The Hourglass

by Barbara Metzger

  “Poor Campbell.”

  Genie sighed at the state of that affair, or her own. “There is nothing she can do for me anyway.”

  And nothing anyone could do for Ardeth now. He poured out two glasses of wine and offered Genie one. “Have a sip of wine. Get rid of the bad taste.”

  She took a tiny swallow, while he downed half his glass. “I am so sorry,” she said, near to tears.

  “It is not your fault.” He set down his glass and sat on the bed beside her, rubbing her hands, which still felt clammy. “Try to sleep. You will feel better in the morning.”

  She sighed again, half a moan. “It does not feel that way.”

  “Shall I stay?”

  “No, I am too embarrassed that you had to see me like this.”

  “Do not be foolish. You saw me bleeding and unconscious.”

  Beads of perspiration formed on her forehead. “Just go. I think I am going to be—” She was, missing his bare feet by inches. He grabbed up the chamber pot and supported her shoulders, holding her hair back.

  When she appeared to be finished, he asked if she wanted some tea or plain water.

  She tried to smile. “No, I had a glass of milk before, to help me relax.”

  He noticed the half-empty glass on her bedside table. “Well, that did not seem to work.”

  “It did not taste good. My stomach was already queasy.”

  “Should I… help you sleep?”

  “No! I will be fine in the morning, as you said. Or in a few months. That is what Mrs. Newberry told me, anyway.”

  He put another blanket on her, more because his own feet were cold than because she looked chilled. In fact, her face was flushed and damp with sweat. He supposed he ought to get her into a clean, dry nightgown, but he thought the sight of her naked, now-untouchable body might very well have him in tears, too. He kissed her cheek and said, “I will go get my slippers and a book and come back to stay with you.”

  “It is not necessary.” Her eyes were already drifting shut.

  “It is to me.”

  He went back to his room, then remembered he’d shut the bird away in the sitting room, the bird that had kept nattering on about him cutting himself. “Ar nick,” or something like that.

  “Ar nick?” Not a shaving cut? He ran into the sitting room, stubbing his toe on a footstool, and found the crow huddled on the curtain rod.

  “Arsenic? Did you mean arsenic?” he shouted.

  “Ar’nic.” Olive’s head bobbed.

  “Who? Who?”

  Olive tried to turn his head around like an owl.

  “No, damn it.” Ardeth shook his fist up in the air. “Who did it?”

  Olive flapped his wings. “Snell did.”

  “You smelled it? Damn!”

  Ardeth did not take the time to find his slippers or his shoes, but tore out of the room and down the corridor, down the stairs, down another flight, then another. Where was the ability to float through walls when he needed it, the traveling through time and space in a blink of an eye? His solid flesh could do nothing but hurtle down stairs and along dark corridors. He took a wrong turn and had to backtrack through a portrait gallery of prigs in fancy dress who could not possibly have been his ancestors. Who the devil were they, and why did he ever think he needed a barracks so huge? Finally he reached the kitchens. The rooms were empty, as he should have realized, with everyone out in the barn. He opened doors and drawers and cupboards until he found what he was looking for, the cook’s stock of stillroom supplies. Yes, the arsenic was there, carefully marked. Every household had some, to get rid of vermin. Some ladies used it in making cosmetics, the morons.

  He also found what he needed to counteract the poison. Although arsenic was called the widow maker, he had not had much experience with this end of it and could only hope he had the right ingredients. He tossed the stuff into a bowl, added water from the pump, and then ran back up the stairs and endless corridors, cursing the house, the Devil, his bare feet, and whoever did this to his wife.

  She was shivering, and noticeably weaker. “Here, my love, drink this.”

  “You called me your… love.”

  The woman was poisoned and she wanted to talk about semantics? “What of it? We can speak about that in the morning. Just drink this.”

  Her nose wrinkled at the smell. “Will it make me feel better?”

  He could not lie. “No, but it will rid your stomach of what is making you so ill.”

  “Then it is not the baby causing it?”

  The baby and her poor weak stomach likely saved her life. Ardeth decided he could lie after all, rather than frighten her while she was so wretched. “No, others are sick, too. Something must have been rancid in one of the dishes at dinner.”

  She drank his potion and was indeed sicker, until he was certain her stomach was empty. Then he gave her a sip of the wine he knew was safe because he’d suffered no ill effects. He did pull the silk gown off her and wrapped her in his own thick robe. He was too concerned to notice her body or his own nakedness. Cold determination doused any sparks of desire, and hot fury kept him warm.

  He held her in his arms until she fell into an exhausted sleep on her own. He knew how she feared his trance-making, and lud knew, she had enough to fear without that.

  When he was certain she would not awaken, he laid her down and went into his own room to dress. A shirt, trousers, his black cape, boots—that was enough. He told the gremlin crow to watch over the lady while he was gone.

  “If anyone but I or Miss Hadley or Marie tries to enter, peck out his eyes.”

  “Eye eye?”

  Ardeth saluted back.

  He terrified Miss Hadley by pounding on her door. “Good grief, you nearly frightened me to death.”

  “Death does not do that,” he said, then added, “I need you to stay with Lady Ardeth while she sleeps. She is ill.”

  Miss Hadley noted his boots and cape and thought he was going to ride for help. “But they said there was no physician in the vicinity.”

  “She does not need a doctor, only a watchdog.”

  The party in the barn was ending, hurried along by the sudden storm that seemed to reach a thunderous crescendo when the master strode across the packed dirt to Mr. Spotford’s side. With the music stopped, everyone could hear Lord Ardeth order Spotty to send the guests home, but to reassemble the entire staff.

  “I want to know everyone who was in the kitchens, everyone who brought food upstairs.”

  Now the servants began to recall those rumors trickling from London of his lordship’s madness. If he was this difficult on his first night in residence, they would all be looking for other positions. The tenant farmers and the villagers and the field workers scrambled to leave, in spite of the driving rain. They’d rather face the elements than the wrath of the mercurial nobleman who was kind and caring one moment, raging like the thunder outside the next. And hadn’t they heard he’d appeared at that last battle during just such a storm?

  Mr. Spotford tried to smooth the troubled waters. “Here, now, Cousin. Everyone has to be up early in the morning for their chores. Whatever questions you have can surely wait.”

  With cold lightning in his voice, Ardeth said, “You speak to them now, every single one. Find out who brought my wife a glass of tainted milk. You tell them that if any harm befalls her, tonight or till doomsday, I will tear this place down, brick by brick. I will burn whatever is left to the ground, and all the fields and farms. No one will have a job, a home, or a pension if Lady Ardeth suffers. And tell them that no one will benefit from my death, either, for none of you is now or ever will be named my heir.”

  Those nearby were looking at him fearfully. The vicar’s daughters were clinging to one another.

  Spotford tried to hide his disquiet. “I say, Cousin, there is no call to be so grim at the party. Neither myself nor my sons ever had expectations of inheriting anything from you. Not in line for the title, by Jupiter, never have been, or for any entailment
on the lands. And I am certain no one means any harm to your lovely lady. We all fell in love with her on the instant, didn’t we?” He looked around, seeking support, and everyone was quick to nod. “If the milk had turned bad, well, such things happen.”

  Ardeth pulled the arsenic bottle out of his pocket. “They happen more when someone adds poison to it.”

  Miss Calverton fainted. Someone screamed and was shushed, so the others could listen. Campbell pushed his way to his master’s side, a pitchfork in his hand.

  Marie ran forward, crying. “My lady! My lady! She lives?” At Ardeth’s nod she crossed herself, then said, “I brought the milk to her myself, monsieur. I poured it myself from the pitcher.”

  “Who saw you?”

  “Almost no one. The kitchens were empty with everyone in the barn.”

  “And you never took your eyes off it?”

  “I left it outside her door in case you had finished your bath, and you and she…” She shrugged.

  “And you saw no one in the hall?”

  Spotford asked, “Who would be abovestairs at this time of night except personal servants like your man and her ladyship’s maid? Everyone else was here.”

  Ardeth’s valet stepped out of the crowd, wringing his hands. “I knew I should have stayed after tidying up after my lord’s bath instead of joining the frolicking here. I should have been more vigilant.”

  “Do not feel badly. You would not have seen someone tamper with the glass outside Lady Ardeth’s chamber.”

  “No, but I could have shaved milord.”

  Ardeth decided to consider a different valet when he had time. “Who else could have been near our rooms?”

  He looked around. As far as he knew, the entire staff was present. Every one of them, from butler to knife-boy, looked anxious and curious. No one looked guilty or avoided his eyes. Then someone shouted, “Where’s Snell?”

  “Who the deuce is Snell?” Ardeth asked Spotford. “I do not recall the name from the introductions this morning.”

  Spotford was craning his neck, searching through the crowd. “That would be my son’s man. Has an elegant touch with a neckcloth, Snell does. He came back with Fernell’s baggage, he did.”

  Ardeth pounded his fist into his thigh. “His name is Snell? As in ‘Snell did’? Not ‘smelled it’? Bloody hell.”

  Now they all thought he was demented. Dangerous and deranged, and the devil take him for ruining their evening and most likely their comfortable lives.

  Ardem did not care what they thought. “Find the man. And find him before I do, or he’ll be hanging by his own damned elegant neckcloth.”

  Chapter 26

  “I say,” came an affected drawl from the barn door, “if you are finished killing the fatted calf for the prodigal’s return, Pater, perhaps someone could take my horse.”

  The young man in the doorway was indeed holding the reins of a fractious brute, scattering the departing cottagers. He was about five and twenty, Ardefh thought, handsome despite being wet from the storm. The rain did not explain his disheveled appearance, his shirt hanging out of his waistcoat, his neckcloth draped around his neck, his hat missing altogether. Perhaps the brute of a stallion behind him explained the mud on his breeches. Or perhaps the fact that he was swaying on his feet, wearing a foolish grin, could account for it all. The man was foxed, and looked like he was going to lead the skittish, unruly horse right into the crowd of guests.

  Ardeth strode to the door and took the reins from the gudgeon’s hand. In a bare moment, he had the big horse calm and rubbing its damp muzzle on Ardeth’s shoulder. The earl gestured for one of the stupefied grooms—the fiddle player—to lead the horse away. Then he turned back to the rider, whose mouth was hanging open. “Mr. Fernell Spotford, I gather.”

  “ ‘Pon rep, if the tales ain’t true,” the young man said, belatedly making a bow. “My lord.”

  Before Ardeth could say another word—and he had several in mind—the elder Spotford had his son’s arm and was leading him to an empty corner of the barn where they might have a bit of privacy. “I like gossip about the family as little as you do, Cousin,” he told Ardeth.

  The earl gestured to Campbell, who still appeared ready to stick the pitchfork into anyone who looked sideways. “Get them all out of here,” Ardeth ordered, “and organize a search for that man Snell.”

  “I say, did you mention Snell?” Fernell said with a giggle. “Old jaw-me-dead will be furious I ruined another suit of clothes.” He looked down at the mud and scuffs. “Had to get here in time, though, to greet the nabob.”

  Richard Spotford came over with a mug of something hot. Fernell made a face at it until Richard said, “You are going to need this, Brother.”

  When all of the people had left, Ardeth would have hanged Fernell by his collar from a peg on the barn’s beams until he had his answers. But one of the dairymen approached, holding his hat and tugging on his forelock. “Pardon, Mr. Spotford, but would it be all right if I brung the cows back into the barn?” He jerked his head toward the door. “Devilish night out there for man or beast. Sure and the milk will be bad in the morning.”

  The milk was bad enough tonight, Ardeth recalled, outraged all over again.

  Spotford started to tell the man to go ahead and bring in the cows, then caught himself. “With your permission, Cousin.”

  Ardeth nodded, not taking his eyes off Fernell, who was still teetering on his feet. Ardeth pushed him to sit on a bale of hay where the musicians had been standing, before the jackass could fall down. “Where have you been?”

  “Why, to Bath, as I told the governor. Deuced boring place. Then I went to Wally Wintercross’s place for the shooting. Didn’t hit a thing. Meant to get here sooner, but there was a pretty barmaid at the Black Dog, and a cockfight in Upper Rutley.”

  “You have not been to London?”

  Fernell looked up from trying to brush some of the mud off his breeches. “I say, I apologize for not being here to welcome you, Cuz, but that’s not a crime, is it, that I should be facing the Inquisition?” He tried to laugh, which was hard with large, strong fingers around his throat.

  “Were you in London,” Ardeth asked again, “at Hampstead Heath, say, a short while ago?”

  Mr. Spotford clutched at Ardeth’s hand, trying to loosen his grip on Fernell. “You cannot be thinking my son had anything to do with that duel, can you?”

  “There was no duel,” Ardeth said, staring into Fernell’s eyes before letting go, “only a coward, firing from behind.”

  Fernell coughed, then held up his hands. “I ain’t no good with firearms, everyone can tell you. Just ask old Wally.”

  “What about your valet?”

  “Snell? He ain’t invited to go out shooting with the gentlemen. Bad form, don’t you know.”

  “Where is he now?”

  “How should I know? I ain’t been up to the house. Ask Aunt Frieda. Her maid and Snell are thick as inkle weavers.”

  “He has not come forward.”

  “You mean he ain’t here?” Fernell looked to his brother for confirmation. “Demme, did my baggage get lost? I had a brand-new waistcoat I was going to wear tomorrow with dragonflies embroidered on it. All the crack, don’t you know.” He eyed Ardeth’s white shirt, with no waistcoat at all. “I suppose not.”

  Richard answered, “Your bags arrived with your valet. He has become least in sight since then.”

  “Blast. Who is going to help me off with my clothes and see to my wardrobe tomorrow? And the man had a way with boots. Used twenty ingredients for his special formula to polish ‘em.”

  Ardeth saw Spotford and Richard look at each other, disturbed that their relative’s valet was so familiar with apothecaries and chemists.

  Ardeth said, “My man will assist you. He might be looking for another job anyway.”

  Fernell looked at Ardeth’s own haphazard dress and wrinkled his nose. “Not up to my standards. The Beau of the Valley, don’t you know.”

 
Ardeth turned away in disgust.

  “Where do you think Snell is now?” Spotford asked his son. “There’s been a bit of trouble and his absence is suspicious.”

  “How the deuce should I know where valets go when they leave? I’d have thought he’d stick around until I could ask you for an advance on next quarter’s allowance, so I could pay him.”

  Spotford shook his head. “You’re already three-quarters overspent.”

  “Chap’s got to put up the right appearance, eh? That takes a lot of blunt. Which reminds me, I better go check my luggage, see he did not carry off my snuffboxes or something to pawn.”

  He stood, but Ardeth pushed him back down. “Why would you want to harm my wife?”

  “Harm the woman? I don’t even know her. Thought I’d wear my new waistcoat to meet her tomorrow.”

  Ardeth made a sound like a growl, but managed to keep his hands from the fribble’s throat. “Someone must have told the valet to act. Servants do not go around poisoning their mistresses for no reason.”

  “Poison, you say?”

  “In her milk.”

  “Never touch the stuff myself.”

  “Why?” Ardeth demanded, as loud as the thunder outside.

  “It’s catlap.”

  “Damn you, why would your valet try to poison my wife?”

  Now Fernell picked straw from his sleeve. “S’pose I might have mentioned how the purse strings could tighten with you and the countess in residence. No bringing the chaps home for a game of dice, either. She’ll be turning the place into a nursery. Building schools, they say. Faugh. Maybe he thought to frighten her off, that’s all.”

  Ardeth was not convinced. Nor was he completely convinced of Fernell’s sincerity. The man spoke too clearly for a drunk, and his eyes, shifting from Ardeth to his father and brother, focused too well. Besides, he never asked if the poison had succeeded. No, he was more worried about having his neckcloth properly starched than having a healthy countess.

  “Asides,” Fernell asked now, “who says Snell committed the deed?”

  “Someone saw him.”

  “Could be someone else trying to shift the blame, eh? Seems to me Snell is too downy a cove to do something havey-cavey in front of witnesses.”