“Do you know who the ‘others’ are?”
“Oh, that was just Mr. Montgomery’s little joke,” she said dismissively. “Those characters he played. He said by acting out through his characters he could better deal with his emotions.”
“I wish it were that simple,” Cecilia said with a long sigh.
“What do you mean?”
“Never mind me.—Julia!” Cecilia called out when she saw the woman come up the stairs.
Julia appeared agitated, her eyes over-bright. She walked quickly to where she and Mrs. Vance sat. “Cecilia! Your suspicions were correct. Many gentlemen came to visit Mr. Montgomery over the last couple of weeks. Including my husband!”
“Why should Baron Stackpoole wish to visit Mr. Montgomery?” Mrs. Vance asked.
“Because our son wishes to marry Mr. Montgomery’s daughter,” Julia explained.
Mrs. Vance laughed. “And with him not liking foreigners! I’ll bet that had him knotted up.”
“It did indeed. I can’t think why he would want to meet Mr. Montgomery. He has no control over Benjamin, financial or otherwise. It has had him practically foaming at the mouth in frustration that Benjamin does not need to listen to his father.”
“He is helpless in the face of Benjamin’s independence. Worse, Benjamin tries hard not to sneer at his father’s ideas. Stackpoole knows he is only trying not to laugh at him and that irritates him more. The majordomo told me he tried to give Mr. Montgomery a gift, it looked like a jar of something. Mr. Montgomery refused it. He heard him saying it wasn’t allowed. He said Baron Stackpoole looked frustrated and angry that his gift had been rejected and quickly left.”
Cecilia thought about what the gift could be, she wondered…“Mr. Turnbull-Minchin explained to my husband and I when we first came here that the one thing Dr. Worcham does not want the patients to have is any form of sweet. He said it causes agitations.”
Mrs. Vance nodded. “I’ve been here long enough to have seen that happen. Julia, remember Polly Reubart?”
Julia thought for a moment. “Yes, sometimes she would pass out if she had sweets. Faint dead away. In others, it can cause agitation. And I believe Dr. Worcham even wondered if sweets had anything to do with Miss George’s drowning in the canal.”
“Do you think the Baron was trying to give Mr. Montgomery something sweet?” Mrs. Vance asked.
Cecilia’s lips compressed, then she sighed out grimly at where her suspicious thoughts went. “Not just something. I’m thinking it was honey.”
“Honey!” Julia exclaimed. “Stackpoolehateshoney. He’s hated it ever since an incident he experienced in Damascus. He refused to ever allow any honey in our house and Benjamin loves honey.”
“Julia, at The New Bell Inn, I heard Mr. Price tell your son that Baron Stackpoole had left a jar of honey for him.”
“What! Honey!” Julia’s eyes narrowed and glinted with anger. “Mad honey!Why would he do that? How could he do that to his own son!”
“What, what is it?” Mrs. Vance asked.
“There is a honey found in the Middle East that contains something from a certain variety of rhododendrons that makes anyone who eats that raw honey violently sick. They call it Mad Honey. It was given to Jacob as a joke when he was there. It made him so sick he developed a keen dislike for any honey. Would not allow it in the house.”
Disgust replaced anger. “Benjamin would be surprised by the gift but he would accept the honey as a gift at face value. That boy is such an optimist he’d think it a peace offering from his father.”
“And, I assume, he’d share it?” Cecilia asked.
“Most likely.”
“I need to send a note to James immediately to confiscate that honey. I know Mrs. Price and a maid at the inn have bothsuccumbed to the same violent sickness Mr. Stackpoole has, and if they are drinking medicinal tisanes, they are continually staying sick if they add honey to their drink! Excuse me while I write a quick note to my husband. Do you think I can get someone to take it to The New Bell Inn today?”
“For a coin or two one of the porters will as they go home for the day,” Julia said.
“I’d best hurry then.”
Cecilia rushed back to her room and found a pencil and paper in her portmanteau. She quickly related what she had learned about theMad Honeyand how it could be the source of the illness at The New Bell. As a last thought, she told him about Mr. Ramsay being Mr. Montgomery’s Scottish solicitor and the will Mr. Montgomery had drawn up a year ago that had Soothcoor as its executor with Mr. Ramsay.
She dug a couple of coins out of her reticule, then hurried back to the hall. The ladies were still there with more of the residents beginning to mill about waiting for the call to dinner.
Cecilia was breathing hard when she resumed her seat next to Mrs. Vance.
