Page 31 of Murder in Disguise (Mary and Bright #5)
“I’m not as stupid as you think, you great cow.
” Suddenly full of spirit, Adelaide struggled to her feet.
She glared at her former friend. “You think killing the pretty girls, the talented girls, the outgoing girls, the ones with connections will make the eligible men in society more prone to choose you?”
Miss Madison shrugged. “Won’t it? Isn’t it just a matter of numbers?”
“Of course not!” Adelaide shook her head as she slowly approached the table.
It was as awkward as it looked with her wrists tied behind her back and dust and streaks of dirt marring her skirting.
A lock of blonde hair had escaped its pins and tumbled down to a shoulder.
“Narrowing the field can’t make a man suddenly become attracted to you.
It doesn’t work like that. Men don’t think that way; they’ll just go elsewhere to search for women. ”
“You don’t know that.” Miss Madison’s eyebrows furrowed briefly, but then she shook her head. “You’re only saying that because you don’t want to die.”
“No, I’m saying it because it’s true! Men are fickle.
Half of them won’t even be ready to settle down until they’re near thirty, and the last thing you need is to have your reputation compromised merely to be forced into a match that won’t work.
” Adelaide shook her head. “When did you become such a loon, Theresa? You could have had a good life, yet you chose evil, turned into a murderer! It was a conscious choice on your part. Why in the world would you do that?”
Mary couldn’t fault her for asking the questions.
It was a puzzling conundrum, and the outrage in her niece’s voice was well founded.
“Perhaps you should explain to us, Miss Madison. After all, once you kill us, the confession will go to the grave anyway, but you might feel better if you can talk about it.” And perhaps if she was kept busy, it would give Bright enough time to arrive with help.
Assuming he even knew where they were.
Shadows flickered in the young woman’s eyes.
Then her expression became a twisted, tortured thing in the dancing candlelight.
“I wasn’t always this person,” she said in a low voice as she bounced her gaze between them.
“Long ago, I had hopes and dreams like all the rest. When I was given the chance to have this one Season, I was so excited, giddy even. I thought my run of bad luck would finally change.”
“What sort of bad luck?” Mary asked as she slowly struggled to her feet.
Surely there had to be something she could use as a weapon…
if she could somehow free her hands. When the other woman didn’t immediately answer, she pressed.
If she’d learned anything from her husband, keeping a suspect talking, bringing them to the brink would cause them to break.
Only when they took action could anything change, for in the chaos there was hope.
“Is it something to do with your father? That’s who you were upstairs talking to before you came down, wasn’t it? ”
Slowly, Miss Madison turned around to face her. “How do you know about him?”
“I don’t. I’m merely guessing. You are highly motivated to marry. Is he the reason?”
For long moments, they stared at each other while Adelaide stealthily snuck closer from behind. Finally, Miss Madison huffed out a breath.
“My father is fighting complications from having pneumonia at the beginning of the year. His health just isn’t improving; every day he grows a bit worse, a bit weaker, which means he isn’t working in the shop as much as he used to, so customers are going elsewhere.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Mary said in what she hoped was a soothing tone. “That must be taking a toll on you with all that worry.”
“It is.” She toyed with the cork stopper on the laudanum bottle.
“The rents for this shop are behind, and since we live upstairs, we might lose our home. A man from the counting house has called a few times wanting the rent money.” In the candlelight, a suspicious trace of moisture danced in her eyes.
“That is why when a distant second cousin agreed to sponsor me for part of the Season, I was so happy. It was my chance to change everything for my father and myself. We finally wouldn’t need to struggle merely to survive. ”
“Ah, so you thought to charm some unsuspecting man who either had money or a title in the hopes that you’d be engaged by year’s end.” Mary shook her head and continued her approach toward the worktable. If Miss Madison’s focus remained on her, she might forget about Adelaide.
“That was indeed the plan. I could finally get Papa the care he needed, and I would know what it felt like to be included. But then I met Miss Swanson.”
Mary frowned. “What difference did that make?”
“What difference?” She slammed a hand down on the surface of the table, causing Mary to flinch.
A quick glance to Adelaide showed that she was up to something.
It was the look on her face that concerned Mary.
“Miss Swanson decided that I needed a group of friends from the first moment that we met. She took me into the bosom of her orbit, and from then on, I was never alone. Always surrounded by giggling, vapid-headed girls who expected me to act like them.”
“Isn’t that what you wanted?” Mary asked. “To be included?”
“Not like that!”
“Some gratitude I received in return,” Adelaide muttered. “I wanted you to have people you could talk to, for you seemed so lonely when we met. I thought if given enough time, you might feel comfortable with us and tell us why, so we could help you.”
“Bah. Pity only.” Miss Madison didn’t even turn around. She continued to lock gazes with Mary. “It’s a frivolous lifestyle all those girls lead, with nothing more interesting discussed than gowns, fripperies, gossip, and men.”
“That’s what young women do,” Mary said with a frown. How could she take this poor, demented soul down before she harmed either of them?
“I was surrounded by them!” She shook her head.
The jet beading that lined the bodice of her dark purple gown glittered in the low illumination.
“What was more? They were all so beautiful and pretty, had such cultured manners and graceful ways of moving. Dressed in lovely gowns and dainty little slippers with soft voices. Each of them knew how to flirt, which brought all the interesting young men to their sides. I felt like a pig in a gown around them.”
“You were left out,” Mary said with a nod. “I know how that feels.”
“Do you? The woman who married the world’s most handsome former Bow Street inspector? Captivated a man like him merely by a random kiss?” She popped the cork from the brown bottle. “He’s wasted his time with you.” As she spoke, Miss Madison came around the worktable with the bottle in hand.
Mary flicked her gaze between the bottle and the woman’s face.
How the devil did the woman know of her history with Bright?
Perhaps Adelaide had told her the story.
“People fall in love, share interests, do things together. That is the point of courtship; you learn about a person you are interested in.”
“I wouldn’t know. Not even once has a man looked at me twice.”
“Probably because you come the crab at any sign of affection,” Adelaide said in a droll tone.
Miss Madison ignored her. “There are far too many pretty, rich girls with perfect families dressed in fancy clothes for anyone to see me . So I decided to thin the herd, as it were.” She stalked over to Mary’s position.
“Even your husband refused to play my little game after I put so much time into crafting those notes. I was right there , and he still overlooked me, refused to match wits with me!” The young woman was quicker than Mary had anticipated.
She sprang, took hold of Mary’s hair, forced her head back, and then put the edge of the bottle to Mary’s lips.
“Perhaps with you gone, he’ll finally realize there are other women more suited for him. ”
As Mary struggled in the younger woman’s hold, she tried to spit out the cold laudanum that was forced upon her, but Miss Madison was having none of it. She jammed the bottle further into Mary’s mouth then pinched her nose, making her swallow.
Inevitably, some of the bitter opiate went down her throat, but using all the strength available to her, she wrenched away from Miss Madison while Adelaide screamed for Theresa to stop.
As quickly as she could, Mary pushed the bottle from her mouth with her tongue, spit again any remaining drug, and hoped to God what did go down her throat wasn’t a fatal dose. It was difficult to tell with laudanum.
“Stop it!” Adelaide was yelling. “Leave my aunt alone. Let her go.”
“I can’t do that, because she’ll go back to him .”
Her niece huffed. “So your mission in life is to go around killing other people who are better at things than you! Who have better lives than you? Who have won men where you have not?” When Miss Madison didn’t answer, Adelaide continued with a large dollop of annoyance in her voice.
“It sounds ridiculous spoken aloud, and you are naught but a bitter, jealous woman who refuses to see that you might be the reason for your ills.” She glared at Theresa, and in that moment, Mary saw traces of her brother in Adelaide’s face as well as bits of Bright’s attitude in the way she spoke and puzzled things out.
It was a moment of pride that she couldn’t enjoy just yet.
“You have no idea how hard other people work for what they currently enjoy.”
“Not some of them.”
“Yes, but most, and now you’ve come along and ruined three lives—four if my aunt doesn’t survive.” Tears echoed in the girl’s voice. “How could you even kill anyone , Theresa? Those women were our friends.”
Miss Madison laughed, but there was no mirth in the sound. “They were your friends. I never felt close to any of them.”