Page 83 of The Secret of Drulea Cottage
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“Briony? …Briony?” Adaira’s voice drifted in and out of Briony’s ears. There were other voices too, but she wasn’t aware enough to identify them. She didn’t want to be aware enough to do so anyway. She didn’t want to be aware of anything.
’Tis so much easier to sleep. Then I don’ have to remember…But just as she was about to fade back into oblivion, Santiago’s face flashed through her mind.
Moisture appeared on her cheeks, and all the realities of what she was trying to avoid came back to her. She swiped a hand across her face, but the tears had already formed tiny rivulets that wouldn’t stop flowing.
She clenched her hands, needing to touch something real, something unaffected by feelings. Her fingers grasped something soft—a seat cushion.
She opened her eyes and found herself in one of the sitting room chairs at Everton Inn. Adaira was whispering nearby with Dr. Sherwin while John and William Burgess stood a few feet away.
“Oh, yer awake!” Adaira rushed over and wrapped her in a bone-crushing hug.
Briony offered her friend a tight-lipped smile, though she could still feel the water running down her face. “A-Adaira, thank you. I—”
But that was as much as she could get out; she was just too raw everywhere.
“Bless you, dearie! I’m so sorry about this.” Adaira rubbed her back for a few moments as Briony sobbed.
She knew she looked pathetic, but she simply couldn’t make herself stop.
But not everyone was as sympathetic as Adaira.
“Mistress Briony, did he really do it? Did he try to kill the king?” blurted a voice, drawing Briony back from her pit of self-pity.
She blinked away her tears to look at the owner of the voice, jumping when she realized William Burgess was mere inches from her face.
John Burgess yanked his son backward and snapped, “William! You can’ just say things like that!”
William frowned, confusion swirling in his eyes. “But why na? That’s what everybody wants to know, right? I’m just helping out by asking!”
Adaira let out a small cough that sounded suspiciously like a laugh. “Aye, William, yer very helpful. Except there’s one thing you did na think about.”
“What’s that?”
Adaira put a kind hand on William’s shoulder and looked him dead in the eye. “Briony is very sad right now, so she may na be able to talk about it just yet. We have to be thoughtful about things like this.”
William glanced from Adaira to Briony, and it was like a spark ignited in his eyes. “Oh, I see! I’d be upset too if I was in love with a murderer. Do you want me to go beat him up fer you, Mistress Briony?”
John Burgess gritted his teeth so hard that it looked uncomfortable. He gripped his son’s arm and pulled the boy behind him. “I’m deeply sorry, mistress. Please excuse us.”
The man turned to William and gave him such a dangerous look that his son clamped his jaw shut and dashed down the hallway. John marched after him, and soon enough they both disappeared into their room.
“Well?” Dr. Sherwin said.
Briony turned to see whom the doctor was talking to and was surprised to see that she was the object of his gaze. “Well, what?”
“Now that young Burgess has already asked, we’re all waiting on yer answer. Did he truly do it?”
“Dr. Sherwin, please! Have a heart,” Adaira complained.
The doctor rolled his eyes. “Mistress Stubbins, firstly, as a doctor, I’m well aware o’ the organs I possess, and secondly, ’tis something we have a right to know. After all, we’ve been treating him and housing him fer weeks, and now we find out he may have been a criminal all this time.”
Briony took a deep breath. Her mind was starting to piece itself back together and analyze the situation, but certain things weren’t adding up. “I know as much about this as you do. He never told me anything to suggest he was involved in…something like this.”
“Mr. Mendes is such a kind soul. He would never try to murder someone, much less a king,” Adaira said.
“I would na be so certain,” Dr. Sherwin argued. “How much do we really know about the man after all? He could have been playing us fer fools, gaining our trust, just to—”
