“Very well, Your Grace.I’ll assign one of the footmen to–”
“No,youare to do it,” Alex insisted.“My wife needs the footmen here to prepare for our dinner party.”Then he softened his tone.“Do not take this badly, Ernfield.I saw how you stood beside my wife as I carried Mrs.Granger back to the house.Your instincts are protective.I know you are the only one I can trust to diligently search for the doctor, since he may not be in his infirmary.Find him as quickly as possible.I fear time is of the essence.Mrs.Granger may not survive, for she took a fair amount of water into her lungs.”
Tulip was surprised Alex had assigned the chore to Ernfield specifically.
Wasn’t it an insult to send the head butler off as a messenger, even if her husband gave a flattering reason?
She would ask Alex about this later.
Hadn’t she insulted poor Ernfield herself when commanding him to remain beside her and not go in search of Mrs.Granger?
Odd that she and Alex both felt the need to put Ernfield off.
But did his squishing boots signify anything?He might have stepped outside as delivery wagons came up the drive and inadvertently walked into a puddle.
Well, now was not the time to think about it.
Tulip skittered in front of Alex and Mr.Carver to lead the way down the narrow hall toward the housekeeper’s bedchamber that she had searched only a short while ago.“Mr.Carver, please ask two of the maids to come in here to help me change her out of her wet clothes.And also ask Mrs.Crabbe to bring her some broth.”
“At once, Your Grace,” he said and hurried off to the kitchen.
“She’ll have to wake up first or you won’t be able to ladle anything down her throat,” Alex remarked, pointing out the obvious.
“What happened to her?Did she trip and hit her head on a rock?”
Alex had been frowning and his frown now deepened.“Unlikely.I’m thinking she got bashed on the back of her head.”
Tulip gaped at him.“Why would you think that?”
“Because if this were just an accident, she would have fallen backward and that’s how she could have hit the back of her head on a rock.But she fellforward, her body sprawled face down on the ground when we found her.How does one end up that way unless struck from behind?That’s the only explanation for the position of her body.One has to be fallingbackwardto strike the back of one’s head, but would fallforwardif struck from behind by someone else.Again, no accident.Someone attacked her.We’ll learn more when she regains consciousness.”
“Do you think she will?”
“Actually, yes.I think we got to her before any water got into her lungs.But no one has to know this yet.Let them all think she is at death’s door.”
“Who could have attacked her?”
“I don’t know, love.But it could not have been Mr.Carver because he was with his men when it happened.I’ll question them closely once we have Mrs.Granger safely settled.One of them mentioned noticing a fisherman carrying his nets or some sort of bundle.It could have been the villain carrying Mrs.Granger after he’d struck her on the head.”
“And intending to toss her into the salt marshes to drown?”
“Yes.”He still had their housekeeper in his arms, but obviously could not settle her on the bed because her gown was soaking wet.“Pull out a change of clothing for her, will you, Tulip?”
“All right.The maids should be along shortly to assist me.I–” She broke off suddenly.“Alex!Oh, my goodness!This isn’t possible.Look!”She held up two vials filled with liquid that would no doubt be found to contain an opiate or perhaps poison.“These weren’t here when I searched her room earlier.What was it, maybe fifteen or twenty minutes ago?There is no way she could have returned to her bedchamber between then and now to put those vials in her drawer.”
He stared at her, saying nothing, but she could see the ideas whirling in his investigative brain.
Then his expression shifted ever so slightly and he let out a soft breath.
Tulip gasped.“Oh, Alex!You’ve figured it out, haven’t you?”
He quirked an eyebrow.
“Yes, you have!Tell me, who did this to Mrs.Granger?And is this attack in any way related to the deaths of the predecessor dukes?”
CHAPTER 14
ALEX COULD NOTbe sure he had figured out anything, but when one stripped away all the excess chatter and concentrated on the essential, it became obvious there was one person within Thornwycke Hall present from the beginning, manipulating the clues, and doing his best to focus suspicion on others.
