The Duke Should Divorce Me, So Why Is He Stalling My Death? novel · Chapter 6 of 32
Chapter 6: The Vial
At noon the dining room was full.
The long table had been laid for four, with white linen and the good silver and a vase of winter roses in the middle.
Prince Emeric sat on the Duke's right, the Saintess on his left, and Alaric at the head with his face carefully shut.
Lysandra came in last, in a green day dress, carrying a silver tray in both hands.
A folded napkin covered something small in the middle of it.
The Prince half rose, puzzled.
Anneliese went white around the mouth, very briefly.
She had expected a different scene.
In the book, her maid would have found the vial during a "search for a lost brooch" at exactly this hour, and carried it into this room in front of the Prince.
Lysandra intended to get there first.
"Forgive the tray," she said, and set it down in front of the Saintess's plate. "I wanted you to see it before anyone else did."
"Duchess?" said Anneliese.
Lysandra pulled off the napkin.
The green vial lay on the silver, with its cork in and the drop of dark liquid at the bottom.
"I found this on my pillow at two this morning," she said. "I didn't touch it more than I had to. You're the Temple's healer, Saintess. Can you tell us what it is?"
Nobody said anything.
Emeric's eyes went to the vial and then, slowly, to Anneliese.
Anneliese's hands lay quite still on her napkin.
She was thinking, and Lysandra could see her do it.
If she said she didn't know, she was a healer who couldn't name a poison.
If she named it, she was admitting she'd looked at it before.
"May I?" Anneliese asked, and lifted the vial with two fingertips.
She drew out the cork and passed it under her nose, a small delicate movement, and her face did something complicated.
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