Page 87 of The Curse of Penryth Hall
“What?!” I’m not sure whether Ruan or I said the word first. The pair of us equally incredulous at the suggestion.
“She’s nearly killed half the village in some sort of misguided sense of vengeance!”
Tamsyn shifted Jori in her lap. “You can’t say Edward didn’t deserve it for what he did. He was a murderer. Can you truly bear to see a woman hanged for meting out the justice that was denied her?”
I huffed out my breath. “Yes, well, that would have all been fine and well had she not nearly killed me and poor Miss Smythe in the process with her damned poisons! Why did you poison us, anyway?”
“It was an accident, both of you. Neither you nor Nellie were meant to eat the pasties.”
“No, because I was,” Tamsyn whispered. Her eyes fixed on the floor. “Wasn’t I, Mrs. Martin?”
Mrs. Martin nodded.
“Dorothea was supposed to take some to the vicarage at first. But when that failed, I had her bring some here.”
The vicar? At last the final piece snapped into place. “So the boys weren’t supposed to be harmed either.”
Alice shook her head. “No. That terrible man. He’s the reason my son is dead. Had he not told George the truth of his birth and used it against Sir Edward… then none of this would have occurred. But when Jago and Charles stumbled upon me in the woods… I… I thought I could frighten them away but—Oh God, what have I done?”
I had no sympathy left for her, at least not anymore. “You could have killed them. All of them. And had Mrs. Penroseeaten one of the pasties, you’d have killed your oldest friend too. As it is, you’ve nearly made a murderer of her.”
“Ruby… let her finish her tale,” Tamsyn warned.
Alice blanched, her hands going to her throat. “I hadn’t thought of that. But Dorothea never cared for parsnips. That’s what gave me the idea in the first place. It’s why I gave her the water hemlock. I knew she’d mistake the two and put it out for supper for Sir Edward. It would have been so neat and tidy.”
“Except I was there…”
She nodded. “Sir Edward left the house and went for air. He often took a turn in the gardens in the evening. But for some reason he went out into the orchard. I’d only meant to watch him die. To make sure he knew I was the one who’d done it. But I couldn’t help myself… I… cut him, and then I came back for his wife…”
“I’ve heard enough.” These were not the doings of a sad woman. These were the actions of a monster. Surely Tamsyn had to see this. I cast a glance to her, but her expression remained as unreadable as before.
“You cannot take vengeance in your own hands, Alice. No matter how richly deserved,” Ruan said softly. At least someone in this room saw reason.
“Where were you going to take Jori?” Tamsyn asked, ignoring both Ruan and me.
“America.”
She was thinking, twisting one of Jori’s curls around her forefinger, before she turned to Alice. “Then go. Take your husband and start over. Away from this place and all of us.”
“Tamsyn, you can’t possibly think to let her go.”
“Her guilt will eat away at her more than any prison cell could manage.”
As the sense of panic fled my body, it was replaced byanother headier emotion—exhaustion. Every second of the last twenty-four hours had etched itself deep into my bones, and I had no will to argue with her. Not anymore.
“If we go along with this mad scheme—and I am not saying we are—” I held up a hand. Ruan furrowed his brow. “How on earth are we going to explain this?”
Tamsyn stood, shifting the weight of her now-sleeping child in her arms. Clueless to the devastation that almost occurred in his name. Or rather, his true father’s name. “It’s the curse, of course. The Curse of Penryth Hall. No one will question it. Will they, Pellar?”
Ruan shook his head, raking his dark curls back with his left hand.
No. No, I supposed they wouldn’t.
“It’s settled then. You’ll go to America and we will find a way to begin again.”
Tamsyn had changed this week into someone else entirely. Soft on the outside, but with an inner core sterner than I’d ever realized her capable of being. Or perhaps—she hadn’t changed at all, it was I who had changed, finally seeing her for who she was, who she’d always been.
“I can see why he loved you, my lady. And I wish…” Alice blinked back her tears. Eyes glassy. “I wish things could have been different for all of us.”
