Elizabeth nodded absently, sipping again. Her thoughts were still tangled with the horror she had overheard.
“And Lydia insists that Captain Carter is the handsomest officer,” Kitty continued irritably. “But Maria Lucas says that Lieutenant Sanderson—”
Elizabeth’s hand stilled halfway to her lips.
Something felt… strange.
A faint heaviness crept into her limbs.
Kitty finished her rambling and glanced toward the door.
“I must go,” she said. “Lydia is impatient to leave for Lucas Lodge and gossip about the officers, and I hope she has not gone without me.”
Elizabeth blinked.
“Gone?”
“Yes. Papa told me to bring you tea first, just as we were about to leave to call on Maria. Lydia was quite cross about the delay.”
Elizabeth froze.
“What did you say?”
Kitty shrugged. “It was odd Papa gave the order, I suppose. But when he explained what happened with Mary, I did not think anything of it.”
The cup trembled in Elizabeth’s hand.
The bitterness in the tea.
The heaviness spreading through her body.
The spinning in her head.
Her father.
Dread flooded her veins like ice.
The tea.
The tea had been drugged.
Elizabeth set the cup down abruptly, her heart pounding.
The medicine must already be working. The room tilted slightly as she stood.
Her mind raced desperately for some escape.
Then—suddenly—the Lucases.
Charlotte.
The thought struck like lightning.
Elizabeth turned to Kitty, forcing her voice to remain calm.
“Kitty… before you go, would you do something for me?”
“What is it?”
