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Drew’s eyes narrowed. “You suspect he poisoned her?”
“Yes.”
“Why do you think so?” Drew asked.
“We might have given him cause to be malicious at the ball, but he had been against Bridget before I married her,” Harry said, turning to look at Bridget, the slow rise and fall of her chest reassuring him. “The method that was used to poison her tells me it was carefully planned.”
“I heard the servants mention tea,” Drew remarked.
“Yes. I found a box of assorted tea on my way from Ipswich yesterday. Tea in a similar box arrived for her this morning. She thought it was from me.”
“Who brought it?”
“Lander, although I do not know who brought it to the castle. We should question him.”
“I agree.” Drew’s eyes moved to Bridget and he looked at her for a moment before he said, “We should question every servant in Grayfield.”
Harry was loath to leave her but he had no choice. The sooner the culprit was found, the safer she would be.
“I shall be down with you shortly,” he said to Drew, who nodded and left.
Harry returned to her side, sitting on the bed and taking her hand. He raised it to his lips and allowed them to linger on her skin. “I promise to be the man you deserve, Bridget,” he murmured, leaning to tenderly kiss her forehead. “I promise,” he whispered.
He rose and found Belinda in the sitting room. She had been there for a while with Bridget’s lady’s maid. When she saw him walk in, she stood. “How is she?”
“The physician said she is better,” he replied.
Belinda sighed. “What are you going to do about this?”
“What must be done, Aunty. Will you stay with her?”
“Of course I will, Harry.”
“Thank you,” he murmured before leaving to join Drew downstairs.
After confirming where he was with Lander, Harry asked the butler to join them in his study. Drew was near the fire with a box in his hand that Harry suspected was the tea.
“Who brought this to the castle?” Drew asked Lander once the door was closed.
“The youth that always delivers messages from the post office, my lord,” Lander replied. “His name is John Gibbons. The tea came with the correspondences of the duke and duchess.”
“Thank you, Lander,” Harry said with a nod. “You may go.” After Lander’s departure, he added, “I suppose we do not need to question the rest of the servants right away.”
“Yes. I will go to the post office and find the boy. Drew sat in a chair and opened the box, picking up a pouch and sniffing it. “This does not smell like tea.” He gave it to Harry to sniff.
He raised the pouch to his nose. It did not smell like anything. “I cannot tell what it is.”
“Precisely. But it is certainly not tea.” Drew picked up another pouch and opened it. “These ground leaves, whatever they are, were combined with arsenic, and arsenic has no smell or taste.”
Harry was becoming enraged again but he knew he could not allow his anger to take hold, especially when he was recalling something he had not paid attention to earlier. Now he knew that his several encounters with a strange rider were not a coincidence.
“Someone followed me to Ipswich,” he told Drew.
Chapter 27
Every part of Bridget’s body ached but she could breathe, and she could feel her limbs. As she began to open her eyes, she felt a warm hand on her cheek.
“Harry,” she whispered. She had woken several times over this indefinite period, and he had been there every time, whispering comforting words to her, kissing her face and hands.
