Anne Perry s Christmas Mysteries Page 0,10

the last of her tea and stood up. The room swayed around her for a moment. She took several deep breaths, then went out of the dressing room and back along the corridor to Maude's bedroom. There was no one else in sight. They must all be busy, and Caroline would be doing what she could to settle the staff. Staff always behaved erratically when someone died. At least one maid would have fainted, and someone would be having hysterics. As if there were not enough to do!

She opened the door and slipped inside quickly, closing it after her, then turned to look. Yes, she had been quite right, there was an empty bottle on the bedside table. She walked over and picked it up. It said "peppermint water" on the label, but just to be certain she took out the cork and sniffed it experimentally. It was quite definitely peppermint, clean and sharp, filling her nose.

Maude had brought it with her, with only one dose left. She must use it regularly. Stupid woman! If she ate with any sense it would not be necessary. Curious that they should have it even in Arabia, or Persia, or wherever it was she had come from most recently. And the label was in English, too.

She looked at it again. It was printed with the name and address of a local apothecary in Rye, just a few miles away around the Dungeness headland.

But Maude had said she had not left Snave, in fact not had the chance to go out at all. So someone had given it to her, with one dose in it. Presumably that was to treat the result of eating the macadamia nuts! But one dose? How very odd. Especially when they could have been all but certain that she would require it. Surely no household would be short of so ordinary a commodity, especially over Christmas, when it could be guaranteed that people would overindulge? There was something about it that was peculiar.

She picked up the bottle again and, keeping it concealed in the folds of her skirt, returned to her room, where she hid it in the drawer with her underclothes.

Then, with Tilly's assistance, she dressed in the darkest clothes she had with her-not quite black, but a gray that in the winter light would pass for it. She went downstairs to face the day.

Caroline was in the withdrawing room before the fire. Joshua had gone to fetch the local doctor so that the necessary authorities could be satisfied.

"Are you all right, Mama-in-law?" she asked anxiously. "It is a terrible experience for you."

"It was a much worse experience for Maude!" Grandmama replied with tart candor. There were troubling thoughts in her mind, but she was not quite certain exactly what they were. She could not share them, especially with Caroline, who had never detected anything, as far as she knew. She might even wish to avoid scandal, and refuse even to consider it, and Maude deserved better than that! Perhaps it rested with Mariah Ellison, and no one else, to face the truth.

A few minutes later the doctor arrived and was taken upstairs.

"Heart failure," he informed them when he came down again. "Very sad. She seemed in excellent health otherwise."

"She was!" Grandmama said quickly, before anyone else could reply. "She was a world traveler, walked miles, rode horses, and even camels. She never spoke of any ailment at all."

"It can come without warning," the doctor said gently.

"An attack that kills?" Grandmama demanded. "She did not look as if she were in that kind of agony!"

"No," he agreed with a slight frown. "I think it more likely that her heart simply slowed and then stopped."

"Slowed and then stopped?" Grandmama said incredulously.

"Mama-in-law!" Caroline remonstrated.

"I think it may well have been peaceful," the doctor said to Grandmama. "If that is of comfort to you? Were you very fond of her?"

"She barely knew her!" Caroline said tartly.

"Yes, I was fond of her." Grandmama contradicted her, equally tartly.

Chapter Three

"I'm very sorry." The doctor was still gentle. He turned to Joshua. "If I can assist with arrangements, of course I shall be happy to."

"Thank you," Joshua accepted.

"We shall have to inform the rest of her family," Grandmama said loudly. "Bedelia whatever-her-name-is."

"I have been thinking how on earth I can write such a letter," Caroline acknowledged. "What to say that will make it...better sounds absurd. If I simply say that we are terribly sad to inform them, will that be best?" She looked worried,