Page 77 of Secrets of the Marriage Bed
Robins flinched. The glass trembled in her hand. ‘A man.’
‘What man?’ Julia asked, more gently, controlling her own anger, her sense of betrayal by this woman who looked ready to collapse.
‘He came to my last position and told me I would be offered a place with Her Grace. I was to take it if I wanted my daughter to reach her next birthday. She’s only five.’ She burst into tears.
Threatening a child. The height of cruelty. Julia shook her head at Alistair, who looked ready for murder. ‘Tell us everything, Robins.’
Robins burst into sobs again. Julia wanted to shake her. ‘Calm yourself. Who is this man you speak of?’
‘I do not know,’ she said, gasping for breath. ‘Please. He told me I would never see Minnie again if I did not do exactly as I was told.’
Julia felt sympathy, but also anger. The woman should have trusted her instead of...
‘You have been putting laudanum in my tea and chocolate. To what end?’
The woman started sobbing again. ‘I’m s-s-sorry.’
Alistair cursed softly. ‘You said nothing of this.’
Julia looked up from the woman hunched in the chair and squared her shoulders. ‘How could I? I did not know who was doing it.’
He looked horrified. And cut to the quick. He inhaled a deep breath. ‘We will talk of this. Right now we must discover who means you harm. How did you know...?’
‘The poppy in laudanum makes me violently ill. It has done so ever since I was a child. It took a few days for me to realise why I did not like the chocolate I was given each morning. And why I was so violently ill. I stopped drinking the chocolate. It then turned up in my tea.’
Robins looked up, her eyes red and swollen. ‘That is why you were ill? I thought it was the travelling.’
And her husband had suspected she was with child. Julia glanced at Alistair. He looked shame-faced.
‘I knew you were bringing the stuff to me, Robins, but I did not know if you were part of the plot. Or someone’s dupe. Or what exactly the laudanum was supposed to accomplish.’ She took a deep breath and looked at Alistair. ‘She tried to smother me with that pillow.’
‘Dear God...’ he breathed. He glared at Robins. ‘Is this true?’
She nodded miserably. ‘He said I was taking too long. His employer wanted it done with.’
A shudder went through Julia at how cavalierly the woman spoke of her death. Yet if she had a child, would she not do anything to protect it? Anything at all. Even murder?
Alistair’s fists clenched as if he would strike the woman. ‘And once she was dead? What then?’
Robins shrugged. ‘Minnie would have been safe.’
Alistair paced away as if he could not bear to be near her. He kicked at the logs in the fire, sparking them to life.
‘This man,’ Alistair said, swinging around suddenly. ‘Did I see you speaking to him in the village the other day?’
She nodded. ‘I didn’t think you saw us.’ She gazed at Julia. ‘Your Grace, I am so sorry. I had to do it. I couldn’t let them hurt my little girl. And now...’ Sobbing, she buried her face in her hands. ‘They will kill Minnie for certain,’ she wailed.
‘What would you have done if my wife had been in bed with me tonight?’ Alistair asked, his voice full of ice.
Robins struggled to breath. ‘Waited for another night, I suppose. It isn’t as if you come to her all that often.’
The coldness of the words stung Julia like a slap to the face. The woman’s betrayal hurt so much, she did not want to be near her. She rose to her feet, anger making it hard to think clearly.
‘When do you meet this man again?’ Alistair asked, the menace in his voice making Robins shrink back. ‘And where.’
The woman wrung her hands. ‘He finds me. Or sends a note. I never know when to expect him.’
She sounded resigned.
