How to Catch a Duke in Ten Days by Violet Hamers

Chapter Thirty-One

“It was you?” The words escaped Hermione in a hurry. For a second, Cordelia still struggled, trying to force more of the liquid down Rose’s throat. “No!” Hermione jumped forward at the same time Antony did, each of them rounding the bed in different directions.

Antony reached Cordelia and tore the glass out of her hands, wrestling with it though the woman continued to fight, trying to take the glass back. Hermione went straight to Rose, encouraging her to spit out what was in her mouth in the chamber pot that still stood nearby.

“That is enough!” Antony roared. Hermione looked up to see him throw the glass across the room. It smashed in the fire grate nearby, so that the liquid splattered between shards of glass. Cordelia whimpered as she gazed after it, falling limp and no longer fighting Antony.

“Aunt, it was you?” Hermione asked, feeling such fear that she wrapped her arms around Rose, holding onto her. The Dowager Duchess clung to her too, just as tightly. “You tried to poison her?”

“Twice!?” Antony pointed out, gesturing down to the glass.

“She clearly wanted to make sure the job was done,” the doctor said, striding forward into the room before he moved to Rose’s side, trying to check her over as she held onto Hermione.

“Murderer,” Antony muttered. “Fergus! Send the butler for the constable!”

“Already going!” Fergus called from the corridor that he was sprinting down. Hermione turned her head to see her sister and her father standing in the open doorway, staring at Cordelia as if she had morphed into a monster before them, complete with devil horns.

“Why?” Antony said. Cordelia didn’t answer. She tried to walk past him and head to the exit, but Antony took hold of her arm, wrenched her back, and forced her to sit in a chair in the corner of the room. Cordelia whimpered at the harsh treatment, but no one cared, not after what had just happened.

“Aunt,” Hermione called to her across the room. “Why would you do this? Just for my father? So he can pay off his debts?”

“It is not so simple,” Cordelia said miserably, hanging her head as she wrung her hands in the skirt of her dress.

“Then explain it,” Antony demanded as he stood tall in front of her.

“Rufus can explain.” Hermione darted her head toward her father, fearing he was actually involved after all.

“No, I cannot!” Rufus said with hands that he waved madly in front of him. “I have nothing to do with this. I never said to poison anyone, Cordelia.”

“But… I had no choice. How else were we supposed to get away?” she asked wildly.

“Shh! Be quiet; do not say another word!” Rufus ordered, turning in a frantic circle.

“Get away?” Phoebe picked up on the key words regardless, looking between the two of them. “You were leaving? Why?”

“She’s mistaken, a mad woman,” Rufus said, waving an arm toward their aunt.

“How dare you?” Cordelia cried, trying to jump out of the chair, but Antony pressed her back down into the seat. “You call me mad? After everything we’ve been through together? After what I have done for you–”

“Shh!” Rufus urged again. Hermione settled her eyes on her aunt, hearing the words and seeing the way that Cordelia was looking at her father. She had never noticed that look before, suggesting something else was there. Something that Rufus was trying to keep hidden.

“You were plotting together,” Hermione summarized. “I thought us coming here was all father’s idea, but it wasn’t, was it? You thought of it together.” Both Rufus and Cordelia turned to look at her. Rufus just shrugged whilst Cordelia looked sharply away again.

“I have nothing to do with this,” Rufus said pointedly, gesturing to Rose’s state in the bed. “That was Cordelia.”

“You’re going to let me go down for this alone? Now?” Cordelia cried.

“Yes, I bloody well am!” Rufus said quickly. “You did this part all on your own.”

“For us.”

“Us?” Hermione repeated in shock, looking between the two of them. “Good God. You were going to run away together. To elope?” Rufus looked away as though he were going to stride to the door and make a run for it, but he came up against Phoebe who stood in the doorway, blocking off his exit.

“You are lovers?” Phoebe asked with disgust, pointing between the two of them. “Our mother’s sister? Good God, did mother ever know?”

“No! It happened after your mother’s death,” Rufus said hurriedly.

“We were going to take the money and elope together,” Cordelia made the confession, lifting her eyes to Hermione. “We had every intention of leaving the two of you behind.”

“Is there another chamber pot under the bed, doctor? I think Phoebe and I might need to be sick in a minute,” Hermione said tightly. The good doctor managed to retrieve a clean one, just in case.

“That’s why we had to stop the first marriage,” Cordelia was still speaking.

“Good God, Cordelia, be quiet.” Rufus ordered.

“You think I’m going to stay quiet now? You would happily see me sent to prison for this. I’m taking you down too,” Cordelia said with acid in her tone.

“I never said to poison anyone.” Yet his complaint fell on deaf ears.

“I had to stop the marriage to Lord Lulworth,” Cordelia said, turning her gaze back to Hermione. “We encouraged the match because we thought he was wealthy, then it turned out he had debts larger than even Rufus’. I knew then we’d never get the money. So… I may have had some words with Lord Lulworth.”

“You’re the reason he left her at the church?” Antony asked, his voice sounding hollow, numb of emotion.

“I had to stop it,” Cordelia said as though the matter were easy to see. “We wouldn’t get the money otherwise. We couldn’t elope–”

“You forced me into marriage just because you wanted to marry my father?” Hermione asked with disgust.

“It was all I could think to do,” Cordelia said with a shrug. “When I mentioned the idea to Rufus, he ran with it.” Rufus turned away. He appeared ready to make another stride for the exit and push past Phoebe, but before he could, Officer Stenham appeared in the doorway behind her. Rufus gave up, knowing he could not outfight a much younger man.

“Be quiet, Cordelia,” Rufus said, snapping at her.

“After everything I have done for you, you’re going to abandon me now?” Cordelia asked, jumping up and trying to march across the room toward him. Antony laid out an arm, blocking her path, though she struggled against it, trying to fight her way past. “I have given everything to you! Devoted myself to you. Now, you turn from me?”

Rufus wouldn’t even look at her. He had his eyes away on a far part of the room; clearly, he couldn’t stand the sight of her.

“I tried to kill her for us,” Cordelia said with strength.

“Do you think that makes it any better?” Rufus said, his tone venomous. “Death… it’s gut-wrenching. I had to watch my first love die like this, in bed sick with a fever. You think I’d wish that on anyone else?”

“She didn’t react to the poison as quickly as I thought. It was a long death.” Cordelia’s words made Hermione step away from Rose and clamber off the bed.

“You couldn’t be talking about the Dowager Duchess then, could you? You mentioned death?” Hermione’s question made Cordelia stop fighting Antony’s arm. She looked away, down at her feet. “You were talking about our mother. Oh my God…” Hermione backed up and turned to look at Phoebe. “You killed your own sister.”

Phoebe almost capitulated with the words. She was only held up by Officer Stenham who put an arm around her waist, keeping her there. “I had to do it,” Cordelia said hurriedly. “Whilst she was alive, Rufus would never look at me.”

Hermione turned her eyes to her father, seeing that Rufus was as pale as a sheet. He fell upon a nearby wall, leaning against it and resting his hands on his knees, looking as near to throwing up as Rose did.

“You were going to run off with our mother’s murderer?” Hermione asked, barely able to say the words.

“I didn’t know,” Rufus said, meeting her gaze. “Believe me, Hermione, I didn’t know.”

“So, we have attempted murder, and actual murder,” Antony said, pushing with his arm until he shoved Cordelia back into the chair. She made another whimpering sound as she reset herself in the chair. “Where is that constable?”

“The butler went to fetch him,” Officer Stenham said. “By my reckoning, we have an hour at least until he’s here.”

“Then Fergus, help me lock Mrs. Atkins up in her chamber until then.”

“What do we do with him?” Officer Stenham asked, pointing at Rufus, who flinched at the words.

“I haven’t killed anyone,” Rufus said hurriedly. “I couldn’t.”

“I believe him,” Hermione said sadly, seeing the father she used to know briefly once again. He looked in agony as he hung his body forward. “He is guilty of deceit and greed and trying to get the money to run off with my aunt, but he is not guilty of murder.”

* * *

Hermione was staring at her father across the table in the dining room. The whole house seemed in a sort of uproar since the constables had arrived. Cordelia had been arrested and was being dragged to a jail cart, whilst Antony and Officer Stenham oversaw everything. Phoebe had stayed with Rose to comfort her and check she was all right. That left Hermione alone with her father, staring at him across the dining table where they had taken refuge.

“Are you going to say anything?” her father asked. His face was lit by the one orange candle that sat between them on the table.

“I’m struggling to find what to say,” Hermione spoke tightly, unable to take her eyes off his face.

“Hermione, please, I need you to understand–”

“I do not understand.” Hermione spoke quietly, but the words were so venomous that her father broke off. He hung his head forward, looking down at the orange candle that was reflected in his eyes. “I will never understand, so do not waste your breath in trying to persuade me.”

“Is falling in love so hard to understand?” His words made her bristle in her seat.

She thought about love, and Antony came into her mind. She couldn’t wait to escape this moment and be back with him. “What about the love you bore my mother?”

“I did love her, very much. I was heartbroken when I watched her die.” Rufus leaned forward on the table with tears in his eyes. “What happened with Cordelia started much later. I never knew what she had done. When she suggested that if we could get our hands on some money we could run away together, to start again, I saw the chance of true happiness.”

“Even if it meant leaving me and Phoebe behind?”

“Would you have cared if I had left?” he asked. “There hasn’t exactly been much of a bond between us as of late.”

“You changed. That is what broke the bond.” She stared at him, unwilling to relent and allow him any excuse. She found she couldn’t cry. For the moment, she was too angry. The tears would come later. “It’s a shame they can’t arrest a man for deceit.”

“You wish I could be sent to prison?”

“I wish you were on the farthest regions of this earth,” she said, tilting her head up so she could look toward the ceiling, pleading with the heavens. “Then I would never have to see your face again, never feel this anger.”

He said nothing, but the idea settled more and more for Hermione. She turned her gaze back down to her father. “By the time this gets out, your reputation will be ruined,” she said simply. “You will be ostracized by society.”

“I know,” he said miserably. The tears that were in his eyes were filling more and more, threatening to fall.

“What will you do with yourself?” she asked.

“What would you have me do?” he said, looking up to her with those eyes glistening. She liked her idea, very much.

“Go into exile,” she said, lifting her chin a little higher. “Live a small comfortable life somewhere far away from here. Far away from me and Phoebe.” The tears began to spill out of his eyes and onto his cheeks.

“What do you say, father?” she asked. “Will you do it?”

“I’ll do it.”