The Caster & Fleet Mysteries: Cases 4-6 by Paula Harmon & Liz Hedgecock

Author:Paula Harmon & Liz Hedgecock [Harmon, Paula & Hedgecock, Liz]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: box set, british detective, crime, detective fiction, English, humour, London, mystery, novel, Victorian, women's fiction
Publisher: White Rhino Books
Published: 2019-09-12T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Connie

My eyes were closing over a novel when the telephone shrilled. I looked at my watch: half past nine. Surely only Katherine would telephone at that hour. I laid my book aside and padded into the hall, anticipating the servant’s call.

But Johnson was speaking into the telephone himself. ‘Yes, I’ll make sure I deliver the message.’

‘What message? To whom?’

He jumped. ‘It’s Mrs King, ma’am, but she can’t —’

I seized the receiver. ‘Katherine, what is it?’

‘James has been poisoned,’ said Katherine. ‘I telephoned to warn you. If you’ve had a bottle of port from the office, don’t open it. I must go.’ And the line went dead.

***

I rushed into the study. ‘Albert, I must go out. Someone’s sent Katherine a bottle of poisoned port and James has drunk some.’

‘What?’ Albert dropped the papers he was holding and got up. ‘Is he all right?’

‘I don’t know.’ Suddenly the world swam, and I felt Albert’s arms supporting me.

‘Steady, Connie.’ He helped me to a chair. ‘I’ll ring for a cab.’

‘It could have been us,’ I said. ‘It could have been you.’

‘Don’t worry about what ifs, Connie.’ His tone was abrupt. ‘Sorry. That didn’t come out as I meant it to.’

‘It’s all right.’ I got up, and my eye fell on the desk, which was littered with paper. ‘What are you working on at this time of night?’

His face closed. ‘Now isn’t the time to discuss it.’ He turned as the study door opened. ‘Johnson, can you step outside and hold a cab for us? We’re going to the Kings’ house.’

***

Katherine answered the door herself. ‘He’s conscious, and Dr Farquhar’s here.’ She looked exhausted, and Albert took her arm as we went upstairs, more slowly than usual.

James was tucked up in bed, seeming rather embarrassed as Dr Farquhar took his pulse. ‘Sorry, everyone,’ he said, lifting a languid hand from the covers. ‘I think I fainted. Perhaps it was a warning against shaving off my beard.’

I took a seat by the bed. ‘If you were anyone else I’d think you were delirious, but you sound quite normal.’

He managed a feeble chuckle, and Katherine leaned down and kissed his forehead. ‘That’ll teach you to steal our port,’ she said, lightly, but her face was grim.

Dr Farquhar produced a pocket-torch and shone a light in James’s eye. ‘Almost done,’ he said, then switched off the torch. ‘Now, do you feel sick?’

‘A little,’ said James.

‘How’s your vision?’

James paused before replying. ‘Bit blurry.’

‘What colour is this sheet?’ He pointed at the linen on which James’s hand was resting.

James frowned at it. ‘It’s — pale yellow?’ We all eyed the white sheet. ‘It shouldn’t be.’

‘No, it shouldn’t. How’s your heart feeling?’

‘Like it’s beating out of my chest.’

‘I’m not surprised.’ Dr Farquhar pulled out a little notebook and wrote rapidly. ‘It’s as well you stopped at one glass, young man.’ He snapped the notebook shut. ‘I suspect that whatever you drank was laced with digitalis. All the symptoms are tending that way.’

My eyes met Katherine’s.

‘You’ve been very lucky. Your heart rate is already — just — within the normal range.

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