Page 37 of Never Leave Me
“You either trust me or you don’t.”
“I’m trying.”
“Then tell me the rest.”
“The rest?”
“Yes. About you.”
He swallowed hard. Had someone figured out his healing too? Perhaps recognized him in Saint Lucia?
Sybil would learn of it eventually. He may as well tell her now. “I’m walking again.”
“I realize that. But how?”
He pushed back from the table. “How could you have any idea? None of the offices have my medical information. And I haven’t told anyone, not even my private physician.”
She nodded curtly toward the garden. “You left your mug on the bench so that Drake had to bring you a fresh one. And there are no wheelchair marks in the grass.”
He followed her gaze to a distant bench and the mug he’d left there, identical to the one on the table in front of him. “What if the mug belonged to the gardener?”
“Your soles are caked with mud.” She nodded to his feet resting on the footrests of his wheelchair. “Too much mud for a paralyzed man.”
She was good.
He held her gaze. Could he trust her?
Her track record from last year told him he could, as did the sincerity in her eyes.
He dropped his feet to the floor, then stood. He strode toward the door, closed it, and faced her again.
She watched him, her expression remaining unchanged except for a slight rounding of her eyes.
“I found two ampullae in the vault here at Chesterfield.”
She was already well aware of the ampullae and holy waterfrom the previous investigation. She knew about the holy water contributing to Arthur’s and Marian’s comas. But he hadn’t shared anything beyond the fact that the holy water contained a powerful, valuable drug of some kind since Lionel was going to such great lengths to acquire it.
Now she had proof of just how powerful and valuable it truly was. It was a miracle-working drug. The ultimate cure.
“You and Ellen each drank a flask?” She took him in from his head down to his shoes. Upon arriving home, he’d changed into his usual suit, vest, and bow tie. But after the freedom he’d had at Saint Lucia, somehow the attire felt too constricting.
“I drank the water in the first ampulla. And once I showed Ellen I was healed, she drank the second one.”
“So Lionel realized she drank holy water and wants to run tests on her in order to replicate the healing process.”
His blood turned suddenly cold. Was that what they planned to do? Test her? He should have guessed as much. Of course, they’d want to replicate what had happened— or at least try to. “I’ll turn myself over to them and let them test me instead.”
“No.” Her single command was low and level. “For now, you need to stay out of the spotlight and continue to act like you’re paralyzed. If word gets out about your healing along with Ellen’s, the entire world will converge on Chesterfield Park. With that kind of attention, Lionel will secure a new hiding place for Ellen we might never find.”
“Not if I hand myself over to Lionel quietly and privately.”
One of Sybil’s brows shot up. “If you hand yourself over, you’ll be signing your death sentence right alongside Ellen.”
“Death sentence?”
“They’ll never release her.”
“They released me.”
