Page 96 of The Other Lady Vanishes

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” she said. She handed the mug through the bars. “Here you are. You’ll feel much better after you drink this.”

Conrad hesitated and then lurched awkwardly to his feet. He crossed the cell and took the mug from her fingers. He drank some of the tea and then looked at her with frantic eyes.

“You understand, don’t you?” he said. “I didn’t want to put you in that place but I had no choice. I had to save the family business.”

She did not answer. She waited in silence until he had finished the tea.

“Give me the mug, Conrad,” she said.

He handed it back to her. “You understand, don’t you?”

“No,” she said. “I don’t understand. I might have understood if you had done what you did to me in order to save the life of someone you love. But to save a company and your family name? No. I don’t understand that at all.”

He looked stunned. “You said you understood.”

“I lied.”

“You can’t lie to me,” Conrad raged. He seized the bars in his cuffed hands and shook them with a drug-enhanced strength. “You’re too naïve, too trusting, too dumb to lie.”

Adelaide sensed Jake moving. In the blink of an eye he was at the cell door, key in hand.

She grabbed his arm.

“No,” she said. “Please.”

Jake glanced down at her fingers on his arm and then raised his burning eyes to look at her.

“Don’t you see?” she said quietly. “He’s like a maddened bull right now. Let the tisane take care of the situation. When it wears off, he’ll be facing bankruptcy and charges of fraud and kidnapping and who knows what else. He’ll be ruined. That’s all the revenge I need.”

The brew was working quickly. Conrad gripped the bars and stared at her. He made a visible attempt to focus his eyes.

“You lied to me,” he mumbled. “You said it was tea but it was poison.”

He released the bars, stumbled to the bunk, and collapsed on the thin mattress.

Adelaide became aware of the acute silence around her. She turned, walked across the room, and set the empty mug on the counter.

“I gave him a very heavy dose,” she said, keeping her voice expressionless. “He’ll probably sleep for a few hours.”

She stared at the wall in front of her and wondered why she felt numb.

Jake came to stand beside her. He turned her gently in his arms.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“I almost let you go into that cell,” she whispered. “But you might have killed him. I couldn’t allow you to do that. Not for me.”

“There’s no one I would rather kill for than you.” Cold steel underlined the words.

She managed a teary smile. “Thank you but it’s not necessary. I’m not alone now. I don’t have to hide any longer. I’ve got friends here in Burning Cove.”

“Damn right,” Raina said.

Chapter 45

Everything had gone wrong. Again.