“Dash it!” He cradled the injured hand with his good one, and blood seeped between his fingers.
Pulling a second arrow from the quiver hanging at her hip, Katherine said, “That’s for Jude. He may have been a scoundrel, but he was also my cousin.”
Dr. Marsland swore under his breath.
Katherine positioned the arrow, nocking it into place. “And this,” Katherine went on, unperturbed, “is for Mamma.”
Thwang.The arrow flew and hit its mark with athump. Dr. Marsland grasped his shoulder and fell to the ground.
Coolly, she said, “You’re right, I don’t want your heart. If I had intended to kill you, you’d be dead now. I shan’t sinkto your level, but that should incapacitate you until the constable returns.” She walked over and picked up the fallen gun.
Then she lifted the set of ancient keys hanging on the wall and unlocked the cell and Dr. Finch’s manacle. After Ernest had bound the older man’s wounds, the three of them half dragged, half carried Dr. Marsland into the cell and locked him there to await the authorities.
As soon as the man was secured, Dr. Finch took Anne’s hands in his. “Are you all right?”
Still rather dazed, Anne said breathlessly, “I will be.”
“Come on, you two,” Katherine urged. “Let’s go upstairs and leave the criminal where he belongs.”
24
While they waited for Jasper to return with the constable and coroner, Katherine went upstairs to change and Anne tended Dr. Finch’s head wound.
When she finished, he once again took her hand. “Thank you, Anne.”
“Of course.”
He kept hold of her hand, perhaps still addled by the injury and unaware he did so.
Katherine soon came back down, Louie at her heels, and poured herself a glass of brandy, her hand, so steady before, now shaking.
Anne asked, “Why did you chase me through the graveyard dressed like that? And with a knife yet!”
“I was not chasing you, exactly. I wanted to find you before Jude did. To warn you. The knife was to protect us both, if need be. I only risked calling out the once because I did not want anyone else to recognize my voice and realize it was me. Nor did I want Jude to confront me and find this in my possession.”
She held out a small bottle.
“I suspected Jude was behind Mamma’s death, so I took a knife from the kitchen for protection and searched his room. I know all his hiding places. And sure enough, I found this bottle hidden in a cigar box at the back of a drawer. I wanted to verify the bottle’s contents before I reported it. No sense in causing another scandal for the family if it turned out to be whiskey or the dregs of some foul-smelling cologne.”
Dr. Finch opened the bottle and sniffed, recoiling at the scent.
Katherine went on. “So I slipped away to ask Mr. Palling’s advice. He agreed to consult an apothecary in Stroud confidentially to verify the contents. Mr. Palling came here not long after you left the house tonight with the apothecary’s conclusion: poison hemlock and opium, with spices to mask the taste.
“I debated what to do. Report it straightaway? Try to force a confession from him? I wasn’t sure finding the bottle in his room would be enough to prove he’d poisoned Mamma. I planned to talk it over with you when you returned.” Katherine sat in one of the armchairs, and Louie curled up at her feet.
“You were late in coming, and I began to grow anxious,” she continued. “I’d heard Jude accusing you of taking something from his room and feared he would harm you if he thought you had found this evidence of his crime. I had not liked the look in his eye when he said he hadsomething he musttake careof.
“Jasper returned, and I sent him out to find you. Then I donned the costume and went out as well. I know it was strange and probably foolish of me, but I’ve come to feel safer venturing out at night when in disguise. All the more tonight, knowing a murderer was in our midst. Two murderers as it turned out.”
“Was it you I saw dressed as King Charles crossing the grounds one night a few weeks ago?”
“Probably.”
Anne thought back. “But ... when Jude asked your mother who had given her the overdose, she answered, ‘Charles the First.’ I assumed she must be hallucinating, but now I wonder...”
“That was not me, I promise. I have never worn the disguise in Mamma’s room. She would have seen right through it. But the day she died, I noticed the robe sticking out of the chest at the foot of my bed, where I keep it. Jude knew I had the costume. My guess is he borrowed it to avoid being identified if you or Rosa came in while he was giving Mamma the poison.”
“May I ask why you even possess such a costume?” Dr. Finch asked.
