The Widow's Fate They Chose Was My Escape Plan novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Drink It

I did not sleep for what was left of the night.

At four, the cook knocked on my door with the vial the doctor had dropped, wrapped in a dish towel.

I had kicked it under the hall table when the doctor gathered up his bag, and the cook had fished it out.

"The nurse takes the teapot from my kitchen at six," the cook said. "She carries it up the back stairs and stops in the pantry. Ten minutes. Then it goes to the sickroom."

"What does she do in the pantry?"

"I never asked. I let her." The cook's mouth shook, and she pressed it flat. "Fifteen years I let her."

"Then this morning you don't let her."

"No, ma'am."

At six, the cook stood in the kitchen doorway with her arms folded, and the nurse could not get the pot past her.

I took the pot myself.

I carried the silver tray up to the sickroom with the pot, six cups, and the doctor's vial in my robe pocket.

Nobody stopped me.

The room was full.

Five trustees sat along one wall, and the lawyer sat among them.

Rory lay in the bed with the blanket to his chest and his eyes shut, playing weak again until the room was full.

Desmond stood at the window in a charcoal suit.

The doctor stood by the bed with his bag held tight against his chest, and his hands were still shaking.

Bennett and Bridget sat in the two chairs by the door.

"We are gathered," Desmond said, "because my nephew has had a frightening night."

He went on for some time about love and family and the duty of a house to its sick.

I set the tray down on the side table.

"The doctor will examine him now," Desmond said. "Then we will vote."

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