Page 80 of A Sight to Behold
Pippa nodded. “All of them. Including the gardens. And my orangery. They are in my name and my father is only the executor of the estate until I marry. It will all revert to my husband then.”
“So hypothetically speaking, if you relinquished your interest in Cloverdale House, your father and stepmother would own it but doing so would set you free?”
“Perhaps. She’s out for pomp and prestige. And money.”
“What makes you doubt the potential of such a transaction?” the earl asked.
Pippa swallowed hard. So that’s what her life and family had become, transactions. Well, if there was no love left between her and her father, then there was at least money. Lots of that. Except…there was more to the story, and maybe it was time to share it. She drew in a deep breath before she blurted, “I suspect that Wife Six is poisoning my father.”
The earl’s penetrating gaze seemed to unravel her composure, exposing the raw vulnerability she had long sought to conceal but Pippa needed to tell the earl and his countess what had happened if she was going to request their help. Despite the daunting prospect of baring her soul to the Earl and facing the ever-judging Violet, a quiet strength pulsed within her, a resilience honed through years of enduring whispered slights and withering glances.
“Well, a wife does have a certain sway over a man’s mind,” the earl said, a quick smile forming on his lips as he looked at Violet. “Of course, she has the power to poison his mind as well as enrich it.”
Pippa shook her head. “No. I mean actual poison. Of his body. It has been going on for a while and I only just discovered it for myself.”
He raised his eyebrows. “That’s a rather grave suspicion to hold, Lady Penelope. What is your basis?” the earl asked.
“She showed me a vial of mushroom cap powder the night she stabbed my pet rabbit.”
“She killed your rabbit with a poisonous mushroom?” Violet blurted out.
“No, with a blade. And no, he’s not dead. But the point is, she showed me the powder in the same vial as that of the crystal healer that my father frequents.” She paused, then turned to Violet, who was sitting with her hand over her mouth and her eyes round and big as saucers. “My bunny is all right. Nick stitched his wounds.”
“And what does that have to do with the poison?”
“It was an act of retaliation. She tried to kill my pet to hurt me. She was showing her hand,” Pippa said. “And threatening to use my liaison with Nick as a scandal. She’d inform everyone in the Ton and Nick and the others would lose their clientele at 87 Harley Street.”
“What did you do?” Violet asked in a voice that was both enterprising and insightful as if she were the master of managing an ill-executed practical joke, which she was. Pippa remembered every nasty prank from boarding school.
“I bred mosquito larvae in the orangery and let them hatch in her room.” Pippa pinched her lips. “Just in time before a ball she hosted.”
The earl massaged his cheeks as if to stifle a laugh and then sucked his cheeks in. “I see.”
“Ooh. Well done,” Violet murmured. Pippa decided that—should Violet ask—she’d never share with her exactly how she’d grown the larvae to enact her plan. It certainly was a trick she would have played on someone when they were younger.
Then again, they’d both learned that pulling pranks had consequences. She took a deep breath. “Wife Six said she usedher father’s mushroom cap. And I’ve seen this style of vial at the crystal healer. My father goes to see the healer—Sir Matthew—every day.”
“The healer is Lady Pemberton’s father?” the earl said.
“Yes.” It didn’t seem right to Pippa that the vile woman held the same title that had once belonged to her mother. “The sixth Lady Pemberton.”
“So, she’s not of noble blood either?” Violet asked.
Pippa shook her head.
“Is she wealthy?”
Pippa shook her head. “About six months ago, I looked into the accounts, and it seems that the amount she brought with her dowry was almost the same amount my father had paid the crystal healer over the course of two years.”
“So, your father paid for the dowry of his non-noble wife who’s the daughter of the crystal healer who’s poisoning him?” the earl asked.
Pippa squinted. Phrased that way it all sounded rather like a big web of lies. “Well…Yes. She’s using Nick to blackmail me into not revealing that she’s poisoning my father. As long as she’s manipulating my father, he won’t agree to my marriage to Nick and the practice is at risk.”
“Plus, your heart,” Violet added. Pippa nodded.
“And you don’t think your father will give his blessing for you to marry Doctor Folsham? Why? He’s only twenty-six or so.”
“Twenty-seven.”
