"May I see?" Jenny held out her hand for the tankard. She smelled it, then ran a finger over the drops clinging to the sides and licked it. She frowned but said nothing, merely placed the tankard on the floor and bent over Edgar again.
"Edgar? Can you hear me, Edgar?" She spoke softly but insistently. The man's eyelids fluttered, he lifted one hand from the cot, laboriously as if it weighed a ton and he was having to move it through treacle, and touched his mouth.
His eyes opened. His bewildered gaze fell on Jenny and a stricken look crossed his befogged eyes. "Oh, Miss Jenny, I were comin' to fetch you, weren't I? What time is it?"
"Close on eight," Jenny replied. "Lie back for a few more minutes, Edgar. You'll feel stronger shortly. Perhaps if you had some strong tea…?" She looked inquiringly at Gertrude.
"I'll send one o' the girls out wi' the tea," Gertrude said. "Anythin' else you'd be wantin'?"
Edgar shook his head and Gertrude went off. Edgar sat up, swinging his legs over the side of the cot. The ground rushed up to meet him and with a groan he dropped his head onto his knees.
" 'Ad a bit too much o' the blackstrap, Edgar," Timson opined jovially. "Gets to us all sometimes, but I never figured you fer a serious drinkin' man."
Edgar raised his head cautiously. He blinked around the tack room. "I'm not." He shook his head. "Lad brought me a tankard last even, after I'd seen to the 'osses. Wi' compliments of the earl of 'Awkesmoor, 'e said."
Jenny picked up the tankard again. "Lord Hawkesmoor sent you the drink?"
"Aye. An' right good it was, though powerful strong. Must 'ave gone to me 'ead."
"I expect that was it," Jenny said. "If you think you'll be all right now, I'll go inside and see Lady Ariel. I'll come back afterward."
"Aye, an' I'll be ready to take you 'ome whenever," Edgar said. " 'Ere, Timson, give me an 'and." He took the footman's proffered hand and staggered to his feet. "Gawd, I'd better see to the 'osses. Lady Ariel'll be wantin' to know 'ow the roan's doin'." Shaking his head, he stumbled slightly toward the door to the stables.
Early in the morning, Ariel's bedchamber had resembled market day in Cambridge as a stream of visitors inquired after her health. But at last she was left alone when the wedding guests set off for the day's sport.
A day of enforced idleness was not appealing, even though Ariel's physician self told her that it was as wise as it was necessary. She lay back against the pillows waiting for the skittering claws of the hounds in the corridor outside as Doris returned them from their morning's walk. Doris had taken them herself because Edgar would be out fetching Jenny.
Ariel sat up abruptly and looked at the clock. It was past eight. Edgar should have been back with Jenny long since.
The dogs yelped at the closed door even as she thought this. They burst into the chamber as Doris opened the door. "Mercy me, Lady Ariel, they've run me off me feet," she gasped, panting. " 'Ere's Miss Jenny, come to see 'ow y'are."
"Thank you for taking the dogs, Doris." Ariel smiled warmly at the girl. "I was worried about you, Jenny." She reached out a hand to grasp Jenny's as the other woman stepped closer. "Surely Edgar didn't forget to come for you."
"Not exactly," Jenny said evasively, gesturing slightly toward Doris, who could be heard setting the room to rights behind her. "How are you feeling this morning?" She placed a cool hand on Ariel's brow. "The fever's broken, then?"
"Yes, sometime in the night." Ariel opened her shift so that Jenny could listen to her chest. "I sweated rivers, it was quite disgusting. Poor Simon was constantly having to change the linen."
"He proved a good nurse, then?" Jenny inquired in an oddly flat voice.
"Surprisingly so." Simon's dry answer from the door made Jenny jump with a startled little gasp.
But she recovered quickly, beginning to palpate Ariel's throat as she responded neutrally, "Good morning, my lord."
"Good morning, Jenny. What's your opinion of the patient?"
"Better. Is your throat sore, Ariel?"
"Very."
"We should wrap it in hot flannel." She turned to address Doris. "Run down to the kitchen, Doris, and ask Mistress Gertrude to heat strips of flannel in the bread oven."
"Yes, miss." Doris hustled past the earl, who still stood in the doorway. Doris didn't notice the rather puzzled frown in his eyes.
Jenny seemed to be avoiding conversation with him. When he stepped closer to the bed, she jerked sideways, tension rippling through her thin frame. What on earth was the matter with the woman?
"Well, I'll leave you to your ministrations," he said, hearing the shade of awkwardness in his voice. "I'm sure she's in better hands than mine, Jenny."
Jenny didn't respond, seemed to be concentrating all her attention on taking Ariel's pulse.
"Enjoy the stag hunt, my lord," Ariel said. "I wish I was coming with you."
"Well, you can't," he stated, bending to kiss her. "You'll stay in bed wrapped in hot flannel, and I'll join you for dinner by the fire.",
When the door had closed behind him, Ariel said swiftly, "What happened with Edgar?"
Jenny sat on the edge of the bed. "Apparently he drank deep of a powerful mixture of blackstrap last night and overslept."
"What do you mean, apparently?" Ariel never missed a trick.
Jenny bit her lip. "There was more than October ale and apple brandy in the tankard, Ariel."
"Oh?" Ariel sat up, an intent look in her widened eyes.
"Verbenum, certainly, and maybe belladonna. And I could definitely taste celandine."
"Oh." Ariel stared at Jenny. "You're saying the blackstrap was drugged?"
Jenny shrugged. "There were only a few drops left. I could be wrong."
"No, you couldn't," Ariel said flatly. "Where is Edgar now?
"Checking on the horses."
Ariel felt the dread start from a pinprick somewhere in her chest and expand like a swelling balloon until it seemed to fill the whole cavity of her rib cage. She gazed in silent horror at Jenny's still figure beside her.
The two women waited in silence. Waited for what they both knew they were about to hear.
When Edgar entered the room a few minutes later, his face deathly white, his mouth and nostrils pinched, Ariel forestalled him. "What have we lost?"
"The mare in foal." He stood helplessly, wringing his hands. "I can't believe it 'appened. I can't believe I could 'ave drunk meself silly, but… but I did." A wail of anguish broke from him and his shoulders hunched. "I'll leave right away, m'lady. I wish I could do somethin' to show 'ow sorry I am, but-"
"There's no need to flay yourself, Edgar," Ariel broke in briskly. "It wasn't your fault. The blackstrap you drank was drugged. Jenny tasted it."
"Drugged?" Edgars shoulders snapped straight again and his eyes were suddenly wrathful, all anguish, remorse, and guilt banished. "Someone wanted me out of the way."
Ariel flung back the bedclothes as if they were stifling her, impeding her thought processes. "Ranulf," she stated.
Edgar's gaze shifted abruptly. He cast a glance to where Jenny now stood beside the bed, her face closed as granite. He cleared his throat. "The tankard, m'lady, it didn't… didn't come…" His voice faded.
Jenny picked up the thread, her voice cool and resolute. "Edgar told me earlier that the ale had been sent him by the earl of Hawkesmoor."
"The lad what brought it, m'lady, said 'is lordship sent it with 'is thanks. I thought because of lookin' after the roan." Edgar fell silent again, unable to look at the white face in the bed.
Simon? Simon had drugged Edgar and then staged a raid on the Arabians? Simon knew she bred them. As an experienced horseman, he would have seen that they were fine specimens. He had a perfect hiding place on his own estates, easily reached by barge along the rivers and drainage cuts crossing the fens. Could he have seen what a gold mine she had in her stables? Had he assumed that a naive young woman wouldn't realize how lucrative her hobby could be? Had he acted accordingly? Simon? How could it be possible? It wasn't possible.