“Oh yes, it’s all coming out now, isn’t it, your ladyship?” Allerton, who had been listening with interest to Henrietta’s confession and the reactions it provoked around the room, laughed. “All the family’s little dark secrets. You shouldn’t have tried to set me up, should you?”
“Why did you have to miss your shot?” she snarled at him. “You told me you were a sharpshooter, a noted sniper in your regiment. But you couldn’t even hit the right man!”
“Lucky that I did miss,” he retorted. “Or it would be the rope for both of us. As it is, I think I’m heading for Australia, and you’ll be in Bedlam if you’re not careful.”
“Enough of that, Allerton,” Mr. Langford said severely. “Tell us more about this poison. Why did you buy poison for Lady Birks?”
“She wanted that girl’s father out of the way, didn’t she? There had to be a quick marriage before Lord Birks’s debts caught up with him, and she didn’t think old Templeton would ever agree to it.”
“You poisoned Father?!” Diana cried in horror. “You were trying to kill him too!”
“He was in my way,” Henrietta sneered contemptuously. “As was your mother. I knew that Percy would be far easier to manipulate once they were out of the way. Your parents didn’t want you married before you were one and twenty, and that would have been much too late for Andrew. I had to do something to protect his interests.”
“How could you betray them like that!” Diana exclaimed. “They trusted you. Mother has been relying on you night and day since Father collapsed. You watched her suffer constantly while knowing that it was all your doing!”
“Oh yes, I had to be so careful with the poison doses to avoid arousing any suspicion from your family or the doctors. Esther’s devotion to her husband became a real obstacle, too. She was always there and kept on pouring enough broth into him to prevent simple dehydration. He would have been dead weeks ago if I had my way.”
“That’s why he started to revive when you were away from Fernside overnight…” Diana said, putting together the various pieces of the jigsaw from the period of her father’s mysterious illness. “It’s why you wanted me to get Mother out of the house and leave him with you.”
“Well, I don’t make the same mistakes twice. Given your size, the dose I gave you should kill you within the hour!”
Diana looked at Edmund, her heart thumping violently. Had Lady Birks poisoned her, too?
“What is she talking about, Edmund?” she whispered, a note of panic in her voice.
Edmund shook his head and squeezed her shoulder, his face calm as Henrietta cackled madly in the background.
“You haven’t been poisoned,” he assured her.
“It wasn’t sugar in her tea,” Lady Birks uttered gleefully. “It was poison at a much larger dose than I ever gave to Richard Templeton.”
“Then I’m afraid that your pot plant here is not going to thrive this year, Lady Birks,” Edmund said coolly. “I confess that I noticed Lady Birks behaving suspiciously with Diana’s tea and poured it away immediately.”
“Damn your interfering! She’s not yours, she’s ours!” Lady Birks screeched and made to run towards Diana as Edmund stepped in front of her. The two hired men quickly seized the older woman and held her back as she struggled against them.
“Looks like we’re in the same boat now, doesn’t it, your ladyship?” Allerton snickered.
“I think we’ve heard enough to know that this woman is likely criminally insane,” Edmund said. “Lord Birks, will you give your consent for your mother to be restrained by the constables until we can get two doctors to certify her insanity and place her somewhere secure for everyone’s good?”
“Yes…” Andrew mumbled, his face now as tear stained as Kitty’s.
“Andrew, stop them! You can’t let them do this. I’m your mother. Everything I did was for you. Everything!”
“I never asked you to do any of this,” he protested. “I wanted to marry Diana, but never like this. Why couldn’t you just leave things as they were?”
“Do you have a suitable facility to hold her?” Edmund asked, and Mr. Langford nodded.
“The attic above my law practice has been useful in similar cases. It’s civilized and secure.”
“This isn’t over!” Lady Birks spat angrily at Edmund. “Don’t think you’ll get away with this. You’ll never have her. I’ll destroy you. I’ll destroy all of you!”
“Bring them,” Mr. Burnham ordered, and both Lady Birks and Allerton were escorted forcibly from the room. The former cursed and struggled while the latter only laughed cheerfully at his companion’s efforts.
“Thank you all,” Mr. Langford said gravely. “This can’t have been easy for any of you. We’ll lock both of them up in town for now while I get the legal papers drawn up and alert the courts. If Lord Birks would like to appoint his own doctors to assess his mother, he may do so, or I can see to that on his behalf.”
“You do it, if you would, Sir,” Andrew muttered gruffly. “You know better than I about these kinds of doctors. And as everyone heard, I have no money for specialists in any case.”
“I will come to see you tomorrow,” Edmund said as Mr. Langford headed for the door after the rest of the group.