Anne Perry s Christmas Mysteries Page 0,40

admiration for your beauty, and a certain physical appetite. You also did not deny yourselves. After all, you fully intended to marry him. Which would all have gone very well, had not Maude returned home, and Mr. Harcourt fell truly in love with her."

Bedelia's eyes on her were like daggers.

Grandmama ignored them, but her heart was pounding almost in her throat. If she were wrong, catastrophically, insanely wrong, she would be ruined forever. Her mouth was dry, her voice rasping. "You were furious that Maude, of all people, should take your lover, but there was worse to follow. You learned that you were with child. Mr. Sullivan's of course. But it could have been Mr. Harcourt's, for all he knew. That gave you your perfect weapon for regaining everything. You told him. Being a man of honor, in spite of his lapse of self-control, he broke off his relationship with Maude, whom he truly loved, as she loved him, and he married you. He paid a bitter price for his self-indulgence. So did your sister, rather than allow you to be shamed."

There were gasps of breath, the clink of cutlery, even a broken glass stem. "That is what you cannot forgive-that you wronged her," she went on regardless. "And she sacrificed her happiness for yours-and perhaps for Mr. Harcourt's honor. Although I believe it was actually Mr. Sullivan's, in fact."

Arthur stared at Bedelia, a stunned and terrible look in his eyes. " Randolph is not mine, and you know it," he said very quietly.

"Are...are you sure?" Agnes asked. Then she looked more closely at Bedelia, and did not ask again.

"What does she mean that you could not forgive?" Arthur asked Bedelia.

"I have no idea!" Bedelia replied. "She is an inquisitive, meddling old woman who listens at doors and hears half stories, gossips with other old women who should know better, and apparently listened to Maude's self-delusions of her own romantic youth."

"It wasn't a delusion," Arthur told her very quietly. "I loved Maude as I have never loved anyone else in my life, before or since. But I could not marry her because you told me that you were carrying my child. I can't blame you for that, it was my doing as much as yours. Nor can I blame Zachary. He was no worse than I, and by heaven you were beautiful. But Maude was funny and kind. She was brave and warm and honest, and she was generous with life, with her own spirit. Her beauty would have lasted forever, and grown with time rather than fade. I knew it then, and I was proved right when she came back, even after forty years, which were like a lifetime while she was gone, and nothing at all once she returned."

"Oh, Arthur!" Agnes breathed out. "How terrible for you."

Zachary was looking at Agnes with amazement.

"I found the rest of the peppermint water," Grandmama said in the silence.

"I beg your pardon?" Arthur frowned.

Grandmama wavered for an instant. Should she tell them, or was this enough? But would it last? There would be no further chance. She turned to Bedelia and saw the fury in her eyes.

"You told Maude when you gave her the macadamia nuts, which are so indigestible to some of us, that you had very little peppermint water, just the end of one bottle, sufficient for a single dose. But actually you had plenty. There is some in my room, and some in the other guest rooms also. A nice courtesy, especially over a festive season when we will all eat a little heavily."

"What has that to do with anything at all?" Clara demanded. "Why are we talking about peppermint water? Are you quite mad?"

"I wish I were," Grandmama answered. "It would be so much less ugly an answer than the truth. I don't eat macadamia nuts myself. They give me indigestion..."

Zachary was staring at her as if he could not believe his ears.

Agnes looked appalled.

"But peppermint water would help," Grandmama carried on. "Unless of course, it were laced with foxglove leaves. Then it would kill. Most of us who have ever arranged flowers know that. There are a few one must be careful of, especially with children about: laburnum, monk's hood, belladonna, and of course foxgloves. Such handsome flowers, but the distilled juice can cause the heart to fail. It is used in medicine to slow it down if it is racing, but only a very little, naturally."

"That is a wicked thing to suggest!" Clara was horrified. "How...how