Night of the Candles by Jennifer Blake

Author:Jennifer Blake [Blake, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: cookie429
Publisher: Fawcett
Published: 1978-01-02T03:57:43+00:00

Chapter Eight

SHE did not sleep. It was not fatigue that kept her awake, staring up into the canopy above her where the glow of the slowly dying coals in the fireplace gleamed red-orange on the silver tissue cloth. It was a disturbed mind. The more she learned of Marta, the less she was inclined to trust the woman. For all the strength of her body, she was basically weak. She knuckled under to a stronger will, such as Sophia’s. Her affections were easily engaged, which argued a shallow nature. She apparently had no self-control, or it would not have mattered that a bottle had been left in her room. Amanda thought of the doctor and his insistence that Marta’s face was familiar and of Marta’s references to the death of the old lady. Had the doctor some knowledge then of the death of the elderly patient, a knowledge that Sophia shared since she appeared to have a hold over the nurse?

Equally damning was the fact that she had betrayed a confidence, the knowledge of Amelia’s pregnancy. Unless the woman had brought the bottle upstairs herself and concocted this whole implausible tale, she was consumed with guilt, remorse — and yes, fear over the death of Amelia.

Why? Was it because she knew that she had been derelict in her duties? Or was there some deeper reason?

Suppose that someone in this house, knowing of Marta’s weakness, had placed the bottle in her room the night of Amelia’s death? Suppose that someone had then gone to Amelia’s room, poured out the fatal dose of laudanum, and given it to her cousin — a woman beset by pain who was used to accepting medicine without question? Had she realized in her last seconds of life that she had been given a poisonous overdose? Had she then called for her nurse in vain? But again, why? There had to be a reason.

Reasons were not hard to discover. She thought of what she had seen, of Sophia’s entering Jason’s room. How long had that affair been going on? Could it have begun before Amelia’s death? Sophia admitted that she had loved Jason for years. It would be human nature, under the circumstances, for Sophia to covet Amelia’s place. Or alternately, if Jason had preferred Sophia, it would have been plausible for him to speed his wife’s death.

Still, why would it have been necessary? If Amelia was dying they had only to wait a few weeks or months. But in a few months Amelia would have had a child.

Did that fact, then, put a new face on the situation? Was it possible that her murderer had not wanted to risk the possibility of an heir?

Why should that have mattered? Amelia herself had nothing to inherit, nothing other than the collar of Harmonia. The child would have been Jason’s heir, but since Jason was in perfectly good health, why would that have mattered? Unless, of course, Sophia had preferred her own child to inherit Monteigne.

What if Amelia’s illness had been a sham? What if she had not been dying? It need not necessarily be a deliberate charade.

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