Secrets In The Light

CHAPTER 5

There is nothing worse than having to spend your whole life with a person you don't love. Or at least, that's what they say. But that is just a statement out of someone who has never experienced illness, loss, even death.

There are worse things than having to marry someone your heart doesn't desire. To Harold was the crucial, unexpected death of his father and perhaps his mother's unknown illness. To Amy, it was her obnoxious mother and hateful father. If Harold wanted to get closer to his family and be a child to his mother, the girl simply wanted to get as far away from her scheming parents. It was enough that they had arranged both her and her sister's life. Now it was her turn to be a woman.

Well, maybe not just yet. There sure were a lot of preparations to be done before she were to become a woman, and that would start with announcing their engagement. Her future husband has been ever so kind as not to make a big fuss about it, but he was obligated to let people at the event know about it before the matter got out of hands.

Therefore, when they both walked back inside, he simply proposed a toast for the newly engaged couple, one that didn't last too long, so everyone could get back to having fun at the party.

Now, one week later, the newspapers were roaming with either truthful or untruthful information about the big event of the year, the engagement of the Earl of Essex. People were saying quite a lot of things in front of their faces and behind their backs as well. Perhaps the boldest of them all must have been Lady Rochford, who couldn't resist from going on and on about how beautiful of a baby they were going to have, or how lucky Amy must have been to get her hands on a man like that.

To everything, Harold neither agreed, nor denied, simply smiling to their faces politely, and grimacing the moment he turned around. He knew Amy was more affected by the inappropriate talks than he was, but she would never admit it to his face. It was enough that she was being bold the night of their engagement, there was no need to take advantage of a man like him, when all he had shown her was kindness.

The Baron and his wife left fo Lichfield soon after the whole fuss was over. The woman couldn't be happier about the trip going so well. She has scolded her daughter for her behaviour back in the salon, and warned her to behave around the Earl better next time, but other than that, she had left with a pleased smile on her face. This was their chance of getting out of this pitched black hole of missing money. When the Lord was to marry Amy, he will be obliged by the law to give her family a dowry.

Mary Helene, however, she decided to stay back with her sister and help with all the preparations for the wedding, in spite of her mother's request to go back home and search for another husband.

But Harold, Harold had other matters on his mind right now. Ever since the party a week ago, his servants wouldn't recover from something the doctor described as food poisoning, so the only thing left to do was hire other people until the ones he had were getting better.

What felt too strange for him was how the doctor's face turned almost blue the moment he had examined one of the patients. He kept saying something about not knowing the real cause of their suffering and not being truly able to help.

"Doctor, I'm not paying you to sit and watch. I'm paying you to help these poor people and if you want the paychecks to keep coming, I suggest you step up and do something about it.", Harold shouted at the man as his patience had run out after two days of no answers.

After another five days of numerous wasted tests, poor doctor Lucas Shluss was hopeless in what was meant to be a discovery. He had a few ideas of what could have caused these people to fall ill all of a sudden and for so many days, but saying it in front of the Earl might get him on his death bed.

Harold was now sitting on his comfortable bed, trying to get some rest after a ruthless night of no sleep. He couldn't close one eye not knowing what was happening to the people he was supposed to protect. He felt powerless and knew that right now, not even money would help. Also, he asked Margaret to let him know if something changed to any of the patients. Even if he couldn't do anything, he wanted to try. Six people having food poisoning all of a sudden was not normal. Somethig was telling him to search deeper for the truth.

But when Margaret knocked on the door of his room and slowly made her way inside, he knew the reason she was there. He specifically asked not to be disturbed if it wasn't anything serious about the people down in the servent's quarters.

"My Lord, Clara, one of the girls is burning up with fever. The doctor says she doesn't have much time left. I just wanted to let you know.", the old woman whispered with an aggravated voice, slowly moving her eyes upwards to take a look at the broken young man in front of her.

He was still dressed with the same suit as yesterday, a darker cream colour. His pants were wrinkled and his vest was half unbuttoned along with his white chiffon shirt. His eyes also looked exactly like his clothes, tired and old. The bags right under them were quite visible, even from where Margaret was standing, next to the entrance.

"I'll be right there.", Harold exhaled the words with a sigh, standing up and buttoning himself up before rushing through the door alongside Margaret.

The situation looked like slipping more and more through his fingers. If only his father had taught him what to do, perhaps those people would not be on their death bed right now. Perhaps if he listened more to his father when the old man was talking about how to run the hotel business, he might have had an idea of how to act. But this twenty-four year old young man had no clue as to what was going on in his own house.

He didn't know how to run a hotel, nor did he know how to be a noble. But for now, this was the only thing he had and there was no backing out.

Clara's room was the one on the corner of a long hallway, on the other side than the noble's rooms, but to Harold, none of that mattered right now. He remembered her blue eyes just like it was yesterday and her shy smile as he was being playful with her. He never wanted the people working for him to be afraid, scared and full of fear. Yes, he wanted respect, but taking it by force has never been his method.

Upon entering her room, the doctor who was calmly sitting by her side, continuing to change a wet cloth on her forehead immediately stood up and bowed his head to the Earl, greeting him with a loud "My Lord". To this, Harold simply gestured him with his right hand to sit down and continue to do his work as he took a seat next to her bed, facing Doctor Schluss.

The girl looked sound asleep, or perhaps really unconscious by the pale colour on her face. Her chest was barely moving and a few drops of cold sweat were starting to form on the top of her forehead and at the base of her neck.

A plate of food had been placed on the nightstand next to her bed, and by the looks of it, she has been trying to eat small bites of food, but not enough to sustain her body and give it strength.

"Tell me doctor, have you found anything yet?", Harold asked, not eying the man, but looking at the poor girl instead.

"My Lord, I...", Doctor Schluss started, trying to explain himself and ask the lord for more time, but the young man didn't even want to hear it as he strongly stopped him mid-sentence.

"Doctor Schluss, you have been observing these patients for about a week now. Also, I have seen you write in that notebook of yours at least eight times in the last five hours or so. Unless you tell me what has happened to my personnel, I promise to make sure you will never find another workplace again. ", he calmly spoke, the same calm his father always used when he wanted to highlight how serious he was.

The doctor's face turned white instantly hearing those words. But his job was in jeopardy either way. Was he ready to let go of the one thing that made him happy in his entire life for a bunch of strangers? But then again, he did swear to always do good and never bring harm to a patient.

What happened to these people was something he has encountered a few times during his days as a medic and in every case, nobody escaped alive. But here, something seemed off. If he were to guess, every single person here should have been dead days ago, yet all of them are still breathing, even if just barely.

"Sir, pardon me, but I do not desire to speak when I do not have enough information.", he spoke shyly, biting down the inside of his cheek to hide his fear somehow.

Even though the Earl was young and unexperienced, he had the power to end the doctor's life if he wanted to. He can only hope this young man would think twice before choosing to be the persecutor.

"I want to know the information you do have.", Harold insisted, this time turning his head to look at the man in front of him for a brief second before going back to the blond, pale girl lying unconscious on the bed.

Now Lucas was cornered. He had to say it out loud, he had to share his thoughts no matter what. The Earl was being persistent at all costs, and as it appeared, he didn't care if that cost was the medic's life.

Lucas was an old man, the same doctor that worked for the late Earl of Essex. In his middle sixties, he has seen more of life and death than probably anyone breathing in that hotel. And now, this might just be his last day to enjoy his breathing. He only hoped this young lord was nothing like his father.

"That's true, My Lord, I do have some information. After all the research I have been trying to do these past few days, I have come to only one conclusion. Your people have been poisoned.", he finally responded, letting out a breath at the end, one he didn't know he was even holding.

Now, if only the conversation between the two of them had ended then and there, the doctor could simply go back to his humble house and get a few good hours of sleep, something he could have only dreamed of this past week. But even though his thoughts would roam around this beautiful idea, he was well aware of the heaviness of the words he had just spoken. Now was the time to let the lord surprisingly ask his question and then he would continue to explain.

"Poisoned? What do you mean by that? Poisoned with what?", Harold stood from his chair abruptly, pointing a finger at the doctor in order to let him know nobody left this room until he gave some answers.

"Arsenic, Sir. Usually, taking enough would mean clear death for one, but as it appears, even after a week, your people are still breathing.", the doctor continued, taking a look at Clara first before softly touching her forehead to take the wet cloth off and check her temperature.

"What does this mean, doctor?", the Earl kept asking, as if he knew Lucas Schluss wouldn't even go on without this line of questioning.

To Harold, it seemed that every single time this man stopped talking it was because he simply wanted to show just how good he was at his job or how much he knowledge he possessed. There was no denying that everything he has just heard could have been said in one breath rather than the sectioned sentences he always seemed to enjoy.

"It means that somebody has been poisoning them slowly, one day at a time, in very small quantities, but enough to leave them unconscious on a bed.", Lucas explained, waiting for the next question to come out of Harold's lips.

But to him, the puzzle's pisces have been put together already. Perhaps not all of them, but enough to understand some things. Every single one of them has been poisoned with something they use every day. But this hasn't applied to any of the guests at the lightning party, only to the staff.

That surely meant that someone on the inside had been responsible for this tragic event and now, almost all of them were going to suffer terribly because a certain person wanted revenge. Or maybe money? Whatever it was, Harold was sure this was no coincidence.

"Doctor Schluss, if the source of the poisoning were to stop, could any of them recover?", Harold surprised Lucas by asking. The medic wouldn't have thought this young, unexperienced noble would figure out something like that. Even though it might look simple, a lot don't have the brains to think things through.

"That could be the case, yes. But their bodies are highly infected. The chances are very slim, almost close to nonexistent.", he said, the sadness in his voice clear as he dipped the cloth in the water again and placed it back on the girl's forehead.

Harold took a better look at her again. From what Margaret had said, she was the worst of them all and the doctor being by her side all day confirmed his suspensions. She was on the verge of dying by the looks of it, although he didn't want to think of it like that. None of them are going to die if he can help it.

"Lord Styles, if you'd let me, I'd like to call a priest for this poor girl here. She doesn't have much time left.", Lucas asked slowly, lowering his voice to a whisper as if the girl could hear him speak indecent things.

"No. There is not going to be any deaths under my watch. Do you hear me, doctor? None.", the young man's voice came out stronger than ever before in this conversation, not caring whether he scared the old doctor.

Standing there, watching the life leave Clara's body minute by minute, Harold suddenly remembered a time when he was a little boy. The image came clear to his mind, running around his grandmother's mansion with his older sister, there was this strange bush the old woman used to have in the back of her garden.

The small tree was filled with tiny, round berries, beautiful and red. It looked so juicy, all of them gathered there in one single bush. His sister, as the always so curious one, rushed to take a handful of them, but the moment she had barely eaten three, she collapsed to the ground. What had later been discover to be atropine, a highly poisonous substance that can be found in the juice of the berries in the deadly nightshade bush, left the medics speechless. It took the doctors a few days to check what the actual problem was, but being so young, Harry didn't understand what was wrong with his sister. The only thing he knew he could do is take good care of her. So every day before he went to bed, he would sneak out in his sister's room and help her drink a glass of milk, praying for her health. And by the time the doctors had figured out the real problem, Anne-Rose was back on her feet.

"Milk.". Harold said loudly. "Margaret, bring me a glass of milk. Now."

Margaret has appeared from behind the closed door quickly, bowing her head to the Lord before exiting and rushing to the kitchen to prepare what she had been sent for.

Waiting for the woman to get back, both the doctor and Harold let the silence take over the room instead of speaking in vain. The medic was stunned by Harold's behaviour. There was a certainty to the fact that the Earl knew more than he let out. Yes, milk has been proven to help with poisoning, but when it came to arsenic, there's rarely any antidote.

Lost in thought, and already too caught up in this problem, Harry's mind traced to a more quiet place, somewhere where he can rest for a few seconds. Amy. She has been very supportive ever since she came here, always asking him about his day, or smiling whenever they crossed each other in the hallway. He was also glad her sister was here to keep her company given she didn't have too many friends in London yet, but he was pained to notice just how little time they had to spend together in the midst of everything going on.

Their only encounters consisted of an early breakfast, a rushed one for that matter, a late dinner, when he simply knocked on her door and asked if she would like to dine with him, even if so late at night and an almost finished lunch, if it weren't for the intrusion of Lord Rochford's desire to go golfing, something he, unfortunately, couldn't refuse.

They should have been able to eat together every day, not only a few times in a whole week, those being the only times they got so see each other.

Thinking deeper into the matter, he suddenly realised something. His eyes widened and he jumped up like something scared the life out of him.

The food. That's something every single one of these people has had since they went ill. And water. The arsenic doesn't hold any taste or odor. No colour either. So slipping it into their food or water would have been the only thing unnoticeable enough for someone to be able to poison them on a regular basis.

When Margaret came back with the glass of milk, the doctor rushed to take it from her hand, but Harold was quicker to react and didn't waste time to smash the glass on the floor, causing it to shred to pieces with a powerful sound.

"Don't! Nobody gives them anything anymore. I will take care of it myself. Both of you, out.", he ordered loudly, receiving odd looks from both the doctor and Margaret, but none of them dared to say anything back.

He took a few steps even closer to Clara's bed and sat down again, this time on the other side, the one that the doctor had been in previously, and with too much care, he took the warm cloth off her forehead and dipped it into the cold water, squizing it lightly before placing it back.

"You're going to be fine, Clara. You all are.", his words slipped out unintentionally, but nonetheless, these were his strong beliefs.

They are all going to be alright.

.