the dowager and Jerry, who both sat forward in their seats to listen.
“Petal?” Jerry prompted when at first she didn’t seem to have heard them. “Can you remember?”
“I glanced up as I fell. I didn’t see his face, but it was definitely Rollo.”
Aidan’s jaw dropped. He stared at Jerry. His first instinct was to deny it. To assure her that it couldn’t possibly be the erstwhile butler who had been through everything with both him and Jerry for many a good, and bad, year.
“Are you sure?” his voice sounded practically dull even to his own ears.
Aidan looked deeply into his wife’s eyes but saw clarity there; a calm certainty that allayed any doubts he might have had that the knock to the head had confused her.
To his disbelief, the dowager nodded slowly.
“You knew?” Aidan gasped in outrage.
If she suspected the butler might not be as trustworthy as he appeared to be why on earth had she allowed him to continue working with the family? Questions pummelled him, and he levelled a stare on the dowager that could have melted glass while he waited for her to answer.
“I suspected, but as I have said to you before, I have no proof. While you and Jerry were single, there was nothing to worry about. It is your wi
ves who pose a problem. Alice was always concerned about things going wrong in the house, and that her orders were not carried out as she wanted. Then she started to take ill, and it was clear the marriage was failing fast. But, as soon as she had died, everything settled down again. I have been keeping a very close eye on both of you ever since. If there were even the slightest question that anything untoward was happening, I would have summoned the magistrate, sacked all the staff, and started all over again. However, as soon as Alice passed away everything went quiet. All has been alright since. Well, until you had that carriage accident, Aidan.”
Jerry shook his head. “Now he couldn’t have had anything to do with that because he was here. He was in my house working with me right until the moment when I received the note informing me what had happened. He couldn’t possibly have been involved in that.”
“No, I am not suggesting he was,” the dowager countered. “He doesn’t pose a threat to you, Aidan. He just doesn’t seem to like women in the house.”
“Are you sure it was Rollo?” Aidan asked with a frown as he turned his attention back to his wife. “What did you see?”
“I saw white hands. They were wearing a dark jacket and disappeared around the corner out of sight. But it was definitely the same black jacket that Rollo usually wears,” Petal replied. “Why, Aidan? Why would he want me dead? He seemed to be one of the people who accepted me. I have never had any reason to doubt that he might be able to do something like this. Why?”
“I don’t know,” Aidan sighed.
“Rollo has been with this family since he was a young boy,” the dowager replied. “Whether his life of service has made him bitter, or whether he feels proprietary towards my sons, I think only Rollo can tell.”
“Maybe he doesn’t like you being married to a servant,” she whispered, saying what she suspected everyone else was thinking.
“It isn’t for Rollo to decide,” Aidan retorted. “I am an adult. If he has any problem with that, shoving you down the stairs certainly isn’t the answer.”
“I think it goes deeper than that,” the dowager interrupted. “Mrs Kempton and Rollo have been in service to this family for years. There has been nothing they haven’t seen, or experienced, while working here. I think it is probably more protective rather than murderous jealousy or objection over your background. Alice was the daughter of a Lord, yet she got pushed down the stairs as well don’t forget.”
Aidan had to agree with her.
“What do we do now? If the footman has gone for the magistrate, Rollo is probably already half way to town by now.”
“I think we have that cup of tea Mrs Kempton brought up earlier. Then we can wait to see what the magistrate has to say when he gets here. Meantime, darling, you won’t be leaving my sight until I know everything, and the coward who has hurt you is caught,” Aidan informed his wife briskly.
He stood and tugged the bell pull several times. Everybody agreed to appear as nonchalant as possible until help arrived, but were a little surprised when Rollo answered the summons himself.
“We have decided to have that tea, after all, Rollo. Please bring some up for all of us,” the dowager ordered.
Petal eased around until she was sitting propped up against the pillows Aidan wouldn’t quit fluffing behind her.
“I am fine, really I am. I have just had a bump on the head that’s all. I shall be fine after some rest. Really, it is just a few bruises,” she protested, urging him to relax a little.
While having him fuss was wonderfully touching, it was a little discomforting to see the look Jerry shared with the dowager.
Jerry coughed as he tried to hide a smile at this uncharacteristic side of his brother while the dowager did, for once, look upon her younger son with evident fondness.
“You don’t mind, do you?” Jerry asked his mother suddenly.
He was aware of both people on the bed stopping to look at him but didn’t take the question back, or expand.
The dowager understood, and that was all that mattered.
“I learned my lesson with Alice. Believe me, when I tell you that to see your child so miserable is a parent’s worst nightmare. There was no way out of the situation, though. While it was horrifying that poor Alice died the way she did, it was at least a relief from the burden you carried; a situation I forced you into. I should never have enforced the archaic beliefs of my parents onto you. You should have been allowed to choose someone you found appealing.”
“But you have pushed and pushed for me to have someone you chose,” Aidan protested. “You have spent months parading Hornsby through my bedchamber every chance you got, and what about Edwards?”
The dowager smiled, completely undisturbed by Aidan’s outrage.
“Well, I rescued Edwards from a rather difficult situation. She needed some time away from the ton. You know, somewhere she could keep her head down while the gossip died down. When your doctor in London said you would need looking after, I suggested she might stay here with you. You posed no threat to her virtue. However, I did tell her she needed to guard everything you ate and drank, and that she should keep a close eye on you while you were vulnerable. I just didn’t think she would have matrimonial bells ringing in her ears,” she reported dryly. “Anyway, she did her job and indeed ensured that most of the staff stayed away. Although, it transpires that she has caused more trouble than she solved problems.”
“I’ll say. That woman was terrible. What on earth possessed you?” Jerry demanded, not bothering to ask what Edwards had done that had nearly driven her out of London. “You should have asked me to keep an eye on him, and told me what your suspicions were. I am here practically every day anyway.”
“You still hoped that I would consider her a saviour and be attracted to her, didn’t you?” Aidan’s tone was accusatory but held little heat.
The dowager shrugged. Now that she had confessed, she appeared to have lost some of her pomposity.
“Well, if it happened, it happened. You are married now, so it doesn’t really matter, does it?”
“It does when it nearly cost me the woman I love,” Aidan snorted.
Petal jerked and stared at him in wonder.
“Aidan,” she whispered, profoundly moved at the realisation that he could actually love her.
To Aidan, his adoration of Petal was perfectly natural. It was only when he realised that his wife was on the verge of tears that he realised what he had yet to tell her.
“It’s true,” he whispered. “To think of you not being a part of my life leaves me feeling as though I am lost at sea. There is a vast ocean around me I cannot find a way out of, and the darkness of it threatens to swallow me. I need you to keep my world steady. How could you doubt that I positively adore you?”
“I just thought your love was something that would have to develop in time,” Petal whispered.
Aidan shook his head chidingly at her.
“I love you,” she whispered. “It is the only reason I married you; and the only reason I married you. I cannot bear the thought of living without you.”
“Then let’s get to the bottom of who pushed you down the stairs,” Jerry declared. “Then we can get on with the rest of your lives without threat from anybody.”
Petal nodded but was painfully aware that the dowager was still watching them. This time, though there was an odd expression on her face Petal didn’t know how to read.
Rollo appeared at that moment in the doorway.
Everyone paused and stared at him as carried a tea tray into the room, followed by an equally laden Mrs Kempton. They both placed their dishes onto side tables and began to serve everyone.
Petal’s heart lurched as she eyed both Mrs Kempton and Rollo warily. Her hand clawed around Aidan’s as memories pummelled her. She clung on to him as though he was her lifeline. To her, it didn’t matter who had actually pushed her, she would either see either of them in the same way ever again.
“What is it?” Aidan murmured as he stu
died the worry in her eyes.
Petal didn’t answer him. She was lost in the last few moments she could remember on the stairs, right before she fell.
When Mrs Kempton turned around, their eyes met, and Petal knew immediately that she had been mistaken. It hadn’t been Rollo who had pushed her down the stairs.
“It was you,” she whispered, staring the woman directly in the eye.
She felt a sense of betrayal unlike no other. Not least because she now knew that the woman was not as trustworthy as she seemed.
“Pardon? What was who?” Aidan watched Jerry tense in his seat.
Strangely, Rollo moved to stand in front of the door to block the exit. Aidan looked the man in the eye. There could be no doubt that Rollo knew who was responsible.
“It was Mrs Kempton who pushed you, my dear,” the dowager murmured thoughtfully as she studied everybody.
She looked down at the cup of tea in her hand. Rather than drink any, she sniffed it.
“Nobody drink their tea. This has been spiked.” She placed her cup on the small table beside the bed to give to the magistrate later and turned her attention to the murderous housekeeper.
“It won’t come as any surprise to anybody for me to ask why, Mrs Kempton?” she asked calmly.
Petal stared at her in shock. She had always had the impression of the dowager being something of a harridan. Yet here she was, talking to a cold-blooded killer as though she was discussing nothing more important than the latest social gossip in London.
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Mrs Kempton reported, slamming the teapot back onto the tray with a dull thud.
Aidan stared at her. “Petal?”
“It was Mrs Kempton. At first, I thought it was Rollo’s jacket I saw because the person who disappeared around the corner at the top of the stairs was wearing it. However, I also caught sight of the flash of white hair. It couldn’t possibly have been Rollo; his hair is too dark. The only person in this house who has light grey hair is Mrs Kempton.” She stared the woman in the eye. “Why? I always thought you liked me.”
