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By the time John and clasp hands again, I have already learned what transpired on that wretched night. The cottage where the queen’s second husband had been staying exploded. The guards and house staff who came running believed perhaps the flue had overheated and blown apart, or kerosene for the lamps had been improperly stored. That was the speculation until they found the queen’s husband outside in the garden and when they rolled him over to offer aid, discovered he had been stuck through.
At first, physicians believed the wounds were made by glass as he made his escape or been blown through a window by the sheer force of the explosion. That theory was soon dismissed after the wounds were examined. The single stick in his chest was narrow and deeply penetrating; most likely a thin-b
