After that, everything had happened quickly, if hazily. Guy had not come alone but with Mary in a police car, followed by an ambulance. Both Louisa and Luke were taken to hospital, accompanied by a constable. After Luke had been given emetics, he had almost recovered and once awake, begged to be allowed to see Louisa. He found her lying in bed, in discomfort but no great pain. Lady Boyd had not managed to plunge the needle far and it had not caused any serious internal damage; so long as she rested, she would recover well. For the moment, she was grateful to lie in a clean bed, attended to by a nurse, and to look out of the window at the blue sky of spring. It made everything seem lighter and more hopeful once more.
Luke had approached her bed cautiously but she was pleased to see him. They embraced and Luke had sobbed with the relief: it was over. At least, this part of it had ended for him but there was much to explain.
‘How did you know to come and find me?’ he asked.
‘Your aunt sent a note to Diana, as if it was from you, saying you were going to take your own life.’ She squeezed his hand. ‘I’m so sorry, Luke.’
He shook his head. ‘Don’t be, I’m so grateful you came. I should have seen it coming. I knew she wasn’t well in some way but I chose not to see it. She was all I had.’
‘We don’t see the things we don’t want to see. I do understand.’
Luke blinked away the tears. ‘Perhaps. But I think I knew more than I could ever admit to myself.’
‘Do you mean to say you knew what she had done?’
‘I didn’t know about the devils-on-horseback for Bryan, and certainly not that the maid had eaten them by mistake. But I did wonder about those chocolates. When it was realized that someone had to have given Clara the opium I did strongly suspect, because I had noticed Aunt go missing when we were all in the church. She must have followed Clara out and been the one who took her bag. Only, when Kate was dead, it seemed to fit that perhaps Kate had done it after all. She stole Kate’s diary, too. But I’m afraid when I saw it I was too overcome by nosiness and the thought that I might be able to sell a story or two from it.’ He looked shamefaced and Louisa didn’t have the heart to remonstrate with him over this; his own guilt and the knowledge of who his aunt really was, was punishment enough.
‘Do you think she made you sick?’
‘There could be no explanation for it other than she was slowly poisoning me.’
‘She told me she saw a letter from the police. It must have been the one dropping the charges.’
‘Yes, she steamed it open and read it before she gave it to me. I thought I’d kept it from her but I was a fool to think that. She wanted to control every element of my life. It had always been like that but it got worse in recent months. But you see, I couldn’t think what I’d do without her and, I know it will sound ridiculous to you, no one else had ever cared for me. Aunt, in her twisted way, seemed to mind what happened to me.’
Louisa took Luke’s hand in hers. ‘Anyone would find that hard, you mustn’t blame yourself.’
‘Only I was completely wrong about her, wasn’t I?’
‘But not about us,’ said Louisa. ‘Nor Guy, or Mary. We all came, as quickly as we could.’
Luke smiled at that. ‘So do you think there’s a chance for me?’
‘Everyone deserves a chance,’ said Louisa. ‘Even us.’
A few hours later, Guy came to the hospital with a brown paper bag of grapes, an exotic delight. He looked exhausted but it was tinged with exhilaration at the work he had done that day. ‘She confessed everything,’ he said. ‘It was a moral crusade. She believed Bryan Guinness was caught up in evil practice against God’s works because the family money was made from alcohol.’
‘And he was in the way of Luke, who might otherwise marry Diana,’ interjected Louisa.
‘I think Luke had the lucky escape there,’ said Guy. ‘She said she had been sorry about the maid’s death, though she hadn’t known it was because they’d eaten the devils-on-horseback. The chocolates had been intended for Bryan and Diana, but when Shaun was killed instead she had reasoned that God had changed the target and that He had his reasons. Discovering that Shaun had committed adultery had only confirmed that belief.’
Louisa could only shake her head in wonder.
‘Clara she saw as helping her move more swiftly to an end that was already coming, and that she deserved to go straight to hell as a drug addict. She had seen her leave the church and take the opium. Back at the hotel, she intercepted the maid who was taking Clara the tea you’d asked for, and put the opium in it.’
‘Which must have been why the maid didn’t want to talk to the police,’ interrupted Louisa. ‘What about Kate Mulloney?’
‘Lady Boyd knew that the police were investigating Clara’s death, so she had to throw them off the scent. She was especially concerned when Luke was called in that he would be arrested. She poisoned Kate first, then used Kate’s own gun to make it look like suicide. She was the “R” in Kate’s appointment book. They had met for luncheon that day, and then arranged that Lady Boyd would go to her house later. It had been easy for Lady Boyd to contact Mrs Mulloney and offer her Christian help and sympathy, given that they had briefly met in Venice. That was also where Lady Boyd stole the diary, after Mrs Mulloney left it on a desk where she had been writing letters. That connection between Clara and Shaun made her an easy victim.’
‘And then Luke,’ said Louisa. ‘She was poisoning him, too. Bit by bit, but still.’
‘That seems to have been the hardest one for her, which perhaps explains why she didn’t give him one fatal dose. I think even in her own deranged way, she did love him but she loves God more. She tried to see it as the ultimate sacrifice, like Abraham and his son.’
‘What will happen to her, do you think?’
‘Hard to say but I think she’ll be committed to Broadmoor. It’s unlikely she’ll ever see the outside world again.’
Louisa was quiet at this. ‘We must help Luke to get on his feet.’
‘I’m sure he’ll be fine. He has a future ahead of him now. His aunt was never going to give him that. He can live as he truly is, with no fear.’
‘Yes, that’s true.’
Guy looked at Louisa then, and she felt a pleasant sensation in the lower part of her stomach that was quite separate from any of the earlier pain.
‘Perhaps we, too, have a future ahead of us now?’ he said gently.
‘Yes,’ said Louisa, turning her face towards his. ‘We do.’