Chapter 14
“THERE’S NO need for you to worry, my girl,” Edna added. “Mr. Dalton will die, and you will find happiness again.”
“What are you talking about? I don’t want Rick to die. And I certainly won’t be happy if he does.” Alex rushed to Edna and grabbed both her shoulders. Rick’s talk about poison was nonsense. This was Edna—her Edna—the woman who’d cared for her after her own mother had died. “We’ve got to stop whatever’s happening to him. Help me, Edna. Please?”
Edna’s blue eyes sparked in the lamplight. “I’m sorry, my girl. We can’t stop the poison. But you needn’t worry. This is the right course. He won’t be able to hurt you anymore.”
Ivy jumped onto the bed next to where Rick lay. Her fur lit up like a ball of lightning.
“What is this?” Aunt Pauline’s voice whispered over the air.
“Something to help you sleep,” Edna said.
“I don’t want to sleep!”
Glass crashed.
“Pouring the rest out won’t stop the Monk’s Bane. You already feel it, don’t you?”
Cold plummeted through Alex’s core. She clenched Edna’s arms. “You killed Aunt Pauline?”
“Yes, dear.”
“How could you?”
Edna smiled gently. “I loved you. Loved Fay. I couldn’t let her keep hurting the two of you.”
Rick groaned. It was a rough, guttural sound that rumbled from deep inside him, pulling, it seemed, at a similar place inside Alex. She hurried back to him and placed her hand on top of where his hand rested on his stomach. His fingers felt like dry icicles. “Please, Edna. Tell me how to help him!”
Edna clasped Alex’s shoulder. “It’s best to just let it be, my girl. See how it is with Louis? He struggles some, but he is better off without that man, and he knows it. You will know it too.”
“What are you saying?”
“She’s saying she killed Mr. Godfrey as well as your aunt,” Rick whispered. He struggled to sit upright but finally flopped back against the bed.
Alex clasped Rick’s cold hand in both of hers and gaped up at her beloved nanny. Edna, not Louis, must have been responsible for the dead plant she and Rick had found at the Godfrey’s house. And the ants. “You couldn’t have done that, could you? You didn’t even know Jeremiah Godfrey.”
“I’d seen enough of him at community events and such, how he treated Louis, and how the boy feared him. He was just like Pauline. Like my mother too. They all had the same evil in their eyes. You understand me, don’t you, my girl? I couldn’t bear to see that evil any longer. Their eyes had to close forever, and I knew how to make that happen.”
Alex’s fingers trembled. She couldn’t blink, could hardly breathe, but at the same time anger, hot and protective, built up inside her like a keg of pressurized explosives. Something was wrong with Edna. Maybe she needed a doctor’s care. But Alex could not—would not—let whatever that wrongness was kill Rick. She scanned the room. She had to find a way to get them out of there before he—No! Rick will not die!
Rick must have read her expression, because he slipped his hand out from under hers and placed it on top of her forearm. His touch was cooler than usual, but it was still steady and calm. He was dying, and yet he was still trying to comfort her.
“Did you mix the poison in their food like you did mine?” Rick asked Edna.
“It was easy enough to slip the Monk’s Bane into Mr. Godfrey’s refreshment after the ball game,” Edna said. “It doesn’t mix as well in lemonade as it does in tea, but as you shall soon see, both liquids can do the job.”
Alex stood, whirled, placed herself like a shield between them. “Edna! Richard Dalton is my husband.”
Edna slowly shook her head. “Your marriage is only a temporary inconvenience, dearest. I learned two things when my mother cultivated Monk’s Bane and poisoned my brothers and sister with it. I think, as a scientist, you will understand such learning.”
Alex’s insides cringed backward, but she stiffened her stance. She glanced at the locked door. “Tell me how to save him.”
“The first thing I learned,” Edna said, “is if I could overcome my fear enough to take daily sips of Monk’s Bane tea, I could develop an immunity to it. I sometimes wonder if my mother died proud of what I’d learned or angry because I had rid myself of her before she’d rid herself of me.” Edna sighed. “And two, one needn’t be bound to misery all of one’s life. A person can make changes. I’m helping you make those changes.”
Alex lunged toward the door, but Edna stopped her mid stride. Her grip viced around her arm. Had the woman always been that strong?
“Did you poison my food too?”
“Just enough to calm you so you could sleep through the night.”
The hair on the back of Alex’s neck stood. “I won’t let you kill Rick.” She yanked her arm from Edna’s grasp and raced to the door. She pounded on it, turned the knob back and forth. “Help! We need a doctor! Someone get the police!”
Edna squeezed Alex’s shoulder and pulled her away from the door. “There’s no need to make such a fuss, my girl. Mr. Dalton will be gone in a few minutes, and everything will be put right. Why don’t you let me make you some tea to calm your nerves until he is gone?” She chuckled. “I don’t mean Monk’s Bane tea, of course.”
“I don’t want more tea” Alex spat. She rushed back to Rick and again placed the back of her hand against his forehead. Though sweat pooled along his hairline, his skin felt even cooler than before. She pulled a folded blanket out from under his feet and draped it over him.
“Thank you, luv.” His whisper faded into a groan.
“Please let me out of here, Edna. I’ve got to get help.” She yelled the last word. “Can’t you see how wrong this is?”
Edna took the chair above where Ivy hid—Ivy scrambled under the bureau—and slid it next to the door. She sat and clasped her hands in her lap. “Destroying evil isn’t wrong.”
Rick coughed. Alex slid her arm under his shoulders, lifted him slightly upright, and pulled the blanket to his mouth. Perhaps the warm air would soothe his cough.
“I love you.” Rick’s mouth barely moved, but his eyes clung to Alex’s gaze. She touched the artery at his throat and pressed her hand against his chest. His heart still pulsed, but not strongly the way she remembered it. She had to do something to help him now or it would be too late, but what?
Her mind raced over every plant she knew, both natural and preternatural. Crimsonica? It could pull heat out of the earth, but could it pull poison from a body? Syllitac? What about Aloe vera? Nothing. No, there has to be something! Her thoughts paused. In my room.
Alex laid Rick against the pillow and charged at Edna. She grabbed her arms. “You know that poison. You must know its antidote.”
Edna broke free from Alex’s grasp and slapped her across the face. “There is no antidote! Now sit down. I taught you how to behave better than that.”
Alex fell backward. Her head hit the table next to the bed. Her ears rang.
“Oh, my dearest girl!” Edna bent over her and clasped her hand between hers. “You startled me, and—please forgive me.”
Alex gaped. Were those real tears in Edna’s eyes? After all Edna had done, did she truly care for her? If so, maybe Alex could manipulate that affection. “Edna, please don’t let Rick die. We’ve had troubles, it’s true, but he’s my friend—the best friend I’ve ever had. If you kill him, you will hurt me more than anyone ever has.”
Edna’s pupils wavered. Her cheeks blanched. “Don’t lie to me.”
Alex pulled herself to her feet. “I’m not lying.”
Edna edged backward. She shook her head. “It’s not true.”
No longer thinking, only feeling, Alex gathered all her pent-up emotions, sat next to Rick, and kissed him squarely on the mouth. Rick’s hands moved to her waist, but she didn’t flinch. Instead, she slid her arms tightly around his neck and pressed her body against his. His hands mov
ed weakly to her back. Their lips clung together. They clung so long that loneliness Alex hadn’t known she felt surged from within her. Tears filled her eyes.
At last, she pulled away from him. His gaze bore into hers but she looked away, looked at Edna. Edna’s chin quivered.
“Please, Edna. I love him.”
Edna shook her head. “It’s too late.”
Crashes. Thuds. Pounding on the door.
“Help!” Alex yelled. “Please, help!”
The door broke open off its hinges. Four policemen ran into the room. Two grabbed Edna. The other two ran to Rick.
Louis charged into the room after them. He gaped from Edna to Alex and then to Rick. “Is Mr. Dalton dead?”
Alex didn’t wait to hear the officers who were working over him answer. She raced to her bedroom and grabbed the jar from the top of the wardrobe. She didn’t like it. Rick wouldn’t like it. But Vera believed in it. And, well, he had saved Ivy. “Alistair! You’re our only hope.”
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