Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

Griffin was a little shattered by the receival of the letter, but wouldn’t dare show it. He was mildly disappointed to lose the partner in his investigation, but more so due to the fact that he possibly won’t see Marina again. Not like he had, at least.

He spent the day towering over Beth to distract himself from the broken courtship. The courtship he hadn’t even made the effort to call real, but wished he had done so.

“Your Grace, is there anything I might be of assistance to you?” Beth asked, looking up from the desk over to Griffin, a slightly annoyed expression cast over to him.

“N-no. You can just continue with the work, Beth,” Griffin said, oblivious to the fact that he served as a nuisance to Beth. She looked at him for a moment.

“What’s the matter?” he asked Beth, as she continued to look him dead in the eye.

“Can’t I send you off to visit Marina while you leave me to do this task, Your Grace?” Beth laughed. “It’s slightly difficult to focus whilst a tall man towers over my every move.”

“Ah, my deepest apologies. I’ll go,” Griffin said, ignoring the comment about Marina. He started to move in behind his desk, yet the eyes of Beth still hadn’t left him.

“Beth, it’s slightly difficult to focus whilst a lady keeps staring at me with large eyes,” Griffin joked, pinpointing the fact that he, too, was now uncomfortable. Beth raised from her chair.

“Just stretching my limbs, the three and a half I have,” Beth laughed as she stretched her arms into the air. “I was staring at you in thought, Your Grace. I’ve been wondering why Marina had been so scarce as of late, I enjoy her presence in the Stanton Manor-she gives it a bit of life.”

“I don’t believe to be seeing her anytime soon, Beth. She broke off the courtship this morning,” Griffin sighed, throwing a piece of parchment onto his desk that he had been fidgeting with.

Beth stood still, struck by the news Griffin was relaying.

“Oh no, Your Grace. I’m so terribly sorry. Why could she possibly have done such a thing? The two of you shared such great chemistry,” Beth said, her expression showing how deeply saddened she was by the news. She had grown a liking for Marina.

“I doubt it to be her own choice,” Griffin said, thinking back to the conversation he overheard between Marina and Nancy from outside her bedroom window. “The family enjoys causing difficulties between us.”

“Is it because of, what’s her name?” Beth asked, trying to recall the name of Marina’s cousin who Griffin had courted priorly. The duke chuckled.

“Nancy,” he corrected, thinking how things might’ve turned out so much better if he had decided to court Marina from the start. How they could’ve avoided the wrath of Josiah, possibly even leading him to be proud of her. Instead, he caused a scandal that left the family in shreds. Not that the family could be described as “whole” prior.

“She wasn’t quite happy with the courtship, as you might think. But she had started to throw threats in Marina’s direction to persuade her to break the courtship. I can only gather that to be the case at hand,” Griffin sighed, looking at Marina’s letter still open on his desk. Her handwriting still a gift to the eye, even if it held such dreadful words.

“Well, that’s too bad,” Beth scoffed, to the surprise of Griffin. He hadn’t thought Beth would be so unsympathetic toward the matter.

Quickly, she noticed Griffin’s hurt expression.

“Oh, dear. That’s not what I meant at all. I mean that it’s unfortunate that Nancy feels that way but she could get over it. I like Marina a lot and so do you. And she most certainly likes you, Your Grace,” Beth corrected herself, starting to seat herself back at the table sprawled with tea leaves.

“How might you know, had the lady told you so?” Griffin asked, genuine curiosity peaking at the mention that Marina might feel the same.

“One doesn’t have to ask about the obvious,” Beth said, turning back to her magnifying glass and continuing her own slither of the investigation.

“Have you detected anything?” Griffin asked, knowing she would scold him if he were to near her desk again. She smiled at his desperation.

“I’ve identified plenty of Bohea leaves, as I know them to be quite common. I’ve separated a couple that don’t resonate with the structure of the Bohea, but I’m uncertain if I could classify them as Belladonna,” Beth said, pointing her fingers at the two piles she had started to separate from one another. “But I must say, if the unknown pile happens to be Belladonna, the perpetrator certainly made sure to include the leaves in a lethal dosage.”

“Wouldn’t expect anything less of him, I can tell you that,” Griffin scoffed, the image of Josiah’s icy blue eyes popping into his head and peering into the darkest parts of his souls. Griffin wouldn’t be surprised if Josiah could’ve been some kind of sorcerer. “How might you be able to identify the leaves?”

“Currently, I’m still unsure, Your Grace. But I’ll be sure to discover a method,” Beth sighed, scooping another leaf with her tool and placing it on the pile of bohea leaves.

Griffin nodded silently, still watching Beth in her investigation with the plant, now just from the distance of his own desk.

“Might I ask who you are trying to gather evidence against, Your Grace?” Beth asked out of curiosity, unable to contain it any longer. After all, she had somehow become part of this entire investigation in a strange way.

Griffin hesitated for a moment. He wanted to tell her, after all, he no longer had a partner in the investigation. Yet, he feared to incriminate Beth if he allowed her part in it. The fact that he had allowed Marina already eats him with guilt.

“The wonderful Earl of Lyford,” Griffin spat out in sarcasm, despite having made up his mind to avoid telling her.

Beth swung around in her chair, a strange complexion on her face.

“I’m gathering you are speaking of the current Earl of Lyford and not Marina’s late father,” Beth said with a question eyebrow. Griffin nodded to confirm the identity, hand still on his mouth.

“One must not hate, but I am sure near hatred for that man,” Beth huffed under breath. “I’ll be sure to investigate these leaves even harder.”

“What had the man done to you?” Griffin muffled from behind his hand, realizing he could remove it now that all the cards were thrown on the table.

“Stole my family’s business right underneath their own nose. Quite possibly the reason we all fell bankrupt and I made my way to the Stanton,” Beth huffed, now angrily scavenging amongst the leaves. Griffin looked at her in disbelief.

“It seems like Josiah had ruined the lives of so many people, yet, each time I hear of another I still find myself in shock,” Griffin sighed. The image of Beth’s father arriving at their front step was heartbreaking and still burned into his mind. The way he carefully clutched the one hand of Beth who was in tears, too young to understand what was going on.

Griffin’s father hired her immediately, promising a large salary yet giving her few work. Griffin’s father noticed Beth’s love for gardening, allowing her to garden how she wants and take breaks when she wants. Thus, Griffin had always been unable to see her as anything other than a sister. The two even used to play in the garden together, much to the dismay of the other workers, but Griffin’s father wanted to give Beth the slightest bit of childhood she deserved. The childhood she couldn’t have due to Josiah.

Griffin gripped his fingers angrily over the edge of the desk, a part of him wanting to flip the desk over. He didn’t understand how one man could possibly so disgusting and vile toward others.

“I have the piles, and can positively discard these as bohea,” Beth said as she pointed to the two piles in front of her. “My next challenge would be determining how deadly nightshade looks when dried, Your Grace.”

“Wait,” Griffin said as he stood up from his desk. Beth looked at him sternly.

“No, Your Grace, that was no invitation to tower over me,” she said as she watched his movements. Griffin ignored her and continued to the bookshelf next to her. On a top shelf he had placed the deadly nightshade leaf that Beth had pinpointed when Marina was present. Griffin placed in on the shelf, not wanting to lose it between the pages of a book again.

He picked up the leaf carefully, hearing its crackle. He carefully carried it over to Beth, who gasped in excitement. She gently picked it up by it’s fragile stem, using only the tips of her nails.

“Go wash your hands thoroughly, it’s best not to touch this,” Beth said to Griffin, who disgustedly rubbed his hands on his pants.

She carefully placed the leaf beside the tea leaves- a perfect match to their unknown pile.

“Eureka!” Beth shouted.

“Wait, are you telling me I can use this for a conviction of Josiah?” Griffin mumbled in surprise, barely able to catch his breath from the discovery.

“A complete conviction, I’m unsure. But it could definitely act as a step closer to doing so, Your Grace,” Beth sighed as she put down the tool she had at hand.

“I must hear from Leilah if there were any other teabags in his possession, if so, I could tie the murder weapon to the murderer,” Griffin thought out loud, pacing up and down in front of Beth’s desk.

“Who might Leilah be, Your Grace?” Beth asked curiously.

“A maid working at the Cromwell, she provided me with the teabag,” Griffin replied, remembering that he had to go wash his hands.

“Ah, so you fancy working with all the maids, Your Grace?” Beth laughed as Griffin started to exit the room in search of water to wash his hands.

Internally, Griffin had never been so excited before- the ending of the investigation in sight. He had to make his way over to the Cromwell, he had no other choice.