Page 41 of Death at Fournier Downs
“I was passing by and thought to stop in.”
The doctor dismissed the nurse, then gestured to a chair, but Hugh remained standing. The doctor’s half-finished neckcloth drooped, revealing a patch of reddened skin. A port wine stain, not a bruise or other injury. No wonder he wore his cravat to his chin, Hugh thought as a half-formed memory nudged at him. A doctor with a large birthmark on his neck…why did that ring so familiar to Hugh?
He glanced around the cluttered office. Stacks of books on shelves appeared disorganized, interspersed with trinkets; papers riddled the desk and spilled over onto a well-worn cushioned chair.
“How can I be of service?” the doctor asked after a protracted moment of quiet. “Are you feeling unwell?”
“I’m perfectly healthy as far as I’m aware, but thank you.” Hugh peeled his eyes from a hand-stitched sampler bearing a proverb:A cheerful heart is good medicine.It looked like something a young child had done, and Hugh wondered if the doctor had a wife and children.
“No, I’ve come to ask you a few questions about Lady Bainbury—the previous.”
Doctor Ryder’s brows furrowed behind the rims of his spectacles. “You refer to Lady Mary Bainbury?”
“That is correct. Were you her physician as well?”
He seemed to recall his forgotten neckcloth and set about finishing the knot. “Yes, I was.” He turned toward his desk and away from Hugh. “I don’t see how that is relevant to this investigation.”
“I’ve just come from Kilton House and a meeting with Lord and Lady Finborough,” Hugh said. “Were you aware that the previous countess was with child when she died?”
He watched the doctor closely, and in doing so, saw him falter again with his half-formed cravat. The slightest fumble, but it was there, nonetheless.
“I…yes,” he said with a slight sigh. “Yes, I did.”
“Did Bainbury know?”
Doctor Ryder let out another exhale and gave up on the knot. He sat heavily into his wooden swiveling chair behind his disorderly desk. “No. The countess said she wished to tell him as soon as the danger of losing the baby was greatly reduced, but then after her death… Well, I decided it would be added pain if I revealed it to the earl. What would be the point?”
Hugh only nodded. “And what about Charlotte?”
The doctor blinked owlishly. “What do you mean?”
“Did you know she was with child?”
He rolled back his chair and leaped to his feet. “What? No, I… How do you know this?”
Unless the doctor had spent time in his youth at Drury Lane or some other theatre, Hugh was inclined to believe his shocked reaction. The thought of the theater put Hugh in mind of London. If Ryder trained there, Thornton might know of him.
“Wilkes performed an autopsy to determine it.”
The doctor sunk back into his chair, bracing his hands upon his desk. “I did not know. She…she was not forthcoming about her condition. Perhaps even she did not know?”
Hugh shook his head. “She knew.”
Doctor Ryder rubbed his chin. “I hope it gave her some happiness before… Well, it was what she wanted: a bit of joy in her life. She had that, for a short while, at least.”
“Do you mean to say the countess did not have joy in other parts of her life?” Hugh asked. “With the earl?”
The doctor shifted in his chair, sitting forward before standing up. “I do not like to speak out of turn, but it was my suspicion that she was not content in her marriage. The bloom had come off the rose, so to speak.”
“And drops of laudanum would help her how, exactly?”
Doctor Ryder puffed out his chest, though it remained rather emaciated, even with the padding of his waistcoat and jacket. “When taken sparingly, laudanum calms and restores. Trust me, officer, I know the temptation many have to consume more than the recommended amount. Because of that, I made sure the countess only had a small vial—a quarter dram—in her possession. I would replace it every week.”
That would account for his frequent visits to Bainbury Manor. So frequent that the countess came to look forward to them? Or to perhaps equate the doctor with the effects of the drug he prescribed?
Taking in Joseph Ryder once again, Hugh could contemplate how Charlotte might have found herself enamored. Though late in his fortieth decade, he was physically fit and handsome in a studious and philosophical sort of way. He wore no gold band on his left ring finger. But the sampler…
“Do you have children, doctor?”
