I hurried to Rosamund, grasping her shoulders. “Try to retch, my lady,” I said. “You must bring it back up.”
Though this hardly was what anyone would wish at a formal dinner table, I feared for her safety if she could not purge herself. She could fall ill from food poisoning.
A moment later, the fish came back up.
My eyes rose to Sebastian.
His face was desperate, almost manic, and my heart nearly broke at the sight. He’d wanted nothing to be less than perfect, and this was a disaster. I couldn’t understand it.
Rosamund still looked very ill, and Phillipe was now slightly green. They would both need to lie down.
“Betty, Matilda, please help our guests to their rooms.” I leaned down to Rosamund. “I’ll be in to see you shortly, just as soon as I’ve seen to some things in here.”
She barely nodded and allowed herself to be led away by Betty. Matilda helped Phillipe.
Lord Allemond hadn’t touched his fish, so he remained in the hall.
“My lord,” I said to him. “I am so sorry. If you’ll allow me to have this cleared away, I can have the beef course brought in.”
Though his expression was dour, I knew he was pleased beyond description. He raised one hand. “Thank you, my dear, but I think I have had enough . . . dinner.”
Sebastian blanched, and I ached for him.
“What in all the hells happened?” Jarrod demanded.
Sebastian whirled and strode for the archway. “Wait here and I’ll find out.”
Everyone else was on his feet by now.
I walked to Allemond. “Are you sure I can’t have something else brought in?”
“No, I should check on my lady soon,” he answered, picking up his goblet of wine and looking to Jarrod. “But I would like to discuss a few aspects of this land deal. Can we speak now?”
Though Jarrod was still shaken over the catastrophe that was supposed to be his family’s first formal dinner in society, he managed to nod and grab his own goblet. He, Allemond, and Rolf moved over the hearth to speak in low voices. I wasn’t listening closely, but I did hear the phrase, “Bark beetles.”
Kai moved up beside me, gazing down at the table. “What do you think happened?” he whispered.
“I don’t know. We were so careful.”
The trio of men by the hearth continued speaking until I heard Jarrod say, “All right then. The day after tomorrow.”
Allemond said his good nights and left the hall.
Jarrod turned to glare at me, and I feared what he was about to say, but he never had time. Sebastian came striding back in, and the sight him startled everyone. There was blood all over the back of his right hand.
Beads of sweat ran down his angry face. “It was deliberate!”
I’d never seen him like this and ran to him. “You’re bleeding.”
“It’s not mine,” he answered, but he was looking at Jarrod and not me. “One of the kitchen maids, Lavonia, did it on purpose. She hid spoiled fish behind the hen house and used those instead of the fresh ones.”
Jarrod closed the distance between them. “Why? Was she bribed?”
“Worse than that. She did it to discredit Megan. To make it look like Megan ordered spoiled fish to be served.”
Jarrod’s eyes narrowed. “And how do you know the fish Megan ordered were still fresh?”
“Because I checked them myself before lunch.”
“Lavonia has admitted to this?” I asked, feeling numb.
He nodded. “And Cora knew as well. I asked a few questions and made a few threats, and the story came out. I’ve locked Lavonia down in a cellar room. I’ll handle this myself.” He ran his hands through his hair and some of the blood smeared across the side of his head. “Father, I’m so sorry.”
Jarrod turned away. “Sorry doesn’t change anything.”
Sebastian closed his eyes with his hands still up on his head. Kai appeared distressed, but now Rolf looked smug.
Later, alone with Sebastian in my room, I hoped to comfort him, but he was beyond comfort, pacing back and forth at the end of the bed.
“That bitch,” he said. “I thought she might be up to something. That’s why I went down to the cellar after talking to you in the passage.”
“You couldn’t have known.”
“Oh, yes, I could. I wouldn’t put anything past her. She sleeps in Father’s bed now and then, and she probably thought he’d protect her if anything went wrong. That’s a joke. But what astonishes me is she genuinely seemed to believe you’d be blamed for all this. She never thought anyone would even glance her way, which makes her stupid as well as cruel.”
“Sebastian . . . whose blood is that?”
“Hers. Who did you think?”
“You struck Lavonia?”
“I’ll do more than that before this is finished. Or I may just leave her in that cellar room.”
I went cold. Yes, the girl had done wrong, but he sounded dangerous.
“You can’t leave in there all night,” I said. “Does she have any water? Surely, you should just dismiss her and send her off. Losing her position here is punishment enough.”
He didn’t answer and kept pacing. He was like a stranger to me.
“No, she’ll pay,” he said finally. “I haven’t decided quite how yet, but she’ll pay.”
“How long will you leave her in there?”
Angrily, he turned to me. “Stay out of this, Megan. I know none of this is your fault, but don’t interfere now.”
It was an odd sensation, being afraid of Sebastian. Though I wasn’t afraid of him hurting me, what would he do to Lavonia?
“Come to bed,” I said quietly. “Let me clean up your hand.”
Slowly, he exhaled and sat on the bed. I fetched a rag and the basin of water on my table.
“Father won’t forget,” he whispered. “If he lives to be a hundred, he’ll never forget that I ruined his first attempt to hold a formal dinner.”
At the pain in his voice, I drew his head against my shoulder.
Late in the night, as he finally slept beside me, I listened to him breathe. Nothing would make up for what happened tonight, and he was most likely correct in his assessment of his father: Jarrod would never forget and never forgive.
Of course, Lavonia was to blame, but Sebastian’s talk of punishing her seemed far beyond the crime. The kitchen girls had been allowed to wax lazy for years, and then one day, they’d been expected to work much harder.
Some of them blamed me for this turn of events.
Lavonia probably saw herself as justified in attempting to discredit me.
She wasn’t suited to work in the kitchen, and she’d betrayed the family she served, but the proper punishment for that was a dismissal.
As Sebastian slept, I slipped from the bed and donned my silk dressing gown. Going quietly to my dressing table, I took up a small pouch of money I’d brought with me from Chaumont. Then I tiptoed to the door and opened it, desperately hoping he wouldn’t awake. He didn’t, and I left the room.
I went down to the main floor, to the west passage, and I paused in front of Ester’s door. After gathering myself, I knocked softly.
A moment later, she opened it and peered out. “My lady?”