The door burst open and Anne jumped. Mr. Dalby strode in. He stopped and gaped at her looming over Lady Celia, bottle still poised at her mouth.
“Miss Loveday! What are you doing?”
“She’s been drugged. I was about to give her an emetic.”
“Let me see that.” He swiped the bottle from her and sniffed. “Are you certain an emetic is all you’ve given her?”
“Yes! I have not given her the evening dose of laudanum yet, but someone appears to have done so.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Katherine came in, no doubt drawn by the commotion. “I heard shouting and Rosa sending Toby for Dr. Marsland. What’s happened?”
“If I’m right,” Anne said, “she’s been given an overdose of opium.”
Katherine’s eyes widened. “Given?”
“And not by me!” Again Anne splashed cold water on Lady Celia’s face and briskly rubbed her limbs. “We must rouse her.”
Katherine bent near and shouted in her ear, “Mamma? Mamma! Wake up.”
Startled by her daughter’s voice, Lady Celia mumbled, “Stop shouting.”
“You may have taken too much opium, Mamma.”
“Who did this to you?” Jude demanded. “It was your nurse, was it not?”
“No.” Lady Celia shook her head, eyes mere slits. “It was ... Charles the First.”
They all shared stunned looks at that. Then Lady Celia fell back into insensibility before anyone could ask what she meant. No doubt a hallucination. Unless ... Anne recalled seeing the flutter of a long robe as something or someone walked away from this room. And she recalled the lock of curled hair she’d found on the floor outside....
“I was about to give her an emetic when you charged in,” Anne said. “I will try now, but I fear it may be too late.”
Normally a patient’s swallowing reflex took over, but not this time. The syrup pooled in Lady Celia’s mouth and stayed there.
Anne tipped her head to the side to prevent choking, and the medicine dribbled back out.
Lady Celia’s breathing began to slow. Her pulse too. Anne pushed up one of her eyelids and found the pupil unnaturally small.
The woman expelled one last rattling breath, and her skin took on an ashen hue.
Dreading to do so, Anne put her free hand to Lady Celia’s chest and felt for a heartbeat. Even a faint one.
Nothing. Anne’s own heart fell in response.No! Not again!
“Well?” Jude asked.
“She is gone.”
Katherine began to cry.
A quarter of an hour later, Dr. Marsland hurried up the stairs and into the room, panting hard. “Forgive my muddy boots. I’d just ridden back when Toby summoned me. What’s happened?”
“She’s died,” Anne said, disbelieving and despondent.
“What? Let me see her.” The doctor stepped to the bed, gesturing the others away.
