Part 23 (1/2)
A short time later, she rapped on the door of the room Jerusha shared with Patsy. They'd scarcely had time to say h.e.l.lo before there was another knock.
”Toddy,” Jerusha predicted. ”He's worried about you.”
”Because of that fall through the ice? I am completely recovered.”
”Not because of that,” Toddy said when they let him in.
Diana wondered if he was about to bring up the murders, though she could not conceive of his knowing anything about them unless he'd been involved.
”It's that man you're living with,” Toddy said instead. ”What do you really know about him?”
”He's a respected physician.” Defensive, she gave him a narrow-eyed look. ”You were willing to leave me at his mercy in New Haven when you thought he was a writer of horror stories. Why are you so concerned about him now?”
”Didn't leave you at his mercy.” Toddy looked offended. ”Had a little talk with him before I left. And Jerusha gave you money so you didn't have to be kept by him.”
”So he told me.” Diana rewarded Toddy with a quick peck on the cheek. ”I'm able to look out for myself, you know.”
”Are you, Diana? You made a bad choice when you married Evan. There's no denying that.”
”Toddy,” Jerusha warned.
”No, it's time she knew. He wasn't much of a husband to her, or much of a man, either.” He sent a sheepish look in Jerusha's direction. ”I know I'm not one who should throw stones, but Evan Spaulding was a bounder, Diana. He -- ”
”I know most of what he did, Toddy. And I know how he died. I was there, remember?”
Clearing his throat, Toddy looked as ill-at-ease as Diana had ever seen him. ”Should have done something sooner,” he said. ”Should have looked out for you, not let him go off on his own with you.”
”You couldn't have stopped him, Toddy. Or me, either. I pledged myself to him, no matter that he took his wedding vows lightly. But that's over and done now. And Ben is nothing like Evan.”
”I'm very much afraid he's something worse. I've heard stories since I've been in this town. Wild tales about what goes on in that house. Nice remote setting. A brother no one ever sees, kept in the carriage house. A secret laboratory in the bas.e.m.e.nt. Shades of Dr. Frankenstein! Or Dr. Jekyll. And that mother of his! Do you know, just before you came home, she was regaling me with a lurid account of a witches' sabbat she claims she attended.”
”Toddy, she has an active imagination. That's all.”
”How do you explain her eyes? Color of a new penny, they are,” he said to Jerusha, who had not met Maggie.”
”And Dr. Northcote's, as I recall, are a deep, soulful brown with amber flakes.” Jerusha grinned at Diana, further infuriating Toddy.
”You've not met her.”
”She will,” Diana interrupted, and extended the invitation Maggie had sent.
”I'm not sure I want to get any closer to someone who indulges in that sort of thing,” Toddy muttered. ”More dangerous than directing the scene of the three witches in that cursed Scottish play.”
”Yet you want to adapt her stories,” Diana reminded him.
”That's just good business, but the woman herself ... well, she's strange, Diana. Confounded me two or three times just in the short while I was with her.”
”She excels at that,” Diana admitted, and was surprised to hear herself add, ”There's no real harm in her.”
”I for one am dying to meet the woman,” Jerusha said. ”And what actor ever turns down a free meal?”
Toddy ignored her to take Diana's hands in his. ”Is it possible he's used animal magnetism to make you obey his will? That's what Lavinia thinks, and she was once a magician's a.s.sistant, you know.”
Diana jerked her hands free. ”Nonsense.”
Toddy huffed. ”Well one hears of such things, you know. And him a doctor, with such a mother, and madness in the family. Well!”
His concern touched her, even as it made her want to defend Ben and his family. ”Come to supper tomorrow night. You'll see for yourself that all is well, and that any danger I may be in has nothing to do with Ben.”
His gaze sharpened. ”What's going on, Diana? It hasn't escaped my notice that since you met this man you've been uncommonly accident p.r.o.ne.”
”That has nothing to do with Ben.” She patted his cheek. ”Read tomorrow's papers, and then come to supper. Will you do that for me, Toddy? And bring all the company with you?”
”Are you going to tell me what's going on?” Jerusha asked when Toddy finally left her hotel room.
Diana thought about it, then shook her head and changed her mind about questioning Jerusha. Her friend might let something slip to the others. And if, by chance, Diana was right about Charles Underly, then too much knowledge could put Jerusha in danger. ”Come to supper tomorrow night. You can decide for yourself who is and isn't fit for bedlam.”
”Be careful, Diana.”
”You, too? I thought you liked Ben?”
”I wouldn't kick him out of my bed, but that doesn't mean I'd turn my back on him, either. Unless you're very sure of him, don't be too quick to trust again.”
Unspoken, the words remember Evan hung between them.
Diana returned to the Northcote house in a thoughtful mood. She'd wondered about Ben's laboratory herself. When Annie informed her that he was down there again, she gathered her courage and rapped on the door.
”It's open!” He looked up from a microscope when she entered. ”I thought it might be you.” He glowered at her, but the look softened as she came closer. ”Mother had to muster a powerful argument to keep me from rus.h.i.+ng after you to the hotel. How could you take such a risk?”
”If Charles Underly is the sort of man who kills women in dark alleys, he's not likely to attack one in broad daylight.”
”He could be the sort who arranges accidents.”
She did not want to think about that. Not now. Instead she surveyed her surroundings. There was scientific equipment everywhere -- mortars and pestles, alembics, bottles full of medicine, and jars containing specimens she wasn't sure she wanted to identify. ”No cadavers?” she asked.
”Not today.”
”Maggie told me you're a city coroner.”
”I also make some of my own medicines. Any good physician knows how to roll pills.”
The width of a counter separated them, but she felt the sensual tug of his presence. He'd slept in her bed last night. She wanted him there again, this time when they were both awake.
”You must know a great deal about cures,” she said with studied casualness. ”And preventives.”
Misunderstanding, he began to talk about herbal remedies for madness. ”I've done a good deal of research on the subject just recently. Most of it is foolishness, of course. One old recipe instructs the physician to wrap a frog's liver in colewort leaves and burn it, then give the patient the ashes to drink in wine.”