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‘I believe Tonkin threw back the bed covers in his efforts to discover what was wrong. The doctor may have moved my husband’s… my husband. Nothing else has been touched except a window being opened just now and a chair and screen moved so I could sit down.’
‘I found the silver paper squares that had held marchpane sweetmeats on the floor by the bed. It appears Lord Northam had eaten them last night. I picked them up. Doctor Felbrigg assisted me and he then placed them, and the remaining sweetmeat, in a box which he now has in his possession,’ Jared said. ‘They came from this box here. We were just discuss
ing securing it to await your arrival.’ He looked across at Guin. ‘May her ladyship retire with her maid to her room? She has sustained an appalling shock and should be lying down.’
‘I have no objection to Lady Northam retiring to a drawing room, but I have questions – ’
‘Her Grace the Duchess of Calderbrook, my lady,’ Twite pronounced.
Sophie swept in past the men without looking to left or right, flung her arms around Guin and hugged her tight. ‘Oh, Guinevere, my dear. I am so very sorry! Tell me what I can do – if you want to come back with me, or I can stay, or if you wish me to go to the devil because you want to be alone, I will take myself off.’
‘You are so kind.’ Guin bit her lower lip until the pressing urge to simply flee with Sophie subsided a little. ‘Being alone is unlikely to be possible, just at the moment. Doctor Felbrigg is here, and Mr Hunt, as you can see, and this gentlemen is Mr Runcorn the Coroner.’
Sophie gave her shoulder an encouraging squeeze and turned. ‘Doctor Felbrigg, I am sorry to see you on such a melancholy occasion when only a week past you were dining with us. And Jared, I came as soon as I heard from you.’ Guin realised what she was doing, establishing the credentials of the two men to the Coroner as intimates of a duke and duchess. In the case of the doctor it was probably unnecessary, but it could only help where Jared was concerned.
‘Mr Runcorn.’ Sophie held out her hand and shook his briskly. ‘I can see you are a man of experience and intelligence, which is a huge relief under the circumstances.’
‘You are aware of the circumstances, Your Grace?’ Mr Runcorn, who looked to be at least sixty years old and unaccustomed to being spoken to with decision by young duchesses, let alone being shaken by the hand, regarded her solemnly over his spectacles.
‘But of course. Lady Northam is dear to us and Mr Hunt is my husband’s closest friend. Doctor Felbrigg is our doctor, but much more than that, to all my family. The distressing persecution Lady Northam has been suffering is of great concern to us.’
Sophie is overdoing it, Jared thought. Runcorn is nobody’s fool and such a display of big guns is going to make him wonder what there is to necessitate it. And Guinevere looks ready to drop where she stands. Quite what was keeping her on her feet he was not certain, but he could not place much reliance on it lasting for long.
‘Perhaps Her Grace could accompany Lady Northam to the drawing room so she may rest while you inspect the bedchamber, Mr Runcorn?’ he suggested.
The Coroner murmured, ‘Certainly, certainly.’ Guinevere, Sophie and the maid went out. The three men looked at each with what Jared suspected was a mutual male relief at having the threat of feminine emotion removed, then the Coroner said, ‘Let us proceed,’ and Doctor Felbrigg led the way into the bedchamber.
Chapter Nine
‘Lord Northam was in good health for a man of his age?’ Runcorn asked as he stood looking down at the contorted body on the bed.
‘In many ways he was in good health for a man five years younger,’ Felbrigg stated. ‘However, his heart gave some trouble if he exerted himself very strenuously and I was concerned to keep his weight down so as not to increase the strain. But he was quite capable of long walks or active rides and he withstood shocks and alarms well.’
‘You had forbidden him sweet things?’ The Coroner looked at the open box the doctor had given him. He picked up one of the silver wrappers, sniffed it and dropped it back in the box. ‘Marchpane. Almonds.’
‘I advised him about his weight and Lady Northam was, she assured me, being strict about desserts. She told me she hid her boxes of sweetmeats because he would steal them like a boy if he had the chance.’
‘And yet she did not hide this one.’
‘So it seems. An oversight when her maid, who should have removed it, was in a bustle before a ball, I understand.’
‘Hmm. And these attacks on her ladyship – they were all aimed at her and not at Lord Northam?’
‘It would appear so,’ Jared said. ‘The first was – ’
‘I will hear the detail direct from Lady Northam, I think, Mr Hunt. Strange that they should be ineffectual and yet this one should prove so deadly. You will perform a post-mortem examination, Doctor? And an analysis.’ He sniffed at the box. ‘Almonds. It does make one wonder…’ he added, brow furrowed.
He suspects cyanide, Jared thought. But, from what he knew about poisons, the effects on Lord Northam did not seem to him to match and it sounded as though the Coroner agreed with him.
‘Doctor Strang who usually works with me will assist you,’ Runcorn added.
And that did not please Felbrigg one jot, Jared could tell from his tight-lipped expression as he nodded. He could hardly disagree or he would find himself entirely excluded. A post-mortem was expected, but the Coroner’s mood seemed to have hardened since Sophie’s arrival. Was that simply an official on his dignity because he resented ducal privilege or did he think they were conspiring to hide something?
‘Lady Northam is very considerably younger than her husband,’ the Coroner observed as he stared down at the body.
‘Yes,’ Felbrigg agreed.
‘He already has a family, I believe?’
