“You are a fool,” said Lucie sadly.
“You are right.” He looked at her mournfully.
“I would advise you to stop this silly tirade which will only bring you to disaster,” she went on.
“At least it will bring me peace of mind. Because did not give her the wrong drug. It was someone else who gave it to her … someone who came to my house when I was absent, bringing wine for my housekeeper and drinking with her until she was insensible and then going to my dispensary and taking the drugs.”p>
I think the doctor has lost his senses,” said Lucie.
“I had,” he replied, ‘but I’ve regained them now. “
Can’t you see that he is mad? ” she demanded of Stirling.
“It doesn’t seem so to me,” said Stirling.
“I refuse to listen to any more,” said Lucie. That’s if you’re going on, Dr. Hunter. “
“I am going on to tell everything, right to the end, right till today when I discovered that two cats died of the same drug which killed Lady Cardew.”
Lucie stood up.
“You are mad, you know,” she said.
“I know how the drug was obtained,” said the doctor.
“It was in exactly the same way. Mrs. Devlin has admitted that you came with whisky this time. A little gift for her? Should we try a little tot?
And she sat there drinking until she dozed and then you took the keys and went to the dispensary, just exactly as you did on another occasion. She has told me that she remembers it happening before. “
“I won’t stay to listen to such nonsense,” said Lucie.
“I shall call another doctor. I shall tell him to get a strait-jacket and bring it here right away.”
She stood at the door looking at us. Minta stared at her incredulously. The doctor’s expression was unfathomable. I fancied there was a certain tenderness in it “Lucie,” he said, ^you need care. ”
She had gone. We heard her running down the stairs and the slamming of the door.
The doctor went on: “It’s not a pleasant story, but I have to tell it.
It’s the end of everything for us both . but at least another murder must be prevented. ” He was looking at Minta.
“Thank God it didn’t happen this time. You see, I was strongly attracted by Lucie and asked her to marry me. If she had … I believe all would have been well. But she had an obsession. It was the great house, the title. She had known great poverty as a child. She feared poverty and longed for security. She was educated by an aunt who was stern and showed her no affection, and she became a teacher. It was a precarious living; she was always in danger of losing her post and being thrown on to an overcrowded market. She was overawed and impressed by the grandeur of Whiteladies.”
I looked at Stirling and I knew he was thinking of Lynx.
“I think she was fond of me in the beginning. I believe she would have married me, but she was helping Sir Hilary a good deal and she realized how much he had come to depend on her. She saw the possibilities and was excited by them, and so this obsession was born. Lucie is a woman of great determination but the desire to possess Whiteladies unbalanced her mind—and she was tempted. Once she had taken one fatal step she was set on her path. In murdering Lady Cardew she had become a criminal and there was no limit to what she was prepared to do. “
“She murdered my mother,” said Minta.
“And she would have murdered me.
Why? “
“She was Lady Cardew but that was not enough. Minta would inherit the house. When Sir Hilary died she would be merely a dependant having no control. She could not endure that. If she could have a son it would be different. But Sir Hilary was old. I was fascinated by Lucie and I did not know that she had committed murder. Druscilla is my daughter.”
There was a short silence before he went on: “She longed for a son.
Her rage when Druscilla was born was great. But she would not give up.
She was determined to have a son who would inherit Whiteladies and prevent its passing to Minta. But Minta married and Sir Hilary died.
There was no hope then except through Druscilla, who was believed to be Sir Hilary’s daughter. If Minta were out of the way . ” He lifted his bands helplessly.
“You see it all now. The whole sordid story. I swear I did not realize all that had happened until I saw those cats today. I knew that she had wanted a son so that she could rule the house through him. I did not know that she had committed murder and planned another. Only today did I see the complete picture.
Mrs. Devlin admitted that Lucie came yesterday and brought whisky and that she, Mrs. Devlin, drank too much. She was asleep the whole afternoon and when I went into my dispensary I found the drug missing as it had been on that other occasion. That is the story. “
I was conscous of a great relief. Stirling was looking at Minta with fear and horror and I thought: He is fond of her after all. Who could help being fond of Minta?
I said: “What are we going to do?”
Nobody answered, but the matter was decided for us.
Minta’s face creased in sudden agony, and she said: “I think my pains are starting.”
It seemed then that reality was forcing fantasy aside, for this , story of what had happened was like a fantasy to us all. It is disconcerting to discover that someone whom one has regarded as a friend, a normal human being, is a murderer. Yet I could believe this of Stirling! I excused myself. I had after all seen his father shoot a man.
There was not time to do anything then but think of Minta and we all became practical. Fortunately Dr. Hunter was with us. I said: “I don’t think Minta should go back to Whiteladies. She should stay here. I can look after her.”
Dr. Hunter, no longer a man with a terrible secret on his conscience, became the efficient doctor. I ordered servants to put a warming-pan and hot-water bottles in the bed in the spare bedroom next to my own; and we took Minta to it. We were all very anxious because the baby was not due for another four weeks.
The child was born late that day—a perfect child, though premature.
It would need very special care and the doctor had summoned a nurse who would come to the Mercer’s House solely to care for it. He himself would be in constant attendance. Minta herself was very weak. The shocks of the last weeks culminating in the so recent one were responsible, said Dr. Hunter. We must take very special care of Minta.
I promised I would do this and I was determined to. I believed that if I could help bring Minta back to health I should in some way expiate my guilt in loving her husband.
I shall never forget Stirling’s face when he heard that he had a son.
I knew he would be called Charles after his grandfather and that he must live so that Lynx’s dream could be realized—a child of his own name to play on the lawns of Whiteladies.
What a strange, unreal kind of day! Looking back on it, it seems like a dream, too fantastic for reality; but there had been other days like that in my life and perhaps there would be more.