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scraped the ceiling as he advanced upon the bed, and
his countenance was too long and bony to be
immediately
pleasing.
But
Emmelina,
having
determined not to remarry upon encountering the first
man to cross her path, did not hold his looming
presence
or
un-pruned
eyebrows
against
him.
Thinking he might need something to steady his
nerves, she offered him a glass of port.
“No, I thank you.” He exchanged a look with the
housekeeper before bending over the earl. “My lady, I
have been your husband’s physician these many years
and know him to have enjoyed the most robust
health.”
“Doctor, I was telling you as how she confessed to
...” At the lift of his knobby hand, Mrs. McMurky fell
silent.
“My husband died with honor, in the performance
of his manly duty.” Emmelina squeezed out a tear.
“Indeed,
it
would
seem
to
me
he
should
be
posthumously awarded a medal, as are other gallant
men who fall upon the field of battle.”
“Balderdash!”
The
doctor
whipped
off
the
bedclothes to leave the late earl exposed to the chill
that had descended upon the room. “His lordship was
incapable of such action. The last time he saw battle
he lost the family jewels.”
“I hardly see what that has to say to anything!”
171
Emmelina responded roundly. But when she turned
her magnificent orbs to where his lordship’s nightshirt
was lifted to reveal those most private parts of his
person, she perceived with much lowering of spirits
that he was missing certain baubles which, if all men
are created equal, might not be of any great rarity, but
which must needs have been present for her story to
have possessed the ring of truth.
“But I thought him to have meant ...” Delicacy
forbade Emmelina’s endeavoring to explain further,
that she had understood his lordship to mean that the
necessary equipment was present if not operational.
What a wet goose she was! So this was what was
meant by missing in action!
“Murderess!” The housekeeper was hugging the
bedpost and dancing a jig in venomous ecstasy.
“Couldn’t content yourself with being a hussy, could
you?”
“I do declare, Mrs. McMurky, I have not a notion
what you are talking about!”
“Don’t make me laugh!” The unearthly cackle blew
out a couple of candles. “You poisoned the old goa ...
dear’s port!”
“No!” Emmelina had never mastered the art of
talking and swooning at the same time. Was it possible
that she had been too unstinting with the laudanum?
“And if I b’ain’t missing the mark, you did away
with Hugh.”
“Who?”
“The fifth earl. Very peculiar it was him having that
riding accident, and him jumping before he was out of
leading strings.”
“Hanging’s too good for her!” The doctor’s lips
flapped with fury.
Vastly
cheered
by
this
reasonable
approach,
Emmelina would have embraced a lifetime diet of
bread and water, but before she could bat her
eyelashes, Mrs. McMurky had drawn a coil of rope
from the bowels of her skirt pocket and was tying her
to the bedpost in the manner of one who would have
enjoyed watching her burn at the stake like Joan of
Arc. There was, alas, no appealing to Dr. Leech, for he
was off into the night gloom to seek the assistance of
the Justice of the Peace, a crusty gentleman of the old
school who had never been known to get out of bed on
the right side in forty years.
172
* * * *
It was with a melancholy hope of any continuance,
that Emmelina awakened the next morning in one of
the dungeons of Foulwell Castle, which served the
county as a makeshift prison until such time as a
habitation even more incommodious could be built.
After waiting in vain for the arrival of her morning
chocolate, she determined to bear her misfortunes
bravely. But the prospect from her barred window,
being a wall that even the ivy seemed loath to climb,
was
not
conducive
to
merriment.
And
the
wretchedness of the room she shared with at least
forty of the great unwashed soon made itself felt. There
were no portraits upon the walls nor any carpets upon
the floor. When she went in search of the bell rope in
order to summon the butler that he might have a word
with the upstairs maid about the chamber pots that
appeared not to have been emptied in a sennight, she
discovered there was no bell rope.
“What do you think this is, Hampton Court?” A
toothless crone, swatched in rags, broke into gales of
mirth.
“You leave ‘er be.” A younger woman with frowzy
red hair sidled up to Emmelina and stroked her
ringlets. “The good thing about being ‘anged is that
they don’t chop off your ‘air, like what they do when
they use the ax.”
Emmelina stopped squealing only when she felt
someone picking through the folds of her gown. “Don’t
let me bother you, love,” an urchin faced girl of about
her own age said.
“I’m just lookin’ for fleas. We have races with them,
don’t you know. Helps pass the time.”
“ ‘Ush up, everyone,” bellowed another voice. “ ‘Ere
comes Mr. ‘Orrible with our grub.”
The fellow who brought in the bowls of slop did not
resemble any butler Emmelina had ever encountered.
There was a fiendish look to his eye and she was [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]