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“And the doctor who has been treating her, this Mr. Gray, what was his diagnosis?”

With a frown, Kitty answered, “Cancer of the stomach.”

Leo had come across many corpses at the morgue that had been afflicted by such a cancer. The disease ate away at a person, usually whittling them down to skin and bones by the end. As Augusta Lawlor had lost a good deal of weight, perhaps it truly was cancer of the stomach, as the doctor had concluded. However, Leo was still skeptical.

“What medicine was she prescribed?” Leo asked Kitty next. “Laudanum?”

“Yes. She took eleven drops every morning with her tea in bed,” she confirmed. Kitty went on to explain that she would bring a tray at half eight, and Mr. Lawlor would often come through the shared door between their bedchambers to join his wife.

“Who would administer the laudanum to her?” Leo asked. “And where was the bottle kept?”

“It stayed on her bedside table,” the maid answered. “I would administer it. Though if Mr. Lawlor joined my mistress, he would do it.”

That morning, Kitty had discovered Augusta’s seemingly lifeless form upon entering the bedchamber. So, the overdose had to have occurred sometime during the night or early morning.

When the maid’s nose twitched and she appeared hesitant, Leo asked if there was anything more Kitty would like to say.

“It might be nothing,” the maid said, her hands balled tightly, crushing a handkerchief. “The new bottle Mr. Gray gave her is gone. I noticed it missing from Mrs. Lawlor’s night table when I helped her up to bed just now.”

That was certainly suspicious. Had Mr. Lawlor taken the bottle after upending the contents into his wife’s morning tea?

“Was it there this morning, when you found Mrs. Lawlor?” Leo asked.

But Kitty answered that she couldn’t be sure. In all the ensuing commotion, she hadn’t thought to check the bottle, which had held just two ounces of the tincture the night before.

As Mrs. Vincent, the housekeeper, showed the fourth and final maid, Marianna, into the dining room to be interviewed, Leo felt restless to know what Jasper had learned in the last hour from those staff members he’d questioned. So far, the maids’ information had been mostly insubstantial and repetitive. However, when Mrs. Vincent stated that it was Marianna who went into Mrs. Lawlor’s room each morning at dawn to stoke the fire in the hearth, Leo sat up taller with interest.

“How long have you been working for the Lawlors?” Leo asked her.

“Seven months,” she answered.

“So, you would very likely notice something out of place or amiss while carrying out your duties?” At Marianna’s answering nod, Leo added, “And did you notice anything out of place in Mrs. Lawlor’s bedroom this morning?”

“It were too dark to see much of anythin’,” Marianna replied, her hands clasped so tightly in her lap, her chapped knuckles whitened. Leo decided against leading her with a question about the missing laudanum bottle and turned to another question.

“Was anyone else awake at the time?’ she asked Marianna. “Mr. Lawlor, in the next room, for instance?”

She shook her head. “Don’t know.”

Marianna’s eyes shifted toward Mrs. Vincent, who stood near the door. The housekeeper had insisted on being present for the interviews, and Leo saw no reason to object. Though now, she had the distinct impression that Marianna was nervous to have the housekeeper listening in.

“After Mrs. Lawlor’s supposed death, did you see Mr. Lawlor at all?” Leo asked.

Here, every other maid had answered no. There had been too much tumult in the house, and they could not specifically recall Sebastian Lawlor shutting himself in his bedchamber as Hastings had said he’d done. However, Marianna did not immediately reply to Leo’s question.

Instead, she bit her lower lip in another display of nervousness. She was a slight young woman, probably no older than Leo at twenty-five, with pale blonde hair pinned up under a mobcap. The lace trim on the cap shook as if she was trembling. She continued to clutch her hands together, nervously rubbing the chapped knuckles on her left hand.

“Marianna?” Leo urged. “Did you see Mr. Lawlor?”

Again, she checked over her shoulder. The housekeeper raised her brow in impatience. “Answer the question, girl,” Mrs. Vincent ordered.

Marianna faced Leo again. “I seen him.”

“Where? When?”

“Mr. Gray had sent word for the body to be taken away, and everyone were weepin’ and such, so I…I went out, to get some air.” She winced guiltily. “I were standin’ just outside the servant’s entrance. Mr. Lawlor were on the pavement, out front of the house.”

The servant’s entrance was set underneath the front entrance, Leo recalled.