by Beth Byers
There was nothing that was worthy of note. Vi pulled out the small drawer in the trunk where Margaret kept her stockings. She frowned and glanced at Denny who was looking away as though stockings were somehow quite lurid. Vi laughed at him and shoved the stockings back when she felt something that wasn’t silk. Vi pulled the stockings out and found a pile of letters. She glanced through them, noting that they were love letters from the useless Wenzel Wagner.
She didn’t read them, though she wanted to. Wenzel had not been the one who poisoned Margaret. “Perhaps Ruth.”
Vi’s voice had been low, but Denny asked, “What now?”
Vi put the letters back and said, “I could see Wenzel having tried to poison Ruth but not Margaret.”
“Why?” Denny stared at Vi as though she’d taken leave of her senses.
“He’s jealous of her, I think,” Vi told him. “Or at least I could see him being jealous of the twin.”
“Jack isn’t jealous of Victor,” Denny told Vi easily. “Why should Wenzel be jealous of Ruth?”
Vi lifted a brow and said, “Jack isn’t Wenzel.”
Denny eyed Vi and asked, “Are you jealous of Kate?”
Vi paused, actually thinking it over and then said honestly, “At times, yes.”
“Are you really?” Denny gasped.
“I miss the days when I could just barge into Victor’s room and throw myself on his bed. I suppose, even though I wouldn’t go back, I miss when Victor and I woke in the same nursery and spent the day in mischief.”
“I miss those days myself,” Denny said easily, and she could see that he understood. It wasn’t that either of them wanted to go back. It was just that there were occasional moments of longing for the simpler times. “We shared a room so often as schoolboys. He woke up mischievous some days and then I’d know those days would be full of excitement.”
Vi sighed and said, “I wonder how she could have been poisoned.”
“Surely, it was in her food?”
Vi didn’t object. It seemed likely enough. “We had dinner together, in the dining room.” A moment later, “But the coffee.”
Vi could see it then. Someone could have poisoned the coffee that Vi had sent to the room. She was almost blinded by her fury at the idea. Her intentional kindness used to hurt the poor woman, perhaps murder her.
They searched the room more fully and Vi turned to Denny. “What do you think, my friend?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I can never figure out things like you and Jack and Ham, Vi.”
Violet sighed and said, “There’s nothing here.”
“Shall we leave before your Baldwin sends for Jack?”
“I suppose we should change and go to dinner,” Violet muttered.
They separated in the hall and when Baldwin knocked on the door, Vi swung it wide, showing that Denny wasn’t present. He looked in and then glanced at Vi. “Never mind. I’ll be eating in the dining room instead.”
He wasn’t pleased but he simply said, “Very good.”
Vi dressed without thinking about her clothes. She almost didn’t pay attention to what she put on other than to see it was black. She wore black for the twins who may well have but one survive. It would be better, Violet thought, to have them both die rather than one survive. She knew it was the blue outlook that plagued her, but it wasn’t as though either of them had anything other than their twin. A father who didn’t protect, a mother who told them to placate, a philandering husband on the one hand, and an abusive one on the other.
Vi put on a bright red lip to go with her black dress. It was intended to be an insult to her outlook, a denial of what was happening. Her gaze was fixed inside of herself, so she didn’t see Jack until she felt his touch on her arm. Vi gasped, though she knew him the moment he touched her.
“I thought you were procuring a confession.”
“There is no such confession to be had. For some time now, they’ve both refused to speak other than to insult.”
Vi examined his face. He seemed tired, and she cupped his cheek. “Have you been back to the sick bay?”
“I left for a while,” Vi admitted. “Denny and I tried searching Margaret’s cabin, but there is nothing there to be seen.”
“She seems to be waking,” Jack said. “Nanny Jane thinks she’ll survive.”
“Oh!” Vi grinned easily. “What wonderful news. Is Ruth any better?”
“She has sat up. She can’t speak yet, but her pain is lessening. She brightened considerably when Nanny said her sister seemed better.”
“Oh!” Violet wound her arm through his. “Shall we go to the cabin, have a private dinner, and go to bed early? Perhaps in the morning we can walk around the ship and take in the air?”
“Violet, darling,” Jack pulled her into an offshoot of a passage that seemed to be going to a less busy side of the ship. They were able to stay in the shadows as others passed by on the way to dinner. “Liam says he will speak, if he speaks to you.”
“To me?” Vi’s mouth had dropped open in utter shock. “Why me?”
Jack shook his head and then admitted, “I don’t think it’s you, Vi. He does not like me very much. Refusing to answer my questions in favor of yourself is his revenge.”
Vi examined his face and asked, “Are you all right, Jack?”
“I should like to beat this Liam within an inch of his life and finish by wringing his neck.”
Violet waited, but Jack seemed conflicted. She finally said, “Jack darling, we owe it to ourselves to see if we can find out what happened to these women. What if they live? What if they live and it is expected that they go home to men such as those? I can’t abide that. Not if I don’t do what I can.”
Jack kissed her forehead. “I am entirely unsurprised.”
“Am I so predictable?”
“Vi, darling.” Jack rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and then surprised them both by a laugh. “Vi, you joke that I am a knight, fighting for the weak, but it is you.”
She rolled her eyes and said, “I am not talking to that man in an evening gown without dinner.”
“Then shall we have some? We can eat in our cabin.” Jack wasn’t wearing evening clothes and she considered ordering dinner to her cabin, but remembered the look on Baldwin’s face and imagined requesting dinner from him once again.
She laughed at the thought and was forced to confess what she had done. Jack listened without surprise and told her, “You’ll gain a reputation, my dear.”
“I believe I already have one on this ship,” Vi told him easily. “You, good sir, are a man cuckolded, and I am an interfering meddler who strays.”
“Interfering meddler, yes,” Jack agreed. “Incurably so, but not so unkind as to break my heart.”
“Never,” Vi promised.
He rolled his eyes at her and she grinned unrepentantly. “I am a man besieged by a very particular devil.”
Chapter 13
Liam Hanson was a man enraged. The only reason he didn’t attack, Vi thought, is because of the stewards standing with their arms folded. The stewards had dark looks that said they had moved quite past any sympathy they might have had.
Vi took a seat opposite him. “Mr. Hanson, I wasn’t very kind earlier today.” She was channeling Kate, and it was quite foreign to her.
He glared at her as Vi sat across from him. “They think your wife will live.”
A relieved expression crossed his face and he slumped into his chair. “Do they? I thought I had lost her.”
Vi very much hoped that he had, but she said, “I can imagine that you’re relieved. Hopefully we can come together now and figure out what happened to her and how to protect her again.”
He examined Vi’s face, but since he didn’t know her, he didn’t see her disgust. Violet rubbed her brow, feeling a growing headache and asked kindly, “Have you eaten?”
He scowled and nodded. Vi glanced towards Jack and saw his expression. He was protective and unhappy she was present.<
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“Tell me all about it,” Vi said. “Why did you go to England?”
“It’s part of our arrangement with their father. When he invested in the company, he wanted us to come back and update him on the company.”
For a moment there, Violet thought that the twins’ father might have insisted because he wanted to see his daughters. She sighed in disappointment for the twins and then asked, “And how long was your visit?”
“A fortnight,” he said. He shot her a furious glance and said, “What does that have to do with someone trying to murder my Maggie?”
Violet shrugged and pretended to be needy and a little stupid, as if she couldn’t understand herself and needed help. “What little I can tell you about what I know is that they need an idea of your usual life, so they can discover where things went awry.”
“Awry?” Liam Hanson snorted and Vi could tell that he was just pretending to work with her. He wanted her here, so he could rule over Jack and nothing more. Bringing in his wife and mocking her, Hanson was sure would torment Jack. Hanson couldn’t imagine that Jack trusted Vi to not be disturbed. That Hanson’s efforts to bother Vi would hurt no one, and in the process she might well win against him.
“Surely being poisoned isn’t normal among your family?”
Hanson paused just long enough that Violet demanded, “Is it?”
He cleared his throat and said surely not.
Vi, however, was no fool, and she had seen the surprise in his face. “They’ll find out when we land and then your lies will make you look worse.”
“Who said I lied?”
“Your face,” Vi snapped. “Your surprise and your momentary horror. Who was poisoned before?”
Hanson cleared his throat and then cursed. Jack snapped, “Enough of that.”
Vi gave her husband a dark, mocking look. It wasn’t as though he himself hadn’t cursed in front of her before. He wasn’t amused, but he said nothing.
“Who was poisoned?” Violet asked gently as though they were having a private confidence.
Liam Hanson considered not answering. Violet leaned forward and said softly, persuasively, “Mr. Hanson, it is necessary you do all that can be done to find your wife’s poisoner, so she’ll be safe. If this has happened before, then we do need to know.”
He shrugged and then said, “One of Oskar’s sisters. It is believed she poisoned herself.”
Vi’s head tilted and she asked, “Believed or known?”
“Who can tell?” Hanson snapped. “I have no idea. Ask Oskar.”
Violet glanced at Jack who, she knew, was cataloging every passing moment. “Of course, why should you know?”
“Exactly,” Hanson snapped. “Just so.”
Violet said, “But you are partners with Oskar. How long have you known him?”
Liam wasn’t pleased with the question, but it was one that could be easily verified. “Since we were boys. Our fathers, with Milly’s, started the business. When it started to struggle, we looked for investors and Oskar met Ruth.”
“Met and pursued Ruth?”
Liam smirked and added, “Just so.”
“While loving Milly as you did.”
The smirk faded and the frown was back. He said nothing. Violet’s voice was soft again as she said, “What if it was Oskar who poisoned them? To get rid of his wife?”
“But why my wife?” He said it as if he were saying my auto or my piece of toast. There it was, Violet realized, there was his true feeling. He no more loved Margaret than he loved anything else. Vi had never believed that Liam Hanson had loved his wife, but now she could see that it was a possessive. Margaret was a piece of property to Liam—owned and nothing more.
It was easy to manipulate him more when she knew what mattered to him. “Perhaps because it was your wife.”
Liam Hanson’s gaze narrowed and Vi saw the stupidity in it. He saw the world only through his own view. He couldn’t imagine that something wasn’t concerned with him. The poisoning of someone else’s sister that was somehow concerned with him. The fool! The poisoning of his own wife. It was easier to believe that it was with him than her.
“What happens,” Violet started, unable to hold back the mischief, “if you and your wife die? Does the full business go to Milly’s father and Oskar?”
The ruddy fury was all the answer they needed. Liam leapt to his feet, his rage too much for him. The stewards and Jack rushed forward to protect Violet. While the stewards grabbed Liam, Jack yanked Violet into his arms. She, however, was not the one who was Liam’s target. He tried to throw off the stewards, so he could get to another door.
“Who’s in there?” Vi demanded. She hadn’t been afraid and Jack stared down at her. He wasn’t even surprised at what happened and Vi reached up and patted his cheek.
Liam was taken from the door he was trying to pass through and into another room and locked inside. As that happened, Ham stepped out of the first door. “What’s going on?”
Jack revealed what Vi had discovered.
Ham’s gaze narrowed on Vi and he demanded, “How did you guess about the poison?”
She shrugged.
“She discovered that and sent Liam into a rage.” Jack groaned and tugged Vi closed. “You have too much courage for any man to stand.”
Violet let Jack lead her from the brig and into the passageway. “Did he say anything?”
Jack frowned. Vi could see the conflict in his face. “It’s the two poisons. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Violet hooked her arm through Jack’s while they peeked in at Kate and Nanny Jane. The doctor had gone, and finally, Kate was gathering up her things to go. Wenzel Wagner hadn’t left and Violet wondered just how Liam Hanson would take that news if he knew.
“How are they?” Violet asked.
“They seem to be better,” Kate said, joining them in the passageway. “Are you finished? Have you learned anything?”
“I’ve abandoned Ham to the fiends and am taking my wife back to our cabin. We’ll walk you to yours first.”
“I can get there on my own,” Kate told Jack with a laugh.
“Indeed you can,” Jack said, “but there’s possibly a poisoner on the loose, and you are precious.”
“Why would they poison me?” Kate asked, not objecting to the company again. She wound her arm through Vi’s, so that she had her sister-in-law on one side and Jack on the other.
“Why would they poison those sisters?” Jack asked. “I have no idea what happened. I could see a motive for Oskar trying to kill his wife, but not Margaret. He could lose his investor in his business and everything he has. I can see a motive for Liam trying to kill Margaret if he realized she was in love with another. That relationship is fated for a bad end regardless.”
“Liam, however, would lose everything if Ruth dies. It’s the same for Milly. Milly, if she is a monster, has every reason to get rid of Ruth but not Margaret.”
“Could it be a madman?” Kate demanded. “Perhaps there’s some crazed fellow who chosen them because they’re twins. Maybe he poisoned them differently to see how each reacted to the poison. Maybe they were never intended to die but used as an insane medical experiment.”
Jack stared at Kate and Vi whispered, “You’ve been reading too many of the V.V. Twinnings novels.”
Kate laughed. “It makes as much sense as anything else.”
“Which means, of course,” Jack countered, “that none of this makes sense.”
His gaze moved to Vi, and she could see him weighing the idea that she also was a twin. She expected the reaction the moment that Kate explained her theory. Vi didn’t even think that Kate had been serious, but Jack never took Vi’s safety as anything other than his first priority.
“I’m not an identical twin,” Vi said before he could think about locking her in the cabin or putting her in a lifeboat and rowing her to safety.
“You are a twin though,” Kate told Violet. “I’m not saying my theory isn’t mad, but you and Victor
need to be especially careful.”
Their gazes met and Vi realized the next step the moment Kate did.
“And the babies,” Vi whispered. It had been ridiculous when it was applied just to the other twins and more ridiculous when they applied it to Victor and Violet. It was, however, far less humorous when one was considering baby Vivi and Agatha.
Kate let go of Vi’s arm and then they both knocked on the door of the nursery. “Is all well?” Kate asked.
“The babies are sleeping,” Nanny Poppy replied. She glanced over her shoulder and said, “As is Victor.”
Kate stepped into the nursery cabin followed by Violet. Jack remained in the doorway since the cabin was already crowded. Kate crossed to Victor and whispered her theory. Vi watched her brother reject the idea until his gaze landed on the babies.
A moment later he said, “We’d be stupid not to be careful.”
“That goes for all of you,” Jack told Victor and Violet. Vi didn’t even narrow her gaze on him, roll her eyes, and scoff.
“Bloody hell,” Victor groaned.
“We order nothing to our cabins. Let’s just have that go for all of us,” Jack told them. “We eat in the dining room. The ship arrives soon. We have but a few days to get through.”
Vi would have objected save for the twins.
“The babies are going with us,” Victor told Nanny Poppy. “Take Lily to Denny and Lila and tell them the concern.”
“I think you’re overreacting.”
“It’s not worth the risk,” Kate told the nanny. She didn’t object, but how could she?
Violet groaned a moment later. “This means we have to go to the dining room for coffee.”
“And to watch our waiters as though they’re all criminals,” Victor stretched his neck.
“Let’s just take other people’s food,” Kate said.
They all stared at her.
“I know it’s mad,” Kate said. “I know we’ll be gossiped over, but who cares? Someone else orders food, we just take it from the waiter before it gets delivered. What can they do once we have it?”