“You didn’t drink it?” Cecilia asked, breathless.
Behind her stood James, with the boys peering around him.
“Drink what?” Rani asked, confused.
“Hot chocolate. Charwood said he brought you hot chocolate.”
“Yes, yes. I do not drink it.” Rani wrinkled her nose. “I do not like hot chocolate. Why? What is this?” she asked, looking at their faces.
“Charwood said he added a dark orange powder to it. We think it may have been poison. Where is the cup?”
“Dark orange?” Rani got up and pushed past them. “I say to Dot she could have it. She was going to the kitchen to heat again. We must stop her!” She ran down the servants’ stairs to the kitchen.
Dot sat at the table, the cup of chocolate hovering near her lips.
“Stop! Don’t drink!” Rani yelled.
Cecilia swept past her and knocked the cup from Dot’s hand, then swept the chocolate pot and saucer from the table as well, to shatter on the fitted stone floor.
“Did you drink?” Rani asked.
“A little, a couple of sips,” Dot answered, bewildered.
“Don’t move, do nothing. I be back,” Rani ordered. She ran back up the stairs.
“What’s going on?” Dot asked.
Cecilia put her arm around her. “There may have been poison in that chocolate. We don’t know for sure.”
“I don’t want to die,” Dot cried, clinging to Cecilia.
“I am hoping, by the way Miss Rangaswamy ran off, she has an antidote,” James said grimly. He looked at the boys who had followed them. “Go back to the library and watch over Charwood. Don’t let him leave.”
“Yes, sir,” said Daniel. “Come on, Billy. Mr. Martin will want to talk to Mr. Charwood.”
Rani met them on the stairs, almost knocking Daniel over with the satchel she held. She brought it into the kitchen and turned it over on the table, searching through the contents of vials and packets. “Water, please,” she said as she picked up a box tied with twine. She slipped off the twine and opened the box. Inside were dried hot peppers. She angrily muttered something in her own language and opened another box. It contained charcoal. She grabbed up a handful and crushed it over the mug of water Cecilia had set before her.
Cecilia grabbed a wooden spoon from a sideboard and handed it to Rani. She stirred the charcoal and water together. She handed the mug to Dot. “Drink,” she said.
Dot made a face and tried to push it away. “Drink!” Rani ordered, yelling. “Drink! Drink!” she said again.
Startled, Dot took the mug and drank.
“Drink it faster,” Cecilia said. “I’ve read charcoal is an antidote for poison if you drink it soon after you have swallowed the poison.”
“Yes, yes,” Rani nodded.
Dot’s wide eyes looked at them over the rim of the mug as she drank the charcoal-laced water, her mouth soon rimmed with black.
“We do again,” Rani said, when Dot finished the mug. James got the mug refilled with water for Rani while Cecilia comforted Dot.
“What now?” James asked as they watch Dot finish the second mug of charcoal and water. Cecilia handed her a towel to wipe the residual charcoal off her lips.
“We wait,” Rani said.
Dot clenched the towel to her face and cried harder.
17
