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“I had no proof that Mrs Kempton had done anything wrong. The mistress wasn’t around to say anything. I just couldn’t accuse Mrs Kempton of murder just because I suspected she had pushed her. She just hadn’t helped her, but then I have no way of knowing when Alice fell down the stairs. I asked her why she hadn’t immediately summoned help after the funeral, but she refused to talk about it. She always said it was too distressing, and it was best forgotten.”
“I didn’t want to help her,” Mrs Kempton informed them. “The world was a better place without her.”
“But when she asked for help you had no idea that she would die from her injuries, did you?” Jerry’s voice was full of the fury everybody felt.
“It was evident that she was severely injured from the way she was all twisted and bent,” Rollo said.
“I told Rollo it was a blessing she was gone. You have done much better without her.” Mrs Kempton sounded almost proud of her accomplishments.
“I thought you liked me,” Petal said, her voice full of confusion.
“I couldn’t sit by while the master got himself lumbered with a servant. There is one thing to sleep with the man, another thing entirely to wreck his future by dragging him to your level. There is no possibility that you could ever join the circles he moves about in, and do anything other than make the man look a fool. Not only do you not belong because you do not have the connections, but you have never been trained or raised to know what to do. Your ignorance will let you down. More importantly, it will let him down. He had stars in his eyes, though, and was swayed by a beautiful face, and your eagerness for him.”
“You hated Edwards because she was one of them,” Petal accused thinking over all the arguments Mrs Kempton had had with the nurse. Her protectiveness of Aidan had been evident then. Petal had just never stopped to consider why she had been that protective over someone who is, essentially, her boss.
“She was a conniving woman. She wasn’t worthy either because she was just like that uncouth creature Jeremy got lumbered with,” she reported disparagingly.
“Mrs Kempton, not liking someone does not give you the right to take their life. You are just the housekeeper. I know you have been a stalwart of the family home for a long time, but you are still an employee. It has gone far beyond your remit to involve ourselves in any of the family decisions, especially deciding who we should or should not marry,” Aidan declared.
Mrs Kempton glared at him. “Someone has to look after you because your mother has never been able.”
Nobody paid the dowager much attention when she stood and wandered over to the window to stare out absently across the landscape.
Aidan lifted a querulous brow at Rollo. “So, what involvement have you had with today’s attempt on Petal’s life?”
“I was definitely pushed,” Petal assured everyone.
“Did you know what Mrs Kempton had done, or intended to do?”
“No, I didn’t know what she planned. It shocked me as much as anyone else. I took my jacket off because I had been polishing silverware in the scullery. I just popped out to get some flowers for dinner. When I got back, my jacket had gone. While I was looking for it, Mrs Kempton appeared in the kitchen with it in her hand. I didn’t realise what she had done until I went into the hallway and saw Petal lying there like that. Then I began to wonder, especially when I saw her slip Laudanum into the tea. Don’t drink it, it is spiked.”
He looked beleaguered. As though he had just had all hope dashed and was deflated by it. He frowned at the housekeeper who looked completely unperturbed at the potential ramifications for her.
“It was you who gave me the Laudanum the other day, wasn’t it? You put it into my food to stop me doing what exactly?”
Aidan was coldly furious, and determined to ensure Mrs Kempton was put behind bars where she couldn’t do anybody else any harm.
“That Edwards woman was sniffing around you, and this little harlot was always practically in your bed. I decided to do something about the pair of them. If you were asleep, you wouldn’t be able to be conned into anything by their contrivances. So I put some Laudanum into the food, and I make no apology for having done so. When neither of them stopped squabbling over you, I decided something else was needed. Then you got rid of Edwards all by yourself. I nearly applauded. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do about you bedding or wedding her. She isn’t of your kind. I decided then to make sure this silly arrangement was ended sooner rather than later. The big problem with your brother’s marriage was that it went on too long. If it had ended like yours should have today, then he wouldn’t have been half as miserable.”
“I am not unhappy,” Aidan argued. “I love my wife and am glad to have found her. I don’t care what her background is. It is me who has to wake up with her every day. It is me who has to share a house with her. It was my choice, and nobody else’s who became my wife. Petal is my wife because I adore her and always will.”
Petal stared at the housekeeper. “If you are so averse the marriage, why didn’t you say something in the church? You positively encouraged the union. In fact, you reminisced about your husband.”
“I was hoping you would get the message. My husband was a servant just like me. I married my own kind. I had thought you would at least have the intelligence to pick up on my meaning. You didn’t though, and married him with stars in your eyes, hoping you could get your greedy little hands on this house.”
“That isn’t why I married him at all,” Petal assured her. “I love my husband very much. I know that each morning I wake up wit
h him I am truly blessed. I am just grateful I have the opportunity to show him how much he means to me, and shall endeavour to do my very best to make him happy for the rest of our lives together. Lives which will, hopefully, be long and happy ones, in spite of you.”
Aidan tightened his hold on her hand. He was inordinately proud of her, and couldn’t think of anything else to add to her declaration.
At that moment, the sound of booted feet outside heralded the arrival of the magistrate and the doctor. Thankfully, with the presence of Jerry, Aidan and Rollo in the room, Mrs Kempton knew there was no way out, and merely glared at each person in turn as she was backed toward the fire.
“I make no apology for what I did. I have served this family for nearly all of my life, to the total and almost complete sacrifice of my own life. My husband died digging their blasted garden, for Heaven’s sakes. You will never get a more committed person than I have been to this family,” she said.
She glanced around the room at each individual in turn but found no help from any quarter. Not even Rollo, who watched her with a dark scowl of disapproval on his face.
“You too, Rollo?” She asked with an air of desolation.
