A Gilded Death by Cecelia Tichi

Author:Cecelia Tichi [Tichi, Cecelia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cecelia Tichi
Published: 2021-07-31T22:00:00+00:00

“How is she today?”

“A bit better, I hear. They hope for the best.”

“Dr. Bentley is still with her?”

“He is.”

The rabid dog and Florence Dovedale’s precarious health were the talk of the town. The much-respected Dr. Dennis James was summoned to the Dovedales’ cottage on the evening of the clambake, and a telegram to Dr. William Bentley had brought Society’s own physician from the city the following day.

Nurses were in round-the-clock attendance. There was talk of treating the patient at the Newport Hospital, but for now she was kept comfortable—whatever “comfortable” meant to someone wracked by nausea and treated by round-the-clock nurses, all graduates of the Newport Hospital School of Nursing.

“So, Florence has taken a turn for the better, yes?”

“It seems so. They’re not sure. Another few days will tell.”

Roddy and I were sitting together in an ivory-toned alcove just off the Drumcliffe reception room, a perfect space for private conversation. Three days after the clambake at which Florence Dovedale was taken ill, Roddy had just returned from Stone Point, where Sam reported the news that had set all Newport talking. Roddy excused the footman, and we kept our voices low.

“What else did Sam say?”

“—that Jim Reeves swears to the freshness of every clam and lobster at the bake. He claims his preparations were exactly as they have been for over twenty years and that Mr. Stuyvesant Fish and many other gentlemen will vouch for him.” Roddy loosened his collar. “Reeves is both insulted and frightened. His livelihood depends on summer clambakes.”

“So, suspicion of food poisoning would put him out of business.”

“Completely. And of course, Sam feels responsible as a vice-president of the club, especially since he is a newcomer to Newport.” He added, “Relatively speaking.”

“Relatively” encompassed a number of summer residents, such as the younger brother of the wood king and the daughter of the silver mining magnate. To be specific, Sam Brush and Valentine Mackle DeVere were here by virtue of marriages into the Van Schylar and DeVere bloodlines. Our probation by Society might last our whole lifetimes, and Sam was expected to be grateful for election to office in the Clambake Club as well as membership-by-invitation in the Reading Club, the Rod and Gun Club, the Green End Club and whatever other congregations existed to exclude the unworthy.

Roddy drummed his fingers on the seat cushion. “Val, we better hope to heaven that Florence Dovedale ate a bad clam. Or a rotten potato.”

A clock chimed five p.m. while I absorbed the meaning of my husband’s words.

“This is not a knock on Reeves,” Roddy said.

“I know.”

Minutes pass, and neither of us stirred. “The police were at Easton’s Point from the beginning,” I said. “Nine of them, and Chief Cherry too. And then that mad dog….”

Roddy nodded. “Fortunate the police were with us.”

“So fortunate.”

Finally, I said, “Suppose it wasn’t the clam…Just suppose it was….”

“I am thinking of nothing else.”

“Then what should we do? That plate of food was meant for Cassie. Rowena specifically sent the plate over to her. Fortunately, Florence Dovedale is a very stout woman…but Cassie…I hadn’t noticed how thin her face has become.

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