Everyone fell into a stunned silence.
“Is this a joke?” Frederick asked.
“No joke, I’m afraid. Abigail is dead.”
A short, high-pitched shriek pierced the air, and everyone turned to see Mrs. Harley collapse to the floor.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Make way!” LadyDarby swung her walking stick at the people gathered around Mrs. Harley. “Crowding her won’t help. She needs to breathe.”
The crowd, threatened by the lady’s stick, stepped back, and Mr. Harley took the opportunity to step forward and scoop his wife up in his arms.
“Be careful! She’s with child!” Lady Darby barked.
“Put her on the settee,” Nate instructed. “And someone fetch the smelling salts and call for a doctor.”
Just then, Mrs. Harley’s eyelids fluttered open, and she attempted to sit up. “There’s no need for the salts or a doctor,” Mr. Harley said. “She’s fine. It was only a fainting spell.”
Bridget stopped, confused. Surely, they needed a doctor.
“What are you saying?” Lady Darby thumped her walking stick on the floor. “The woman is with child.” She lifted her stick and thrust it in Bridget’s direction. “Send for the doctor—immediately!”
*
“Please, you haveto help me.” Harley cornered Nate. “Cancel the doctor—turn him away at the gate—anything, but he cannot examine my wife.”
“She’s not with child,” Nate said, recalling what Harley had told him the first night he’d arrived.
Harley shook his head.
“In here.” Nate ushered Harley into the study and poured the man a brandy. “I don’t think we can stop the doctor from carrying out his examination, but you needn’t worry. You are the husband. He’s not obligated to share information about your wife with Lady Darby.” Nate leaned against his desk and folded his arms. “But tell me, what do you plan to do? Tell Lady Darby that she lost the child?”
Harley lifted his glass and swallowed some brandy. “No, we had another plan.” He bounced his leg as he spoke.
And suddenly Nate knew what had happened. He remembered Frederick suggesting that Harley impregnate a housemaid—that also explained Mrs. Harley’s fainting spell. She had lost a child after all.
“Abigail was pregnant!” Nate said through gritted teeth. “With your child.”
“Not necessarily mine.” Harley continued to bounce his leg. “The child might have been Frederick’s.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I wanted a guarantee that at least one of the housemaids would get with child, and Frederick already has a string of them, so I paid him to—”
“Oneof the housemaids!” Nate curled his hands into fists but restrained himself from hitting Harley. Sothatwas Frederick’s secret.
“I’m sorry,” Harley said. “I was desperate! Don’t you understand? We can’t have a child of our own. And my aunt will cut me off.” He dropped his head in his hands. “What am I to do? When Lady Darby discovers that Mrs. Harley is not with child—indeed never has been with child—then all is lost.”
“I think you have bigger problems at hand!” Nate said. “You seem to forget that Abigail has been murdered!”
“It wasn’t me. I wanted her to have my baby—Mrs. Harley wanted it too. Why would I kill her?”
“I never suggested you did. But you created a situation that couldhave led to murder.”
“How? All I did was offer her a better life. I was going to pay her a large sum. She’s a—she was—a servant, for goodness’ sake!”
“Shut up!” Nate said. He could not believe Harley’s level of selfishness. “Is Sarah also with child?”
