"But what if the pottage is poisoned? Everyone will have taken their morning cup."
"The pottage was not poisoned," Alice said quietly. "I drank a full cup of it myself only a short while ago. So did my maid."
"But—"
"Hurry, Benedict."
He hurried from the chamber.
Hugh opened his eyes briefly. His amber eyes burned. "Alice."
"You are a very large man and you did not even drink all of the pottage, my lord. I have got most of what you did consume back out of you. You will live."
"I will kill him," Hugh vowed. He closed his eyes again. "My oath to Erasmus will not protect him after this."
"Who are you talking about?"
"Vincent. He tried to poison me."
"Hugh, you cannot know that for certain."
"Who else?" Another spasm overtook Hugh. His powerful body shuddered but there was nothing left in him. "It must have been him."
Benedict pounded around the edge of the door, breathless from the dash downstairs to the kitchens. He carried two flagons in one hand. "I have both milk and water."
"Excellent." Alice reached for the first flagon. "Help me get this down him."
Hugh slitted his eyes. "No offense, madam, but I do not have much of an appetite at the moment."
"My mother wrote that it is wise to give great quantities of liquids to a victim of poison. It rebalances the bodily humors." Alice cradled Hugh's head in her lap. "Please, my lord. I pray you will drink this."
There was still a sheen of sweat on Hugh's brow but humor glinted briefly in his gaze as he looked up at the curve of her breasts. "You know I am lost when you employ your fine manners. Very well, madam, I shall drink anything you please unless it be green in color."
Alice looked up at Benedict. "I do believe he is already feeling much better. Fetch Sir Dunstan. We will need his help to get my lord to his bedchamber."
"Aye." Benedict made for the door again.
"Devil's teeth," Hugh muttered. "I will not be carried like a child."
In the end he managed the length of the hall on his own two feet but it took Alice, Benedict, and Dunstan to support his weight. When he finally tumbled into his massive ebony bed, Hugh fell asleep instantly.
"Poison?" Dunstan stood at the foot of the bed, his hands bunched into huge fists at his sides. "Sir Hugh was given poison? Are you certain?"
"Aye." Alice frowned at him. "But you must say nothing of this for the moment, Sir Dunstan. Thus far only we four know the truth. I would have it stay that way for a time."
"Say nothing?" Dunstan stared at her as though she were mad. "I shall turn this damned keep upside down. I shall hang every servant in the kitchen one by one until I discover the person who put the brew into Sir Hugh's cup."
"Sir Dunstan—"
"Likely it came from Rivenhall." Dunstan's brow furrowed as he worked the problem out to his satisfaction. "Aye, that would explain it. Before he took his leave yesterday, Sir Vincent no doubt bribed a servant here in Scarcliffe Keep to put the foul herbs in the pottage."
"Sir Dunstan, that is quite enough." Alice rose from the stool beside the bed. "I shall handle this."
"Nay, madam. Sir Hugh would not want you involved in a bloody business such as this."
"I am already involved." Alice gritted her teeth to keep her voice to a whisper. "And I know far more about poison than you do, sir. I shall discover the means by which this deed was done. Then, mayhap, we shall know who to blame."
"Sir Vincent of Rivenhall is to blame," Dunstan stated.
"We cannot be certain of that." Alice began to pace the chamber. "Now, then, we know that only Sir Hugh's pottage was poisoned. That means that the herbs were either placed in his cup while it was carried to his study chamber or—"
"I'll find that traitorous servant," Dunstan interrupted furiously. "I'll have him hung by noon."
"Or," Alice added quickly, "the poison was already in the cup when the pottage was poured into it."
Dunstan's face went blank with incomprehension. "Already in the cup?"
"Aye, sir. The kitchens are a busy place. A few drops of a very strong poison placed in the bottom of the cup would likely go unnoticed when the pottage was poured into the vessel."
"Would a few drops be sufficient to kill a man?"
"There are some brews made from certain herbs that are so virulent that they retain their lethal properties even when distilled. The hot pottage could have activated such a brew."
Some brews, not many, Alice added silently. And the herbs used in such bitter potions were rare, according to her mother's treatise.
Benedict looked at Alice across Hugh's sleeping body. " 'Tis no secret which dishes Sir Hugh uses. 'Twould be easy enough for a poisoner to choose his cup from among the others."
"Aye." Alice continued to stride back and forth, hands clasped behind her back. "Sir Dunstan, I will conduct this investigation, do you comprehend me? Much rides on the outcome. War with Rivenhall will cost many lives. I will not have those deaths on my hands if there is an alternative."
"Rest assured, madam, there will be no alternative when Sir Hugh awakes." Dunstan's expression was savage. "He will have his vengeance as soon as he can sit a horse."
Alice glanced at Hugh. Even in sleep there was an unrelenting implacability about him. No one knew better than she that once Hugh set out upon a course of action, nothing could halt him.
She swung around to face Dunstan and Benedict. "Then I must act quickly."
Alice closed her mother's book, folded her hands on her desk, and regarded the young kitchen lad who stood before her.
"You took the green pottage to Sir Hugh this morning, Luke?"
"Aye, m'lady." Luke grinned proudly. "I have been assigned the duty of taking his pottage to him every morning."
"Who instructed you in that duty?"
Luke gave her a quizzical look. "Master Elbert, of course."
"Tell me, Luke, did you stop to talk to anyone on your way to Lord Hugh's study chamber today?"
"Nay, m'lady." Alarm appeared in Luke's eyes. "I did not pause at all, I swear it. I went directly to his chamber, just as I was bid. I vow, the pottage was still warm when I got there. If it was cold when his lordship drank it, it was not my fault, m'lady."
"Calm yourself, Luke. The pottage was warm enough," Alice assured him gently.
Luke brightened. "Lord Hugh is pleased with my service?"
"I would say that he was quite astonished by it this morning."
"In that case, mayhap Master Elbert will soon allow me to serve in the great hall," Luke said happily. " 'Tis my greatest ambition. 'Twill make my mother proud."
"I'm certain that you will realize your goal one of these days, Luke. You seem a determined lad."
"I am, my lady," Luke assured her with great fervor. "Lord Hugh told me that the secret of every man's true strength, regardless of his station in life, lies in his determination and will. If they be powerful, he can achieve his ends."
In spite of her anxious mood, Alice smiled fleetingly at the thought of Hugh dispensing advice to a kitchen boy. "That certainly has the ring of something Lord Hugh would say. When did he give you this bit of wisdom?"
"Yesterday morning when I asked him how he could stomach the green pottage every day. I never touch the stuff myself."
Alice sighed. "You may go back to your duties now, Luke."
"Aye, m'lady."
Alice waited until Luke had bustled out of her study chamber before she opened the handbook again. One question had been answered, she thought. Luke was an honest boy. She believed him when he claimed that he had not met anyone en route to Hugh's study chamber.
That meant the poison had not been added to the cup after the pottage had been poured into it.