“Hate me all you wish.” He started toward her again, reaching her this time, resting a hand on her shoulder and looking down at her. “But my wife does not deserve what you have done. And if you are half the woman that I know you are, you will tell me how I can save her life. Please. And not for me...”
He met her eyes and held them. “Do it for your child. One unnecessary death is enough, another will only tarnish their memory and prove my father right.”
“Oh, God!” she broke into pieces before him. Hudson was quick to drop to his knee and catch her before she hit the ground. “I am sorry...” She began to blubber thickly, her entire body shaking as if to dispel the evil of her actions. “I am so sorry. I did not want...I did not mean for it to go this far!”
“What did you give her?” he urged, voice hard now.
“She was not meant to die,” Caroline continued. “It was only meant to sterilize her, so that she could not fall pregnant. I promise!”
“What did you give her?” he pressed again.
Caroline’s face was one of utmost agony but she looked up at him, and he knew in that moment that she was finished with her lies. “The same thing your father forced me to drink. Pennyroyal tea.”
“Only pennyroyal tea?” Hudson had heard of its use before, aware that women were known to drink it to avoid getting pregnant. But he had never heard of its effects being so severe.
She whimpered. “The herb was old, I feared it would not work. So...so...” She sniffed. “So I added some mercury—but only a little. I did not think it would be so fatal.”
“Mercury...” Hudson’s face paled, and he felt like he would be sick. “Caroline....what have you done?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
There was a cure for mercury poisoning, thank God, although it wasn’t one hundred percent effective. And considering how long it had been since she was poisoned, the doctor was sure to explain carefully to Hudson that his wife’s chances of recovering were not guaranteed.
“Do whatever you must,” Hudson had told him, refusing to concede that there might be a chance that his wife would not recover. He would not let himself think such a thing.
As had been the case for the previous week, Hudson sat by the head of his wife’s bed as he watched the doctor administer the antidote; iodide salts, mixed with water, to be drunk three times a day. That first night had been the worst of it, as Florentia had been so disorientated and weakened that they had needed to force the salty liquid down her throat.
The next morning, when the second dose was required, his wife was not looking any better, and again it had been a painful task to see her drink the entire glass of liquid.
“How long?” Hudson asked the doctor. “How long until it begins to work?”
“That depends on the patient,” the doctor responded. “The stronger her constitution, her will to live, the greater the strength with which her body will fight back the poison. I only wish we were able to begin treatment earlier.”
Hudson did not move the entire day.
Holding his wife’s hand, sitting as close to her as he could, Hudson started the day in silence, but soon found himself filling it with idle chatter as if she was awake and could hear what was being said.
“... I think we will have to have several children,” he said with a soft smile as he gazed upon her sleeping face. “One will not be enough. I can speak personally to the importance of the sibling relationship, but do not tell Elias I told you so. Yes...” He squeezed her hand. “At least two, possibly three. A family is what we will have. One that I know you will drown in love because that is just your way.”
It was strange for him to think that when he first married Florentia, he had wanted little to do with her. That he had seen their marriage as a business transaction and had been glad for it. What need did he have of marriage, and why lie to himselfand pretend he might fall in love? That had never been Hudson’s way.How things have changed. For the better, any way I look at it.
And to think back to their first evening together, when she had told him of her wish to have children. How angry he had gotten at her. How confused he had been that she would want to have a child with him. So filled with self-loathing was Hudson back then that he hadn’t been able to imagine a world in which anyone might want such a thing. Now, it was all he wished for.
“We will have a family together,” he said again and again as that day stretched on. “Do not dare die on me...” He laughed to himself. “I do not think I could forgive myself if you did.”
There was one small problem, however, even if Hudson would not recognize it. The doctor had warned that the poison his wife had ingested, how potent it was, might make the act of falling pregnant that much more difficult. Even impossible.
“Are you telling me that we will not be able to have children?” Hudson had asked darkly.
“I am saying that you need to be prepared for the worst,” the doctor responded.
“The worst...” He laughed bitterly and then turned on the doctor, refusing to give in to such pessimism. “The worst was this past week.”
“I am just saying?—”
“Get out,” he snarled. “Now.”
Hudson refused to accept the doctor’s words. He refused to consider them. His wife would get better. When she did, they would have the family she always wished for. Nothing would stop that.Nothing!
