Page 90 of A Dangerous Engagement

“Where is Aunt Agnes?”

“Darling, I’m sorry,” Mr.Ratley said, “but we cannot risk calling the doctor. Our plans are coming to fruition very soon. But Lady Blackstone says she is taking good care of you, giving you the medicine the doctor gave her when she was ill with the same malady. I’m sure you will be better very soon.” He picked up her hand and patted it in a most annoying way.

“I am very sleepy, and so thirsty. May I have some water?”

“Here is your tea Lady Blackstone sent up,” Mr.Ratley said.

“No!” Aunt Agnes stepped into her line of vision. “Lady Blackstone is ... um, that is, I don’t think tea is the best thing for Felicity in her condition. Water is the thing for her.”

Aunt Agnes seemed to be pouring a glass of water for her.

Someone was helping her sit up.

“Here, drink this water,” Auntie said.

Felicity gulped the water, afraid it might be taken away at any moment.

She must have fallen asleep again, because when she opened her eyes, Lady Blackstone was standing over her, holding a cup in her face, while Mr.Ratley was holding her up in a sitting position.

“Drink it.” Lady Blackstone pressed the cup to her lips.

Felicity was too tired to argue or fight with them. She drank it.

“Miss Appleby doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Everyone knows she’s too weak-minded to know what is going on,” Lady Blackstone said, apparently speaking to Mr.Ratley. “Keep drinking, dear Felicity,” she crooned in her sweetest voice. Felicity drank it, even as her heart filled with dread. Lady Blackstone was poisoning her with laudanum, either so she would not protest or cause any problems, or with the intent of killing her.

“Please don’t kill me,” Felicity mumbled. “I want to see my mother again.”

“My dear,” Lady Blackstone said, amusement on her face and in her voice, “no one is killing you. This is for your good, some good medicine for you. You mustn’t mind her, Oliver. She is confused, that is all. I know you wish to help her, but the best thing for her is to sleep. Come. We will be back soon to look in on her.”

Before they exited the room, sleep was already dragging Felicity back under.

Philip went to the rector’s house when he arrived in the little village outside Margate near Doverton Hall. He leapt from his hired carriage and hurried to knock at the front door.

The servant who answered showed him into a sitting room. He stood until Mr.Birtwistle came into the room.

“Mr.McDowell. I am Jonathan Birtwistle.”

“Very good to meet you, Mr.Birtwistle. I am grateful for the information you sent to me. You cannot know how important and essential it was to the safety of this country and its people.”

Mr.Birtwistle’s brows rose dramatically. “I am dumbfounded. I never imagined anything so dangerous could be found in our little village.”

“At Doverton Hall, specifically. And can you tell me if any other messages have reached you from that house?” Philip’s heart pounded hard, as he was finally to discover if Felicity Mayson was safe.

“That is what I wrote to you of.”

“You wrote to me?”

“Yes, I took the letter to the village myself to post. But I don’t suppose it could have reached you yet. You see, I believe Miss Mayson and Miss Appleby may be in some danger.”

“Why? What do you mean?” Philip wanted to grab the man’s shoulder and force him to speak faster, but he caught hold of the back of the chair beside him instead.

“I’m not exactly sure myself. I called on Miss Appleby yesterday morning. We were having a pleasant visit, and nothing seemed amiss. Then Miss Appleby tried to pass a book to me, to return it. Somehow I dropped it. When I picked up the book, a piece of paper fell out of it. Lady Blackstone snatched the paper and read it. She seemed quite shocked and angry.”

“Do you know what the paper said?” His stomach had sunk to his toes.

“I was not able to read it. I cannot fathom. The only thing I saw was ‘26 April.’ Their first message was also passed to me in a book. Those were the papers that I sent to you, with the names and places, and there was a smaller piece of paper saying please send these papers as quickly as possible to Mr.Philip McDowell at the Home Office, Horse Guards, Whitehall, London. So I did. I sent it by special messenger so it would get to you as quickly as possible.”

“I greatly appreciate that, sir. And what happened after Lady Blackstone read the new paper, the one which said the twenty-sixth of April?”