Part 9

Eliza and William both climbed the stairs up to the third floor of Rupert's townhouse, and made their way to see Mary. When they entered the bedroom, she was still sat in the chair by the window wrapped in the blanket that Eliza had given her.

"How are you Mary?" Eliza asked as she crossed the room.

Mary was pale and still clearly very visibly upset, and she wiped a tear away as they walked over, but seemed far calmer then when Eliza had left her earlier in the evening.

She sighed and nodded, then shrugged, as if she didn't even know how to answer Eliza's question.

"You wanted to speak to us," Eliza said softly, and she knelt down next to her while William stood by the foot of the bed nearby.

"I'm so sorry," she sobbed, her eye wide and full of sorrow.

"For what?" Eliza asked confused. What she could possibly have to be sorry about.

"I didn't mean to…" Mary looked away towards the window and the darkness of the night. She put her hand over her mouth, trying to contain her emotions. She stayed silent for a few minutes while she composed herself.

"It's okay, you can talk to us," Eliza pressed, as she took one of Mary's hands offering her some support.

"It all happened so quickly…" Mary pulled the blanket around her tighter, seeking some comfort and warmth.

Eliza shared a look with William, slightly concerned as to what Mary was talking about.

"What did?" William asked carefully. He softened his stance and sat down on the edge of the bed so he didn't seem so daunting, towering over her as she sat in her chair.

"I was coming up from the kitchen, and Mr Goldberg… he was in the hallway, and I went to walk passed him…" She stopped to once again try and contain herself.

William and Eliza stayed silent while she composed herself, not wanting to push her before she was ready and able to explain her story.

"He pulled me into the library… He was trying… trying to put his hands on me. He pushed me against the bookshelves, and I tried to scream, but he covered my mouth and told me he'd hurt me if I made a noise. He was trying to pull my dress up… and I didn't know what to do. He was forcing himself on me … trying to kiss me … and I just wanted him off me…"

Tears started streaming down the poor young woman's face, and she was desperately trying to wipe them away with her free hand, whilst gently squeezing Eliza's with her other hand. She tried to catch her breath again as she spoke.

"I didn't mean to hurt him, I just wanted him off me," she told them honestly, looking directly at both of them, her eyes begging them to believe her.

"What happen next?" William asked softly.

Mary held William's eyes as she tried to find the courage to admit what she had done. Admit that she had killed him, and face the consequences of that action. She knew in moments she would probably be arrested by him for murder.

"…I just saw the candlestick on the table, and I just reached out for it… I must have hit him harder then I thought … because the next thing I knew … he'd gone down on the floor like a sack of potatoes." She pulled her gaze to the floor then shut her eyes. "He was just lying there on the floor, and I started screaming."

"Which is when we came in?" Eliza said gently.

Eliza shared a look with William. The poor woman having to deal with that man on her and now potentially facing being suspected of murder. Eliza could feel the anger rising in her, as Mary sat fearful of her future.

"I didn't mean to, honestly, I swear, I don't think I hit him that hard. I mean I don't know… I just wanted him off me..."

"We understand," Eliza offered, trying to keep her calm. This woman wasn't a callous killer, she reasoned to herself, she was a victim of circumstance. Of a man who thought he could take whatever he wanted.

"Please I don't want to go to prison, or worse…" The idea of hanging for murder sent the tears streaming down her face even faster. The man was a member of the high-class society, there was no way his family would accept anything less should she be found guilty.

William thought about the vial they had found, it was more then likely that perhaps Hugo Goldberg was not killed by her blow to his head, and instead by poison, but until the appropriate tests were run, he couldn't say for sure.

"I don't believe that will happen," William offered trying to reassure her, without giving false hope to her. "I know this is hard, but before you hit him, did anything happen?" William asked once she'd calmed herself again.

"I can't be sure, it all happened so fast … but he did seem to go still as I reached out for the candlestick. His hands seemed to go limp, allowing me the space to reach out and grab it. When I hit him, he just dropped down to the floor. It was like he was some sort of lead weight. I didn't expect it."

Eliza thought for a moment, her heart strings being pulled by the young maid, who's evening had been turned upside down. There wasn't much more Mary could do here tonight, and she looked absolutely exhausted.

"Mary, I think perhaps, if Inspector Wellington is in agreement, you should go home, get some rest. We have some other enquires to follow up on, and …" She knew she shouldn't say it, but she wanted to help this poor woman, and if there was anything she could do to help her, she would do it.

"…There is a possibility that perhaps you didn't actually have anything to do with his death…"

Mary looked at her shocked, her tears slowing, and her breath catching. How could it be?

"But I hit him. I hit him and he fell to the floor Miss. How could I not have killed him?" Mary asked, confused as to why they would think she wasn't involved.

"I would agree with Miss Scarlet," William interjected. Eliza really shouldn't have said anything, and he wanted to stop her from giving too much away, they didn't know anything for certain after all.

"Detective Phillips is downstairs in the hallway, please give him your address, and get some rest. I will follow up with you tomorrow," he confirmed.

"Is there someone who can escort you?" Eliza asked. She wanted to make sure she wouldn't be alone.

"One of Mr Parkers butlers, Peter, if it's okay, could he maybe see me home?"

Eliza didn't know him by name, but she assumed she was perhaps referring to the young gentleman who had clearly been concerned about her since the moment they had left the library.

"Of course, I'll let Mr Parker know," Eliza told her.

"Just give his address details to Detective Phillips as well before you leave," William added.

"Thank you," Mary said, relieved to be going home.

"And please, try not to worry," Eliza offered her with a smile. Mary nodded, attempting a small smile in return.

Having seen Mary and Rupert's butler Peter out, Eliza and William made their way into the dinning room. They both quietly looked over the table, still waiting to be cleared, since the staff had been told not to touch anything. It was a sorry sight of left over food, plates, napkins and abandoned half drunk wine glasses. The candles on the table had burnt low and the fire was now just dying embers, but kept the room warm enough.

"That poor woman," Eliza finally said, breaking the silence between them. "Is it wrong that I want someone else to have poisoned him, just so she's not involved?"

"Not at all," William said honestly, as he too felt the young maid's plight. In his career he'd seen plenty of seemingly kind young ladies locked up for far less, especially when high-class families like the Goldberg's were involved.

He took out his pocket watch to check the time. It was getting late. He probably should excuse all the guests, and let them go home. There wasn't much more they could do tonight.

"I think we've done all we can. Probably best we get all the guests addresses and the rest of the staff, and then let them go for the night," he told Eliza.

"Do you think he was poisoned?" she asked, staring at the table, wondering if there was something here they were missing.

"I don't know what I think. If he was poisoned, then by whom? His wife? One of the staff? Perhaps there was trouble with his work that Mr Thompson wasn't letting on about? Or someone here know more then they are saying."

Even William had to admit they didn't exactly have much to go on by way of actual evidence.

"It still seems to leads back to Arabella, as the only person who would have reason to kill him, but why do it here at the dinner party? No one could possibly know that he would leave the table to try and have his way with the maid?"

"We need to know what was in that vial, before we can do anymore." William replied. "I'll ask the coroner to do the marsh test in the morning, check if they can detect any arsenic, just to be sure." William thought for a moment. "If he was poisoned with arsenic, a large enough dose wouldn't usually take more then 20 or 30 minutes to take affect."

"Which means he had to have been given it fairly soon before he died in the library," Eliza replied, as William nodded his head in agreement.

"We all ate the same thing, so it would be difficult to hide it in the food," William responded.

Arsenic had no taste, it was granules and didn't dissolve. William had heard of it being baked into loaves of bread to hide it, yet as far as he was aware, everyone ate the same bread rolls during their soup.

Whilst it was possible that an individual roll was set aside purely for Mr Goldberg, that would have meant it was premeditated, and the staff serving involved. Yet Rupert had personally vouched for every member of staff being one of his or his mothers' household.

Could it have been a random attack on the Parkers maybe? Perhaps Hugo Goldberg wasn't an intended target, but an unfortunate victim of roulette? And if that was the case, what of the vial they had found in the library? William had many possibilities running through his mind as he surveyed the dinning table.

Eliza had fixed her eyes on her half drunk red wine glass, and William's almost similar half drunk wine glass directly next to it. She felt a chill down her spin as she remembered how he'd subtly moved it earlier to shield their handholding. The glasses were so close together it was difficult to know which was hers and which was his. Only a faint hint of her lipstick on the rim of the glass gave away the difference.

"William, look at our glasses," she told him, as she looked at them and then over the table towards where Arabella and Hugo had been sitting.

"What about them?" William asked, a little confused, looking at their wine glasses and wondering what they had to do with their case.

Eliza seemed caught up in what she was looking at, as he tried to hide his smile remembering why he'd moved his wine glass, while he stole a glance at her. She was so focused on her thought, that she didn't notice him staring at her.

"Look how close they are, you can barely tell which glass belongs to who."

This was true of their glasses, and as she stared over the table, likewise Hugo and Arabella's wine glasses were almost touching they were so close. One was empty, the other the wine had been barely touched.

"So?" William asked, with a shrug of his shoulders.

Eliza walked round the table, and William followed, unsure what she was getting at. She leaned on the table and stared closely at the wine and water glasses that were placed where Arabella and Hugo were sat, and she quickly noticed something. She stood up, as a thought crossed her mind, and she looked in William's direction.

"William, let's say we were married, and you didn't want children. How would you react if you found out I was expecting another mans baby?"

Blinking, William was caught rather off guard by her question and it took a few seconds before he could form the words to reply. He certainly didn't want to be thinking of Eliza as pregnant, let alone with someone else's child, whether they were married or not. Though it was easy for him to know how he might feel, both if it was his or someone else's.

"I'd probably be pretty angry…" he told her after a moment.

"Angry enough to want me dead?" she probed. William took a breath and sighed.

"I'd say so…" William tilted his head and was slowly catching on to where Eliza was heading.

"What if Hugo wasn't supposed to be the one who died?" Eliza questioned.

"You think he planned to poison Arabella?" William reasoned.

"It would make sense. Arabella said he never wanted to be married to her, he certainly seemed to enjoy the freedoms of being a man, and from the sounds of what Rupert and Tilly overheard, he certainly didn't want a child of his own, let alone another mans child…"

"Poison the wife, and you've killed two birds with one stone. Literally." William knew her theory could make perfect sense.

"Only, all the glasses were the same. He could have poured the poison into the glass he thought Arabella would drink from, and they were so close, he might have mistakenly drunk the wrong drink…"

"It would explain why the vial was in the library. If it was his vial and he put it in his pocket, it could have fallen out when he fell onto the floor, and rolled under the chair."

William knew this idea had merit, but he'd need some physical evidence to prove that this was a death by misdemeanor, rather then murder.

He knew Eliza had noticed something, so he looked closer at the two glasses. It only took a few seconds for him to see what Eliza had noticed. There was a very faint but clear lipstick mark on the empty glass, and no visible stain on the glass that was still rather full of red wine. Looking closely at the empty one, he could see in the droplet of wine left at the bottom of the glass remnants of un-dissolved grains.

If Hugo was poisoned, it was in the glass of wine, but who put it in there? Only Arabella would be able to tell them if she had finished her drink of wine.

To be continued…

A/N: So in case you're interested, I did do some research on arsenic, and it was a corse white powder back in the day, that had no smell or taste. It was often baked in bread or cakes to disguise it. It also didn't dissolve, so was often hidden in a hot drink such as tea or coffee, so in reality it probably wouldn't have been hidden in a glass of wine, but for the purposes of this story, I've taken a little creative license here. It was also legitimately used by doctors to treat existing health conditions, and it was also used in some household items, such as wallpaper, and there were reports of people dying from arsenic poisoning because of their wallpaper! Crazy!

In other news, boy do I like a character with a sob story hey! Poor Mary, lets hope she can avoid a trip to William's cells.