“When the t-tutor the marquess hired t-to help me eliminate my st-stutter was unsuccessful, the man recommended a d-d-doctor who could ease my hysteria, as he called it. He gave me t-tinctures, said they would calm me enough to sp-sp-speak normally.”
Just recalling those horrible sessions made her hands shake, but Archie pressed his palm to hers and interlaced their fingers.
“Did he drug you, Marigold?” There was ice in his tone, but his nostrils flared as though a tempest brewed beneath the surface.
“A few t-times, until I refused the d-doctors. When I saw him most recently, he mentioned it again, and I—” She cut off,and his hand tightened on hers, almost to the point of pain. “I can’t g-go b-back to him. Or let the b-b-boys.”
“I won’t let you. Even if we lose.” He swallowed hard, and when he spoke again, his voice shook. “I won’t let him hurt you, or the boys, ever again.”
Withdrawing her hand, she averted her gaze. “You can’t p-promise that.”
“I just did. Now where were we?” He pulled his spectacles from inside his jacket pocket and slid them on. “Sherlock Holmes had, in a very remarkable degree, the power of detaching his mind at will…”
Chapter 22
ArchibaldGranthadnoissue detaching his mind; it seemed to be on a loose tether on the best of days, but knowing what the marquess had done to her, what he’dimplied—
Shuddering, he paused in his march to his office to catch his breath. He had kept himself focused on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s words until Marigold dozed off, a soft susurrus of breathing as she succumbed to sleep. Then his thoughts ran wild. He’d heard of husbands, particularly wealthy ones, shipping their wives off to asylums when they became a bother, claiming hysteria or other such feminine ailments. The women then withered away under inhumane circumstances while their spouses were free to carry on their lives.
Marigold was right not to trust the doctors, nor her husband.
The weight low in his gut grew in size. If he lost this case, odds were good the bastard would send her to an institution.
He was close to growling by the time he stormed into his office, blowing past a stunned Jasper and not pausing to remove his hat before he started scanning his bookcase.
“Archie, what’s wrong?”
“Everything.” He threw a heavy volume down on his desk and began flipping pages.
“Can I help you find something?”
“Weldon v. Semple.” He didn’t pause even when he sliced his finger with his rapid paging. “Mid-1880s. I remember reading it, how it challenged the Lunacy Act of 1845.”
Archie was vaguely aware of his assistant approaching from behind, but he could have detonated fireworks and not distracted Archie from his task. “Is there something you need to tell me about your mental state?”
He spun around, and Jasper recoiled, the smirk falling from his face like a lead balloon. “The bastarddruggedher. He had doctors claim hysteria, and if we lose…”
His voice broke, and he returned his attention to the book, his vision blurring as he scanned down the page, though he couldn’t make sense of the words. His glasses, he needed his glasses. He shoved them on his face, his hands trembling.
He wouldn’t lose her, not like this. She would be gone in a month, regardless of the outcome of their case. But knowing the marquess could lock her away in one of these brutal, cruel institutions—
“Archie, stop.” Jasper’s heavy hand on his shoulder broke his focus, and Archie’s head dropped. “What in the devil is going on?”
He huffed out a breath. “Ifailedher. I hadn’t thought about what would happen if we lost the case untiltoday. Croydon already had doctors treat her for hysteria, unjustified. If we lose, he’ll toss her in one of those prisons and let her rot.” His stomach clenched imagining Marigold in such a place, of the misery that would consume her from the inside out.
“Has he threatened her?”
“Not that I know of.” Archie sat behind his desk, his legs suddenly weak. “But I need to be ready. I can track down the doctors, find witnesses to discredit them, be prepared—”
“She can give you their names, can’t she?”
He shook his head hard enough that his spectacles slid down his nose. “She can’t know what he’s planning. She’ll panic.” I can’t let her hurt anymore. “I can do this on my own.”
“We only have a month. You don’t have time to chase down phantoms when you need to ready Lady Croydon to testify and prepare your evidence.”
Archie stood and slammed his hand down on the desk, making Jasper jump. “I’ll make the time! I won’t sleep if I have to.”
“You’re only one man, and you need to focus on the most probable defenses they’ll make.”
