The valet who had been standing in the corner nodded. “Yes, Your Grace. I shall do so immediately.”
“I have given him the antidote, and it should start working within a few hours. However, I expect him to be very weak when he wakes up,” the physician continued.
A wave of relief washed over both members of the Blackmoore family.
“As long as it is guaranteed that he will wake up,” the Dowager said.
“Yes. I believe the difficult part is now over, and the poison will slowly start to exit from his body. I will go and check up on him again,” the physician said and returned to the Duke’s room.
“What is happening at Blackmoore Estate? Someone tried to poison my son in his own home, and we did not even have a clue,” the Dowager lamented.
“At least we now know what is going on. Do you think it could be someone from the house staff?” Jacob dropped his voice down to a mere whisper.
“No, most of our staff has been with us for years. They have practically watched the two of you grow up. I do not believe that they would betray us in that manner.” The Dowager shook her head.
“But then who could it possibly be?”
“Sophia?”
“Mother,” Jacob admonished, “please refrain from even suggesting such a thing.”
“I am just making a suggestion. She is the only one who is not here, and it is quite suspect that she left in such a hurried manner,” the Dowager continued.
“You should have seen the state that she was in last night. I do not believe that she could ever be capable of doing such a thing.” Jacob shook his head, disappointment laced in his tone at his mother’s implication.
“Once again, I am only thinking out loud, and you should not crucify me for doing so,” the Dowager defended herself.
“It does us no good to resort to blaming someone who is clearly innocent,” Jacob scolded.
“Well, since you are so adamant, then all we can do is wait for proof. I would urge you not to eat or drink anything in the house until we find out what the source was. For all we know, it could be an elaborate plot against our entire family.”
“But I know that Duncan does not have any enemies, nor do I. Could it be someone that our father crossed has sought out revenge after all these years?”
The Dowager grew quiet for a moment.
“Alas, I cannot give you an answer to that. You know how tumultuous your father’s life was. I would not be surprised if he still had some enemies that wanted to punish what remains of his family.”
“The thought alone makes my blood boil!”
“My Lord, we have discovered something in the kitchen,” one of the maids informed Jacob.
“What is it?”
“It appears that there was a bag of herbs in one of the cabinets,” the valet stepped into the conversation, holding a small cloth bag in his hands. “It was delivered to the house just yesterday.”
“Call the physician,” Jacob demanded, and within minutes, the physician was analyzing the herbs in the bag.
He took a whiff of the contents.
“Yes, exactly what I thought. This is likely what caused the poisoning,”he noted. “The Duke must have consumed it in the form of tea which explains why it took a few hours for the poison to take effect.”
“But who sent it?” the Dowager questioned. “How can you be so careless to accept any parcels without making sure that they originated from a safe place?”
“Your Grace, the package was delivered to the Duchess from her aunt. We searched her room, as well, but it has been emptied out. All we found there was a small notebook.”
The valet handed the notebook over to the Dowager, who started to go through it.
“This is only a dream journal,” the Dowager replied. “It does not explain why her aunt would want to poison my son.”
