Chapter 23

The physician came back early the next morning. As he examined the Duke, Jacob and the Dowager stood outside in the hallway with worried expressions on their faces.

“What could have possibly caused this to happen?” the Dowager asked her son, who looked like he had not slept the night before as his eyes were surrounded by heavy bags.

“I am not sure,” Jacob replied. “He should have regained consciousness by now if it had been due to fatigue, but now, I am not sure myself.”

“Oh, I pray my son gets better soon. Where is the Duchess? I am astounded to see that she is not here. She should be by her husband’s side right now as we all are.”

“Well, about that…” Jacob trailed, “I am afraid that Sophia left for her aunt’s house last night.”

The Dowager was aghast.

“Did no one try to stop her? That is a ridiculous thing to do. Duncan needs her support more than ever at this hour.”

“I would beseech you to not be so harsh on her. The incident took a great toll on her as well, and she blames herself for what has happened,” Jacob said.

“Is she to blame?” The Dowager raised an eyebrow, her protective motherly instinct jumping out instantly.

“Of course not, mother. When the Duke collapsed, she was nowhere in the vicinity. She is just being harsh with herself because she believes that it is her curse that caused this to happen.”

The Dowager’s mouth fell open.

“I had not even considered it until this moment. Do you really believe that this can be the case?” she asked Jacob, worried.

“We have already established that there is no such thing as the curse.”

“But she seems to believe it is the reason. Should we not take her word? Perhaps she is privy to something we do not know,” the Dowager suggested, skeptically.

“I do not expect that you should endorse this sort of nonsense. The only reason that Sophia believes that it is her curse that caused the Duke to be in this state is because that is what she has been told by society all these years. It is natural for her to blame herself. We should know better not to.”

“I suppose you are right,” the Dowager considered, her tone slightly apologetic. “I got ahead of myself because I am just blindsided by all of this and was considering all of the possibilities. Sophia should not be blamed.”

“I am glad that you are seeing reason.” Jacob let out a sigh of relief. “I did not wish to argue with you to convince you otherwise.”

“My dear, your mother has been on this earth longer than you have. After meeting Sophia and getting to know her on a more personal level, I already deduced that the curse was nothing but hogwash. I only assumed for a moment because she believes so.”

“It is unfortunate that she blames herself for this entire thing. Last night, I could not talk her out of leaving. She had her mind set,” Jacob frowned.

“Well, our first priority must now be to ensure that the Duke is all right. Only after that can we take steps to get Sophia back.”

“In my day, it was highly frowned upon for a woman to leave her husband’s side in times of crisis, no matter what the reason,” the Duchess continued, “but I have a soft spot for Sophia. She has been through enough in her life, and I do not wish to make her feel bad for doing what she thought was right in the moment.”

The door to the Duke’s room swung open, and the physician emerged from inside of it, having completed his examination of the Duke which had been going on for the better part of the last hour. He had a guarded expression on his face.

“Physician, please let us know what has plagued my son so suddenly,” the Duchess asked immediately.

“Is it exhaustion as we first assumed? Surely, he should have woken up by now if that were the case,” Jacob added on.

“After completing my examination, I have come to the conclusion that the reason is far more serious than just a case of exhaustion and fatigue,” the physician replied. “But first, you must answer some questions for me.”

“Anything.”

“Tell me, has the Duke been involved in some sort of a disagreement as of late? A rivalry perhaps. Anything that could give someone the incentive to cause harm to him?”

Jacob and his mother exchanged glances, both equally confused as the other.

“Not that we know of,” Jacob replied.

“I am sure that there are none. My son conducts himself in a way in which even his enemies wish him well. Neither does he ever get into petty squabbles with anyone from the lot,” the Dowager replied confidently.

“And if there was anything, I am certain that he would have at least told me. He shares everything with me,” Jacob assured.

“I see. Then this makes it even more perplexing. His symptoms indicate a poisoning of sorts.”

“A poisoning?” The Dowager’s eyes nearly bulged out of her sockets, and Jacob had to wrap an arm around her shoulders to calm her down.

“Indeed. I cannot yet determine the nature of the poison, but it is evident that someone deliberately tried to cause him bodily harm. The symptoms align with a slow-acting toxin that has been introduced over an extended period. I suspect that it must have been consumed sometime early in the day.”

“Oh, but who would do such a thing?” the Dowager asked. “What measures can we take to ensure that the poisoning does not prove to be fatal?”

“For the first, I have no answer. But as far as recovery goes, he should be all right. I suspect that the poison was meant to be taken in multiple doses. The fact that he only fainted indicates that his dose was not high enough just yet,” the doctor replied.

“Could it be something that he ate outside?”

“I do not believe so,” Jacob jumped in. “Sophia told me that the Duke skipped lunch at his meeting yesterday, so it must be something that he consumed inside the estate.”

“Inside the estate?” The Dowager clutched her chest. “Then this is nothing but an elaborate ploy to harm him. I cannot believe that this has happened. Summon the servants and let the physician have a thorough inspection of all the food items in the kitchen.”

The valet who had been standing in the corner nodded. “Yes, Your Grace. I shall do so immediately.”

“I have given him the antidote, and it should start working within a few hours. However, I expect him to be very weak when he wakes up,” the physician continued.

A wave of relief washed over both members of the Blackmoore family.

“As long as it is guaranteed that he will wake up,” the Dowager said.

“Yes. I believe the difficult part is now over, and the poison will slowly start to exit from his body. I will go and check up on him again,” the physician said and returned to the Duke’s room.

“What is happening at Blackmoore Estate? Someone tried to poison my son in his own home, and we did not even have a clue,” the Dowager lamented.

“At least we now know what is going on. Do you think it could be someone from the house staff?” Jacob dropped his voice down to a mere whisper.

“No, most of our staff has been with us for years. They have practically watched the two of you grow up. I do not believe that they would betray us in that manner.” The Dowager shook her head.

“But then who could it possibly be?”

“Sophia?”

“Mother,” Jacob admonished, “please refrain from even suggesting such a thing.”

“I am just making a suggestion. She is the only one who is not here, and it is quite suspect that she left in such a hurried manner,” the Dowager continued.

“You should have seen the state that she was in last night. I do not believe that she could ever be capable of doing such a thing.” Jacob shook his head, disappointment laced in his tone at his mother’s implication.

“Once again, I am only thinking out loud, and you should not crucify me for doing so,” the Dowager defended herself.

“It does us no good to resort to blaming someone who is clearly innocent,” Jacob scolded.

“Well, since you are so adamant, then all we can do is wait for proof. I would urge you not to eat or drink anything in the house until we find out what the source was. For all we know, it could be an elaborate plot against our entire family.”

“But I know that Duncan does not have any enemies, nor do I. Could it be someone that our father crossed has sought out revenge after all these years?”

The Dowager grew quiet for a moment.

“Alas, I cannot give you an answer to that. You know how tumultuous your father’s life was. I would not be surprised if he still had some enemies that wanted to punish what remains of his family.”

“The thought alone makes my blood boil!”

“My Lord, we have discovered something in the kitchen,” one of the maids informed Jacob.

“What is it?”

“It appears that there was a bag of herbs in one of the cabinets,” the valet stepped into the conversation, holding a small cloth bag in his hands. “It was delivered to the house just yesterday.”

“Call the physician,” Jacob demanded, and within minutes, the physician was analyzing the herbs in the bag.

He took a whiff of the contents.

“Yes, exactly what I thought. This is likely what caused the poisoning,”he noted. “The Duke must have consumed it in the form of tea which explains why it took a few hours for the poison to take effect.”

“But who sent it?” the Dowager questioned. “How can you be so careless to accept any parcels without making sure that they originated from a safe place?”

“Your Grace, the package was delivered to the Duchess from her aunt. We searched her room, as well, but it has been emptied out. All we found there was a small notebook.”

The valet handed the notebook over to the Dowager, who started to go through it.

“This is only a dream journal,” the Dowager replied. “It does not explain why her aunt would want to poison my son.”

“I am surprised that she is the person who was behind this,” Jacob exclaimed.

“As am I. In all my interactions with her, I have found her to a level-headed woman. It does not make sense for her to do such a thing.”

“Your Grace, if you allow me to interject, it is quite possible that someone was trying to frame her,” the valet replied. “It is easy to write someone else’s name on top of a parcel and say that they are the sender.”

“This case is out of our hands.” The Dowager shook her head. “We must involve the police immediately. Please take the package and the tea over to the police station so that they can get started on solving this mystery.”

“I shall go there myself,” Jacob volunteered. “We will get to the bottom of this, once and for all.”