“Cassandra, and my son. Did she…didshe hurt them?”
Cecilia pressed her face against his chest, inhaling the scent of smoke, ash, and burnt wood that clungto him. “Yes.”
He went still, not speaking, hardly seeming to breathe, but then he took her shoulders in his hands and eased her away from him so he could look into her eyes. “Tellme all of it.”
Cecilia gazed up into his wounded blue eyes, and knew she was about to break both their hearts. His, because he’d blame himself for Cassandra’s death, and hers, because she’d broken his. But she hadn’t any choice. “Isabella pointed out some flowers to me, growing against a back wall in the kitchen garden. She said they smelled like her Aunt Cassandra. I thought it was lavender, but it had a strong scent of spearmint. At the time, I didn’t think anything of it.”
Gideon nodded, but his face waswhite. “Go on.”
“The night I got locked in the kitchen garden—I didn’t go out there to fetch my sketchbook. I went because of a conversation I had with Mrs. Briggs. She told me Cassandra couldn’t eat during her illness, that she could only take a little broth and somespearmint tea.”
“Spearmint tea? No. I gave her broth, but I never brought herspearmint tea.”
“No, you didn’t.” Cecilia pressed her palm to his face to make him look at her. “Lady Leanora did.”
Gideon shook his head. “That doesn’t make any sense. Leanora detests sickrooms. She never went near Cassandra during her illness.”
“She did, Gideon, but no one in the castle knew it because she entered Cassandra’s bedchamber through the hidden passageway.”
“Spearmint tea, stolen keys, and secret passageways?” Gideon tried to pull away from her. “It sounds absurd, like something you’d read in a Gothichorror novel.”
Cecilia held him fast. “Listen to me, Gideon. Until today, you didn’t know the secret passageway was there, did you?”
He closed his eyes and blew outa breath. “No.”
“No. No one did, not even Mrs. Briggs. There was no reason you should have known unless you’d grown up at Darlington Castle. Then you might have discovered it. But Leanora was mistress of the castle for eight years, and occupied the marchioness’s apartments. No doubt she stumbled across it then.”
Gideon stared down at her, and his face twisted with pain. “Why would Leanora sneak through a secret passageway to give Cassandraspearmint tea?”
He knew the answer already, but he was fighting so desperately against it his entire body was shaking. He didn’t want to know this secret, didn’t want to have this knowledge in his head, or his heart. But ignorance wouldn’t lead him to happiness or forgiveness, onlymore darkness.
“It wasn’t spearmint tea, Gideon,” Cecilia whispered. “The plant I thought was lavender wasn’t lavender at all. It was pennyroyal.”
“Pennyroyal?” He laughed, but it was a desperate, pleading sound. “You mean the herb Mrs. Briggs uses in the salve that soothes insect bites? Well, what of it? It’s harmless enough.”
“Not to ladies who are with child, Gideon. It brings on bleeding, and can be used to…” Cecilia swallowed, wishing with everything inside her she didn’t have to say it. “To expel a child from the womb. I-I believe Leanora was brewing it into a tea, and giving itto Cassandra.”
He stared down at her in horror, then jerked away with such violence Cecilia stumbled forward a few steps. “You can’t know this for sure, Cecilia. That day in the kitchen garden with Isabella, you told me you didn’t know anything about flowers and plants.”
“After Mrs. Briggs mentioned the spearmint tea, I went into the kitchen garden and picked the pennyroyal,” Cecilia said, struggling to stay calm. “The next day, after we…after you left the castle, I searched through a copy ofCulpeper’s Complete Herbalin your library until I found the illustration that matched the plants I’d picked.”
Gideon said nothing, but he backed away from her as if afraid she’d try and touch him again. Cecilia followed him, unable to choke back the truth any longer. “I already suspected Cassandra had been poisoned, even before Mrs. Briggs mentioned thespearmint tea.”
His shoulders stiffened. “How could you?”
“I found Cassandra’s diary on the bottom shelf of her clothes press.” It occurred to Cecilia to tell him about Seraphina, and the unusual way in which she’d led Cecilia to the diary, but strangely enough, it felt private, as if she’d be betraying Seraphina if she did.
Or perhaps not Seraphina so much as…Cassandra.
“You read my wife’sprivate diary?”
The shard of ice in his voice pierced Cecilia’s chest and lodged in her heart, but she and Gideon were long past denials now. “Yes. Her description of her illness seemed strange to me. I became convinced she’d been poisoned, and once I found the secret passageway, I realized Lady Leanora musthave done it.”
Gideon’s face was as blank as a stone, and the blue eyes that had looked at her with such heat just hours before had turned as cold as ice. “Who are you? You’re no ordinary housemaid, that’s certain. Is your name even Cecilia Gilchrist?”
Cecilia twisted her hands in her soot-stained skirts. This was the moment she’d been dreading, but there was nothing for her to do now but face it. “My name is Cecilia Gilchrist, but I’m not a housemaid, and I didn’t come here from Stoneleigh. I live in London, at the Clifford School, with Lady Amanda Clifford. Lady Clifford is—”
“I know who Lady Clifford is, and I know what she does.” Gideon’s voice was hard, flat. “She sent you to Darlington Castle to prove I’m the Murderous Marquess all of London believes me to be.”
