From Governess to Countess (Matches Made in Scandal #1)(34)

‘That is rather uncharitable.’

‘I don’t feel like being charitable! What possessed Michael to leave his progeny in my charge? Why he imagined that I was in any way suitable to do what he’d expect by his children...’ He shook his head wearily. ‘He should have stuck with Felix. The man lives and breathes St Petersburg, he could care for them in a way that I cannot. I wish to hell I could prove him as innocent as I believe him to be, but we are no closer to the truth than we were a week ago.’

He dropped his head on to his hands, rubbing the frown which was etched on his forehead. Allison put her hand on his knee. ‘Not necessarily. I might have made a significant discovery. I hadn’t planned on telling you, because I’m not absolutely certain yet, but...’

His eyes lit up. ‘What have you found? Tell me.’

And so she did, explaining how the delphiniums triggered her memory of the existence of Wolf’s Bane. ‘I need to pay another visit to the Apothecary’s Garden to confirm, as I would expect in such an extensive collection, that it is grown there.’

‘Sweet heaven! So it is what you have been looking for, lethal and simple to use?’

‘Wolf’s Bane is unusual in that every component of the plant is poisonous.’

‘And the symptoms?’

‘It very much depends on the dosage, and which part of the plant was used, but if Michael ingested the root in any quantity, he would have died almost immediately.’

‘And it would have appeared to have been an apoplexy?’

‘With a high dosage, the symptoms would have seemed very similar. It would have been very quick-acting.’

‘Then we must be thankful for small mercies,’ Aleksei said grimly.

‘Yes.’ Allison bit her lip. ‘I’m afraid there’s more.’

‘What? For the love of—spit it out.’

‘It is Elizaveta. I don’t think she died of natural causes either.’

His brows snapped together. ‘Elizaveta fell ill after suffering a severe reaction to a fish she should have known better than to eat.’

‘That may be what she thought happened, and it is certainly what she told the doctor, but I don’t necessarily believe it is true. You remember what I said, about the symptoms of Wolf’s Bane poison varying depending on the dosage...’

Aleksei’s jaw dropped. ‘You believe—are you really telling me that we are dealing with not only one murder but two?’

‘Yes.’ The more she thought about it, the more certain she became. ‘Elizaveta was very sick, with severe stomach pains. The symptoms appeared to ease after a day and the sickness stopped, as one would expect in such cases of food intolerance, but then, as they do sometimes, they returned in a different form, and Elizaveta went into a rapid decline. Her pulse grew weaker, her breathing became laboured, until she could breathe no more. It could have been an extreme case of intolerance, as the doctor concluded. But the same effect could have been achieved with a small dosage of Wolf’s Bane.’

‘Not a tragic coincidence after all, but simply too much of a coincidence.’ Aleksei looked every bit as dumbfounded as Allison had been when she had first made her discovery. ‘By all the stars in heaven! This puts Michael’s murder in a very different light. But why would anyone kill Elizaveta? I know nothing of the woman.’

His brow cleared. ‘Though I know someone who does. Her brother has been in Finland on some errand for the Emperor, but I think he is due back in St Petersburg soon. Grigory Fyodorovksi is a charmer, a rake and a rogue, but a likeable one, welcomed everywhere because the currency he deals in is what St Petersburg thrives on.’

‘Gossip?’

‘And scandal. A more contrasting pair of siblings you could not find, for my sister-in-law was, as they say here in St Petersburg, as straight as the Kryukova Canal while they say that if Grigory Fyodorovski doesn’t know a secret, then that’s because it doesn’t exist. Perhaps he’ll be able to shed some light on the situation.’

Aleksei got to his feet, looking a very different man than the one who had joined her in the garden an hour before. ‘I’m going to spend a few hours going through Elizaveta’s papers. And I’m going to excuse myself from tonight’s dinner at the Winter Palace. I think we both deserve some time off. Would you do me the honour of dining with me?’

Allison pursed her lips. ‘I will have to consult my diary, it is very short notice.’

‘May I hope that if you do have a prior engagement, you will cancel it?’

She laughed. ‘You may. I look forward to it.’

Aleksei smiled, bowing over her hand, and pressing a fluttering kiss to her fingertips. ‘As do I.’

*

They dined as before, à deux, in the Green Dining Room, and as before, Allison wore her green evening gown. Though he needed some tactful encouragement, she persuaded Aleksei to tell her something of his life in the army. An itinerant life, it seemed to her, where the excitement and terror of battle were intermingled with long periods of tedium, waiting out winters or waiting for new orders.

‘I’m making it sound as if I’ve spent my life doing other’s bidding,’ he said, frowning. ‘In a way, I suppose I have, though it did not seem so at the time.’

‘But you cannot remain in the army and be a law unto yourself, unless you have set your sights on General Arakcheev’s job,’ Allison said.