“I bet you’re pretty good at cards, then,” Lucas said in a casual way. “To play with the likes of Lord Dunnamore. He was pretty good, and if you held your own with him, then you’re a right dab hand.”
Fisher straightened up at that, and his sullen expression softened.
“You probably win most of the time, too,” Lucas continued. “If the game’s played straight, that is. But I bet you didn’t win with Geoffrey, did you? He’s a good cheat. Doesn’t even have to play with a bad deck. He starts early, you see, with your cards. And as he plays, he starts to mark them. You don’t even notice because you’re winning. But as the night goes on, he can see what you got ’cause he’s marked them. And pretty soon, you’re in too deep. You owe him.”
Phillip’s eyes widened, and the confirmation was on his face. The more Lucas talked, the more his lip quivered as he realized he’d been duped.
“What did he want you to do?”
“Nothing,” he said, the word thick with hatred. “Said he knew she was poisoning his father. Just wanted me to put medicine in the old man’s tea. I’d be doing his lordship a favor, he said. Saving him from his wife’s poison.”
Diana sighed. “I wasn’t poisoning him.”
“Says you!”
“Who gave you this medicine?” Lucas asked.
“I picked it up from the potion place in Cheapside. Straight from the doctor there.”
Reuben shook his head. “He’s not a real doctor. What did you tell him?”
“To give me Mr. Geoffrey Hough’s medicine.” He glared at Diana. “I put a couple spoonfuls in the tin once a week. It was to keep him alive.”
“It was to poison him with arsenic, and he made you the perfect gull. Why’d you put in more the night he died?” Lucas asked.
Fisher was sweating now, and he shook his head as he spoke. “Mr. Geoffrey found me and gave me a pouch of medicine. Said the mistress were getting desperate, and I needed to put it all in or his lordship would surely die by morning.” He looked back at Lucas. “It must not have worked! She must have given him too much poison, ’cause he died!”
Diana sighed. “You don’t really believe that.”
“You witch! You killed your own husband, and he never did nothing against you!”
“You know that’s not true,” Diana shot back. “You know I’d never—”
Lucas stopped her by touching her shoulder. She cut off her words, tears in her eyes as she turned to him. He spoke to her in a gentle tone. “He does believe it because he can’t think otherwise.” He looked to Reuben, who gave him a nod.
“I already talked to the doctor. He told the constable a week ago that he gave rat poison to this idiot.”
“It’s not true.” Fisher’s eyes were wide with panic. “You forced him. You forced him to lie. You’re going to make it looked like I killed him. I didn’t! It was her! I swear it, it was her!”
Diana pressed a hand to her mouth. Lucas could tell that she was shaking, and he pressed a gentle hand to her back.
“We can prove all of this,” he said to Fisher. “The doctor has already given his statement. You’ve just confessed to putting the poison in the tea tin.”
“It weremedicine!”
“Do you think Geoffrey will admit he played cards with you? A servant? Never. He’s going to say he had nothing to do with it. That you did it all yourself just to ingratiate yourself with him. That in your deluded mind, you thought you were doing him a favor.”
“It’s not true!” the man kept screaming. “You’re lying!” His voice was hoarse by the time he stopped screaming enough to hear Lucas’s next words.
“It’s what he’ll say. Unless you tell your side first. Every word. Every honest and true word.”
“I will! I will tell the constable. It was Mr. Geoffrey’s medicine for his father. Against her poisoning. It weren’t me! It were her or Mr. Geoffrey. Not me!”
No one responded because, at that moment, the constable pushed through the side door. He was followed by two of his men, and all three had grim, disgusted expressions. Fisher saw them immediately and turned his pleading eyes on the constable.
“They tied me up. Hit me. It wasn’t right what they did. You can’t believe a word they say!”
“I don’t,” the constable responded in gruff tones. “I believe what you said. How you put a powder in his lordship’s tea.”
