Page 118 of Taming Ivy
Rachel waved the dueling pistol at her. It was a beautifully crafted piece, with intricate metallic etchings on the curved oak butt and a tarnished silver barrel in need of polishing. “Sit down.”
"I don't understand.” Ivy sank into the chair, her mouth so dry the words escaped in a hoarse whisper.
"It's quite simple, really.” Rachel held up the second bottle of laudanum Dr. Callahan left behind earlier that day. "It’s you I meant to poison, not Sebastian.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Do you think I can allow you to live? After what you did to Timothy?” Rachel’s breath burst out in a hiss. “What sort of mother would I be, if I did not bring you to some manner of justice? This latest development is unfortunate, and I’ve no doubt, should Sebastian recover and learn what I’ve done, he’ll pack me off to one of his God- awful lesser estates where nothing exciting ever happens and nobody of importance ever goes.”
Ivy shook her head in disavowal. "Lady Rachel, I won’t let him do that. And Sebastian will get better, he must. He’s improved already. Should you wish, we’ll help you obtain your own house, here in London…” The feeble attempt to placate the woman trailed off, doused by the spark of madness in Rachel’s eyes.
Dressed in a black silk ball gown of severe lines, hair scraped into an austere bun, Lady Garrett’s features were accentuated by the harshness of her coiffure. Coldly elegant, thin and pale, the past year had changed her. As if she’d wasted away from the inside out, devoured by grief and a hidden madness.
Rachel tilted the bottle so the light reflected off it. "I’ve mixed apricot leaves into your Rosethorne tea since the day you arrived. Wilted leaves will make a person deathly ill. Only a few at a time, of course, as it would prove too suspicious if done all at once. You’re the only one to drink the tea, so no one was ever in any danger. How fortunate he sent for more after throwing the old batch away. As soon as it arrived, I mixed in all the leaves but never expected Sebastian to drink it. He so rarely drinks tea.”
Ivy traced the filigree butterfly, somehow drawing strength from it. “Sebastian loves me. It will hurt him if you harm me. Don’t you even care?”
"I did care. Once. Before he chose you over his family. Over blood.” Rachel frowned. “Sebastian is very stubborn. He refused to send you away. He wouldn’t listen to me, although I rather expected it.”
Ivy thought of the strangely painful episodes experienced over the last weeks…her illness following breakfast or teatime. She remembered Sara’s distaste for the Rosethorne tea and her complaint it was too strong. There was the occasion Lady Garrett called for a different brew, claiming she did not care for the plantation blend. His aunt intentionally attempted to poison her and now, Sebastian’s life hung in the balance. Shecouldbe with child at this moment, its life equally in danger. Bile rose in Ivy’s throat.
"This will not solve anything..."
Rachel laughed. "Of course, it does. It eliminates you. And how I’ve enjoyed knowing you suffered from my actions. Iwantyou to suffer. As Timothy suffered. AsIhave suffered.” Her voice turned pensive. “Do you know how desperately Timothy wanted you? Had he won you, he was to borrow funds from Sebastian to purchase his own home. To move away. Away from me.”
"You hate me simply because your son wished to marry me?"
"Oh, my dear. There’s more to it than that.” Lady Garrett’s eyes flashed harder, colder. "Mydarling Timothy. Every time you rejected him, his condition worsened. Timothy always took far too much medicine when those headaches came upon him.” She stared through Ivy, back to a stormy night the year before. “He cried so bitterly for you. And blamed me for it. He said you rejected him because I would not allow him to become a man. It wasmyfault you did not love him -myfault you refused him. Everything youdid to him, he blamed me. He was crazed with pain the night he died. He wept at how terribly he’d ruined things; how I ruined him and destroyed his chance for happiness. I’d never seen him in such a state...” Rachel’s eyes narrowed, her fists clenching the bottle of laudanum so tight, Ivy feared it would shatter.
“He believed if he sent me away, he could win you back. But he needed me to take care of him! He did! He needed me to ease the pain caused by your heartless actions.” Rachel’s voice lowered to a whisper. “I gave him too much. He had taken nearly half a bottle already…I thought he was drunk and he did not stop me when I gave him more. I - I only added a little extra. To calm him...he was so distraught.”
Staring at Rachel in shock, Ivy did not comprehend the confession then the world tilted. “Yougavehim too much.”
"It was an accident.” Rachel snarled, hands wringing, her mind churning to make sense of what transpired that night. "How could you possibly ever take care of him? If he sent me away, there would have been no one."
"I was blamed for his death. But, it was you. All this time.” The last bit of guilt deep inside Ivy washed away. She took a deep shuddering sigh. Sadness, relief, elation, fear; every emotion crashed into her as if she were strapped to an out of control carousel. "Oh, Lady Rachel, let us help you, please. You don’t have to do this…"
A fog of insanity appeared to roll over the woman and Ivy knew the moment of pressing Rachel to accept either help or her own guilt had passed. Now, only a steely resolve existed within her to make Ivy pay for the imagined crimes.
"Don’t you understand, you dense creature?” Rachel bit out. "None of that matters now. You will swallow this, go to sleep and never wake up. I’ll be rid of you for good.”
"If I don't?" Ivy trembled.
"I will put a bullet through your head. If Sebastian recovers, he will think you killed yourself, perhaps because you thought you would be discovered as the one who poisoned him. I will put the apricot leaves in your possession, and he’ll think you betrayed him, just as Marilee did. This will no doubt drive him from England again. Or push him to depths of despair as great as Timothy’s.”
Fear for Sebastian’s safety surged through Ivy. That he might believe she betrayed him cut her with the agony of a thousand knives. That he might think she could harm him hurt even worse...
“Drink the laudanum. Things will go on as they did before you bewitched my nephew.” Rachel moved closer, her eyes fixed on the butterfly pinned to Ivy’s shoulder. “Of course, I won’t have my Timothy, but it will be as it was before Sebastian met you. Everything returned to its rightful place and their rightful owners.”
Ivy’s pulse thumped in her veins, the strength of it pounding a mad drumbeat in her head, making her dizzy. If Rachel came close enough, perhaps she could knock the pistol from her hand. She might even have time to make it to the door. A slim chance, but worth a try.
Rachel leveled the pistol with a sickly smile and a steady hand. “All the very best balls are happening tonight. Once you are dealt with, I plan to attend several of them and I imagine I won’t return before dawn. You’ll be dead by then. Such a tragedy. Sebastian will weep, but I’ll be happy to be free of you.”
Ivy shook her head. "No one will believe I committed suicide, or that I would harm Sebastian.”
"Won’t they, Poison Ivy? They believed you capable of driving my Timothy to his death.”
Ivy’s gaze locked with Rachel’s. "Youkilled Timothy.”
