Page 55 of Taken By the Dangerous Duke

“Yes, Your Grace,” replied Victoria sheepishly. “I will do as you ask.” She moved back to the table, hesitating for a moment before placing her hand on the cup. “Perhaps you have missed out on the tea. You have not had any for the past three days. I only ask that you try some.”

“Victoria!” screamed Margaret. “Take it away! Take it away! Take it away!” Margaret screamed so loud that she was sure that everyone in the building must have heard her. Aunt Bertha would be on her way from the residence, but she might have heard too.

Victoria picked up the cup, but her shaking hands betrayed her, and she dropped it to the floor with a clatter, the tea spilling out and the cup cracking into two pieces.

“What is going on, Victoria?” asked Margaret, softening a little. “I have never seen you like this. You have always treated me with respect, but something is wrong.”

“I am fine,” murmured Victoria.

“No, you are not,” said Margaret. “You have been forcing that damn tea on me for the past week, and if I did not know any better, I would swear that you are trying to poison me.”

“Poison you!” gasped Victoria. “I would never do such a thing.”

“I believe that,” soothed Margaret. “So, what is it then? What is going on, Victoria?”

Victoria was torn between bending down to pick up the broken and looking her mistress in the eye.

“I am not trying to poison you,” whispered Victoria.

Margaret got up from her chair and bent down beside her maid. She lifted Victoria’s hand from where it was hovering beside the broken cup and held it.

“What is going on?” Margaret asked.

“It doesn’t do any harm to you,” replied Victoria.

“No harm? What are you talking about? The tea?”

“Yes, the tea,” whispered Victoria. She looked back toward the door as if she were going to be caught talking about this. “The tea really is just herbs, but it is not my grandmother’s recipe. I don’t know where the recipe came from—one of the cooks in the kitchen wrote it down for us.”

“Us?” asked Margaret. She looked toward the door too as if someone was going to burst in and stop their clandestine conversation.

“No, it was just me,” snapped Victoria quickly. “If anyone should be punished, it should be me. I was the one who brought you the tea every day. I am the one who should be locked up for what I have done.”

“What have you done?” asked Margaret, suddenly worried that she had become slowly poisoned.

“The tea is not an ordinary tea,” said Victoria. “It is a special herbal mix that is to stop you… to stop you from getting pregnant.”

“What?” gasped Margaret.

“I am so sorry, Your Grace. We never meant for you to know. I mean, I never meant…. No one else is responsible except for me.”

“You have been giving me tea to stop me from getting pregnant?” asked Margaret, aghast.

“Yes,” replied the maid.

“I have been worried this entire time. Struggling with a burden of guilt for months. And, now you tell me that you are responsible for all of my troubles.”

“Please,” started the maid.

“I have not become pregnant because of this tea?” asked Margaret.

There was silence from Victoria.

“Answer me!” shouted Margaret.

“Yes,” whimpered Victoria. “The tea has stopped you from getting pregnant, and it is all my fault.”

CHAPTER26

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