Page 103 of Freed
“I’m going to ask you once,” I say. “What did you put in her water?”
She shakes her head violently, gasping. “N-nothing?—”
“Wrong answer.”
I take one step toward her. She stumbles backward, as if knowing how this will end for her.
I turn to Cesaro. “Separate them.”
The room erupts at once.
“No, sir, please?—”
“I didn’t do anything?—”
“You can’t think?—”
“I swear on my children?—”
“Quiet.” The single word drops like a guillotine.
I look at the maid again. She’s growing paler by the second, eyes too wide, breath too quick. Fear is rolling off her in waves now. Good. Let it.
“Did you know my guest was pregnant?”
“No, sir.” Tears stream unchecked down her face. “No, sir, I swear.”
Maybe she’s telling the truth.
Maybe she isn’t.
At this point, I don’t care which. Not yet.
I turn to the cook. “Did you?”
He recoils like I’ve struck him. “No, sir.” His head shakes hard enough to look frantic. “I didn’t know, I swear it. I would never do something like this.”
“Never?” I ask.
“No, sir.”
I step closer. “Then help me understand why a woman under my protection drank from a glass in my house and woke up bleeding.”
No one answers and the rage inside me goes colder.
I shift my attention to the guards. “Who was posted outside her room?”
One of them speaks up immediately. “I was for the first half of the night, sir. Then there was a gap since you were with her.”
I hold his gaze until sweat beads at his temple.
“You mean to tell me you thought it acceptable to leave my guest unattended?”
His throat works. “Sir?—”
Cesaro steps forward, voice smooth as a knife. “Maybe he should drink the water too.”
I glance at the glass. Then at the rest of them.
