As I stood there I heard a movement behind me. NouNou came in. She looked at the glass in my hand.
“I was to see Madame at eight,” I said, replacing the glass on the table.
Nou-Nou gazed at the sleeping woman and the change in her expression was marked.
“Poor lamb,” she said.
“She was tired out. He has been.
in. I suppose he tired her . as he always does. She must have dropped off to sleep . suddenly. “
“You will tell her when she awakes that I came, will you?”
Nou-Nou nodded.
“Perhaps she will say if she wants to see me tomorrow.”
Nou-Nou said: “We shall see how she feels.”
“Goodnight,” I said, and went out.
The next day lived vividly in my memory.
I awoke as usual when one of the serving maids brought in my hot water and put it into the ruelle. I washed and took the coffee and brioche which was brought to my room.
Margot came as she often did, bringing her tray with her and we took our petit dejeuner together.
We talked of the proposed trip to Paris and I was glad that she did not mention Chariot. It was comforting to know that her coming marriage had helped her when I had so much feared it would have the reverse effect.
While we were chatting together the door opened and the Comte entered.
I had never seen him distraught before, but he certainly was then.
He looked from one to the other of us and then he said:
“Marguerite, your mother is dead.”
I felt a cold horror grip me. I began to tremble and was afraid it would be noticed.
“She must have died during the night,” he said.
“NouNou has just discovered this.”
He did not meet my eyes and I was terribly afraid.
There was tension throughout the castle. The servants were whispering together. I wondered what they were saying. The relationship which existed between the Comte and his wife was well known to them and they must all have been aware of the fact that he wished he were free of her.
Margot came to me.
“I must talk to you, Minelle,” she said. It is terrible. She is dead.
It has suddenly struck me. She was my mother . but I scarcely knew her. She never seemed to want me with her. I always believed, when I was little, that I was the cause, of her illness. Nou-Nou seemed to think so too. Poor NouNou! She is just sitting beside her rocking to and fro. She mutters to herself and then throws her apron over her face. All I can hear is “Ursule mignon ne
“Margot,” I said, ‘how did it happen? “
“She has been delicate for a long time, hasn’t she?” Margot replied almost defensively, and I wondered what she was thinking.
“Perhaps,” she went on, ‘she was more ill than we thought. We believed really that she fancied she was ill all the time. “
The doctors came during the day. They were with the Comte in the chamber of death for a long time.
The Comte asked me to join him in the library and I went full of foreboding.
“Please sit, Minelle,” he said.
“This is an unexpected shock.”
Those words brought me an immense relief.
“I have always suspected that the Comtesse’s illness was imaginary,” he went on.
“It seems I did her an injustice. She was really ill.”
“What was her illness?”
He shook his head.
“The doctors are bewildered. They are not certain what caused her death. Nou-Nou is too distraite to talk. She has been with her since her birth and was completely devoted to her. I’m afraid this shock is going to be too much for her.”
I waited for him to go on but for once he seemed at a loss for words.
Then he said slowly: There will be an autopsy. “
I looked at him in astonishment.
“It is the custom,” he said, ‘when the cause of death is uncertain.
The doctors have formed the opinion, though, that she died of something she had taken. “
“It can’t be!” I cried.
“She looks peaceful,” he said.
“Of one thing we can be certain. She did not die painfully. It seems she went off in a peaceful sleep from which she has not awakened.”
“Was it a draught to make her sleep, do you think?”
“It may be so. Nou-Nou is too upset to speak to us yet. Tomorrow she will have recovered a little and may be able to help. I believe Ursule was in the habit of taking some draught at bedtime.” His eyes did not leave my face. They glittered brightly and I avoided looking directly at him. The fear was strong in me.
“It is going to be rather a difficult time,” he said.
“This sort of thing can be very unpleasant. There will be a great deal of speculation. There always is when anyone dies suddenly. And the circumstances …”
I nodded.
“Nou-Nou will know whether she took a sleeping draught.”
“Nou-Nou would prepare it for her. I am sure when she is able to talk we may understand how this happened.”
“Do you think that the Comtesse …”
“That she did it deliberately? No, I don’t think so. I think there has been some terrible mistake. But we can reach no conclusions through conjecture. This may be unpleasant, as I said, and I should prefer you and Marguerite not to be here. Make your preparations to leave for Paris. I think you should go immediately after the autopsy.” He paused, then went on briskly: “Now, I do not think you should remain here with me long.” He smiled at me wryly, and I knew what was in his mind. His wife had died suddenly and his interest in me was obvious. I could see that we should both be under suspicion.
“Send Marguerite to me,” he added.
“I will warn her
that she must be ready to leave for Paris fairly soon. “
That was a week of nightmare. Suspicion was rife and I was at the heart of it. I wondered what would happen if the Comte was accused of murder . or I was. I could hear accusing voices asking me about my relationship with the Comte. I was his cousin, was I? Would I please explain.
The Comte was less disturbed than I. He was confident that there would be some explanation. There was a distressing scene with Nou-Nou who came to my room one night when I was preparing for bed.
She looked terribly ill. I was sure she had not slept since the death of the Comtesse. She was hollow-eyed and had not brushed or combed her hair, it hung, half up, half down, in straggling grey strands about her face. Clutching a bed-gown about her, she looked like a spectre.
She said to me: “You do well to look guilty. Mademoiselle.”
I replied: “Guilt! I neither look nor feel guilty. You must know that, NouNou.”
“It was her bedtime dose,” she said.
“I used to give it to her when she couldn’t sleep. I knew just how much was needed to send her off.
That night she had had a treble dose. It should have taken an hour to have effect . but she was sleeping when I came in . You were there that night. He was there too. The two of you. “
“She was asleep when I came in. You know that. It was just eight o’clock.”
“I didn’t know enough of what was going on. There was her dose there by the bed. Well, someone added to it, didn’t they? Someone who crept in …”
“I tell you she was asleep when I came…”
“I came out and found you with the glass in your hand.”
This is absurd. I had only just come into the room. “
There was somebody else there, wasn’t there? You know that. “
I felt the blood rushing into my cheeks.
“What… are you suggesting?”
“Doses don’t get into glasses without being put there, do they?