AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She felt the ripple of emotion through the room, but she was not sure if she understood it or not. There was no time to think about it now. She must concentrate on Argyll.
“I see,” he said smoothly. “And the remuneration, was it good?”
“It was generous, considering the lightness of the task,” she said honestly. “But it was perhaps balanced by the fact that in order to accept it, one would have to forgo other, possibly longer, engagements. It was not undue.”
“Indeed. But you were not in grave need, were you?”
“No. I had just completed a very satisfactory case with a patient who was well enough no longer to require nursing, and I had another post to go to a short time afterwards. It was ideal to take up the time between.”
“We have only your word for that, Miss Latterly.”
“It would be simple enough to check on it, sir. My patient—”
He held up his hands and she stopped.
“Yes, I have done so.” He turned to the judge. “There is a disposition for Miss Latterly’s past patient, my lord, and another from the lady who was expecting her, and who of course has now had to employ someone else. I suggest that they be read into the evidence.”
“Yes, yes, of course,” the judge conceded. “Proceed, if you please.”
“Had you ever heard of the Farraline family, before the post?”
“No sir.”
“Did they receive you courteously?”
“Yes sir.”
Gradually, in precise detail, he led her through her day at the Farraline house, not mentioning any other members of the family except as they affected her movements. He asked about the dressing room when the lady’s maid was packing, had her describe everything she could recall, including the medicine chest, the vials she had been shown, and the exact instructions. The effort to remember kept her mind too occupied for fear to creep into her voice. It stayed submerged like a great wave, forever rolling, its great power never breaking and overwhelming her.
Then he moved on to the journey on the train. Stumblingly, filled with sadness, her eyes focused on him, ignoring the rest of the room, she told him how she and Mary had talked, how she had recalled some of the journeys of her youth, the people, the laughter, the scenes, the things she had loved. She told him how she had been reluctant to end the evening, how only Oonagh’s warning about Mary’s lateness had made her at last insist. In a low quiet voice, only just above tears, she recited opening the chest, finding one vial gone, and giving the second vial to Mary before closing the chest again and making her comfortable, and then going to sleep herself.
In the same voice, with only the barest hesitation, she told him of waking in the morning, and finding Mary dead.
At that point he stopped her.
“Are you quite sure you made no error in giving Mrs. Farraline her m
edicine, Miss Latterly?”
“Quite sure. I gave her the contents of one vial. She was a very intelligent woman, Mr. Argyll, and not shortsighted or absentminded. If I had done anything amiss she would certainly have known, and refused to take it.”
“This glass you used, Miss Latterly, was it provided for you?”
“Yes sir. It was part of the fitments of the medicine chest, along with the vials.”
“I see. Designed to hold the contents of one vial, or more?”
“One vial, sir; that was its purpose.”
“Quite so. You would have had to fill it twice to administer more?”
“Yes sir.”
There was no need to add anything further. He could see from the jurors’ faces that they had taken the point.
“And the gray pearl brooch,” he continued. “Did you see it at any time prior to your finding it in your baggage when you had arrived at the home of Lady Callandra Daviot?”
“No sir.” She nearly added that Mary had mentioned it, and then just in time refrained. The thought of how close she had come to such an error sent the blood rushing burningly up her face. Dear heaven, she must look as if she were lying! “No sir. Mrs. Farraline’s baggage was in the goods van, along with my own. I had no occasion to see any of her things once I had left the dressing room at Ainslie Place. And even then, I only saw the topmost gowns as they were laid out.”
