Scorned By Him, Cherished By His Brother novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Bottle

I carried the bottle back to the vestry with both hands.

Henry was sitting up on the cot with a blanket round his shoulders and a little colour in his face.

The steward had made him eat bread, and half of it was still on the plate.

I set the bottle on the table between us.

"A maid left this at my father's door an hour ago," I said. "It says it is for Roland's headaches."

Henry turned it in his hands.

He held it to the candle, then took out the stopper and put it to his nose.

"Foxglove," he said. "Heavy."

"Yes."

"Is that your writing?"

"It is a very good copy," I said. "But I have never signed a label L.A. in my life. I write Lydia Tindall, because that is what the apothecaries know me by."

I touched the paper.

"And the thread is blue, with a double knot."

"So the thief has learned your thread," said Henry. "Since last night."

"The only person I ever told was the maid who collects them."

Henry laid the bottle down very gently.

"Then the maid is Cordelia's, and Cordelia is the one who sends her."

He said it flatly, and I knew he had been working his way toward it all night.

I sat down on the stool.

My legs were shaking.

"She held my hand at the supper," I said. "She cried."

"I know."

"She sent me a thank-you note every month for four years."

"I know, Lydia."

He reached across the table and laid his hand over mine.

It was warm and steady, and this time I did not look at it.

"I thought it was Roland," he said. "I was wrong. He was never clever enough."

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