“Your counter curse worked, Rose. I saw her last night with no pain.”
“That’s good.” Rose smiled faintly.
Neither of them could muster much enthusiasm for the success of the counter curse, with Stephen dying across the room.
“I recognized her last night. She was my first maid, Aileen. She killed herself. With poison.”
Rose raised an auburn brow, unsurprised by this information, and nodded for Gillian to continue.
“The wine she keeps drinking over and over again is the same wine Stephen drank last night.”
Rose’s eyes closed and her lashes fluttered. Her hand covered her mouth. “Thank God, thank God. He only took a few drinks. He might live yet.” Her eyes snapped open. “Gillian. That wine was meant for you.”
Gillian’s shoulders slumped. “I know. This makes three attempts on my life. I must tell Nicholas.”
“No!” Rose shook her head vigorously, eyes intense. “You cannot.”
Gillian was taken aback by her sister’s vehemence. She frowned in annoyance. “Of course I can. He’s my husband. He’ll find out who’s doing this and protect me.”
Rose gripped Gillian’s hands tightly. “Listen to me for a moment. When I was in the kitchens I overheard the servants talking about Aileen. This has happened before.”
“What?”
“When Kincreag’s first wife was alive, several servants committed suicide with poison. So did a few of her alleged lovers. Then she falls from the cliff and the suicides stop. Kincreag marries, and they start up again.”
“And what do the servants think is going on?” Gillian asked incredulously. “What does marriage have to do with poisonings?”
“They say he’s madly jealous—that he’s jealous of anyone who even speaks to his wives, so he kills them.”
“If that’s true, then why isn’t my other maid dead? What about Sir Evan?”
Rose nodded wisely. “They probably realize. They’re probably very careful about anything they eat or drink.”
Gillian let out an exasperated breath. “Da said something about this before I left Lochlaire. He thinks the countess did it.”
Rose put her hands on her hips and raised her brows. “Aye? Well if that’s true, who’s doing it now?”
What Rose thought was impossible. Rose couldn’t know that, because all she knew of Nicholas were the rumors and his unpleasant behavior since her arrival. But Gillian knew him. He would never do anything like this. She didn’t know who was responsible, but she had an idea how she might find out.
Nicholas and Gillian dined alone that night. Stephen Ross was still very ill, and Rose continued to tend him. Nicholas was in a state of shock from what Gillian had told him. The wine in her room had been poisoned?There was no way to verify that, of course, since he’d spilled the remainder of it last night. Nevertheless, he’d had a servant taste every plate and beverage before either of them consumed a single bite.
He watched her now in the candlelight. She was a world away from him, deep in her thoughts, large gray eyes gazing off into the distance. It still didn’t quite make sense to Nicholas. How did she know her late maid had drunk the wine? When Aileen’s body was discovered, there had been poison beside her cot in plain sight. He wasn’t discounting murder; then it would make sense for someone to plant poison to make it appear as a suicide. But if the maid drank the poison accidentally and then died . . . why the poison beside her bed? It didn’t add up. As for Stephen . . . the lad was a drunkard. Nicholas had seen more than a few men succumb to their love for drink, and as much as the lad had consumed last night, it was no wonder he’d vomited up his innards.
He set down his knife and frowned at his wife. “Gillian.”
She blinked, and the clouds cleared from her eyes as she focused on him.
“I still don’t understand how you know Aileen drank the wine.”
She directed her attention to her dinner and commenced pushing her food around. “I just do.”
“Did you see her?”
Gillian thought for a moment, then nodded, shredding a piece of roast chicken with her fingers.
“So one of my servants was imbibing the countess’swine right in front of her.” It was too fantastic to contemplate.
Again Gillian pondered this and nodded.
