Mr. Merripen and Mr. Rohan, I can state with certainty that they are both fine, honorable men.'
Dodger extracted an object from the coat pocket and wriggled in triumph. He began to lope slowly around the edge of the room, watching Harrow warily.
'Forgive me if I don't accept assurances of character from a woman such as you,' Harrow said to Miss Marks. 'But according to rumor, you've been in rather too much proximity with certain gentlemen in your past.'
The governess turned white with outrage. 'How dare you?'
'I find that remark entirely inappropriate,' Leo said to Harrow. 'It's obvious that no sane man would ever attempt something scandalous with Marks.' Seeing that Dodger had made it to the doorway, Leo reached for the governess's rigid arm. 'Come, Marks. Let's leave the doctor to his packing.'
At the same moment, Harrow caught sight of the ferret, who was carrying a slim glass vial in his mouth. Harrow 's eyes bulged, and he went pale. 'Give that to me!' he cried, and launched toward the ferret. 'That's mine!'
Leo leaped on the doctor and brought him to the floor. Harrow surprised him with a sharp right hook, but Leo's jaw had been hardened from many a tavern fight. He traded blow for blow, rolling across the floor with the doctor as they struggled for supremacy.
'What the devil'-Leo granted-'did you put into that coffee?'
'Nothing.' The doctor's strong hands clamped on his throat. 'Don't know what you're talking about-'
Leo bashed him in the side with a closed fist until the doctor's grip weakened. 'The hell you don't,' Leo gasped, and kneed him in the groin. It was a dirty trick Leo had picked up from one of his more colorful escapades in London.
Harrow collapsed to his side, groaning. 'Gentleman… wouldn't… do that.…'
'Gentlemen don't poison people, either.' Leo seized him. 'Tell me what it was, damn you!'
Despite his pain, Harrow 's lips curved in an evil grin. 'Merripen will get no help from me.'
'Merripen didn't drink the filthy stuff, you idiot! Rohan did. Now tell me what you put in that coffee or I'll rip your throat out.'
The doctor looked stunned. He clamped his mouth shut and refused to speak. Leo struck him with a right and then a left, but the bastard remained silent.
Miss Marks's voice broke through the boiling fury. 'My lord, stop it. This instant. I need your assistance in retrieving the vial.'
Hauling Harrow upward, Leo dragged him to the empty wardrobe and closed him inside. Leo locked the door and turned to face Miss Marks, his face sweating and his chest heaving.
Their gazes locked for a split second. Her eyes turned as round as her spectacle lenses. But the peculiar awareness between them was immediately punctured by Dodger's triumphant chatter.
The blasted ferret waited at the threshold, doing a happy war dance that consisted of a series of sideways hops. Clearly he was delighted by his new acquisition, and even more by the fact that Miss Marks seemed to want it.
'Let me out!' Harrow cried in a smothered voice, and there was a violent pounding from inside the wardrobe.
'That blasted weasel,' Miss Marks muttered. 'This is a game to him. He'll spend hours teasing us with that vial and keeping it just out of reach.'
Staring at the ferret, Leo sat on the carpet and relaxed his voice. 'Come here, you flea-ridden hair wad. You'll have all the sugar biscuits you want, if you'll give your new toy to me.' He whistled softly and clicked.
But the blandishments did not work. Dodger merely regarded him with bright eyes and stayed at the threshold, clutching the vial in his tiny paws.
'Give him one of your garters,' Leo said, still staring at the ferret.
'I beg your pardon?' Miss Marks asked frostily.
'You heard me. Take off a garter and offer it to him as a trade. Otherwise we'll be chasing this damned animal all through the house. And I doubt Rohan will appreciate the delay.'
The governess gave Leo a long-suffering glance. 'Only for Mr. Rohan's sake would I consent to this. Turn your back.'
'For God's sake, Marks, do you think anyone really wants a glance at those dried-up matchsticks you call legs?' But Leo complied, facing the opposite direction. He heard a great deal of rustling as Miss Marks sat on a bedroom chair and lifted her skirts.
It just so happened that Leo was positioned near a full-length looking glass, the oval cheval style that tilted up or down to adjust one's reflection. And he had an excellent view of Miss Marks in the chair. And the oddest thing happened-he got a flash of an astonishingly pretty leg. He blinked in bemusement, and then the skirts were dropped.
'Here,' Miss Marks said gruffly, and tossed it in Leo's direction. Turning, he managed to catch it in midair.
Dodger surveyed them both with beady-eyed interest.
Leo twirled the garter enticingly on his finger. 'Have a look, Dodger. Blue silk with lace trim. Do all governesses anchor their stockings in such a delightful fashion? Perhaps those rumors about your unseemly past are true, Marks.'
'I'll thank you to keep a civil tongue in your head, my lord.'
Dodger's little head bobbed as it followed every movement of the garter. Fitting the vial in his mouth, the ferret carried it like a miniature dog, loping up to Leo with maddening slowness.
'This is a trade, old fellow,' Leo told him. 'You can't have something for nothing.'
Carefully Dodger set down the vial and reached for the garter. Leo simultaneously gave him the frilly circlet and snatched the vial. It was half-filled with a fine dull green powder. He stared down at it intently, rolling it in his fingers.
Miss Marks was at his side in an instant, crouching on her hands and knees. 'Is it labeled?' she asked breathlessly.
'No. Damn it all.' Leo was gripped with volcanic fury.
'Let me have it,' Miss Marks said, prying the vial from him.
Leo jumped to his feet immediately, hurling himself at the wardrobe. He slammed it with both his fists. 'Damn you, Harrow, what is it? What is this stuff? Tell me, or you'll stay in there until you rot.'
There was.nothing but silence from the wardrobe.
'By God, I'm going to-,' Leo began, but Miss Marks interrupted.
'It's digitalin powder.'
Leo threw her a distracted glance. She had opened the vial and was sniffing it cautiously. 'How do you know?'
'My grandmother used to take it for her heart. The scent is like tea, and the color is unmistakable.'
'What's the antidote?'
'I have no idea,' Miss Marks said, looking more distressed by the moment. 'But it's a powerful substance. A large dose could very well stop a man's heart.'
Leo turned back to the wardrobe. ' Harrow,' he bit out, 'if you want to live, you'll tell me the antidote now.'
'Let me out first,' came the muffled reply.
'No negotiating! Tell me what counteracts the poison, damn you!'
'Never.'
'Leo?' A new voice entered the fray. He turned swiftly to see Amelia, Win, and Beatrix at the threshold. They were staring at him as if he'd gone mad.
Amelia spoke with admirable composure. 'I have two questions, Leo: Why did you send for me, and why are you having an argument with the wardrobe?'
' Harrow 's in there,' he told her.
Her expression changed. 'Why?'
'I'm trying to make him tell me how to counteract an overdose of digitalin powder.' He glared vengefully at the wardrobe. 'And I'll kill him if he doesn't.'
'Who's taken an overdose?' Amelia demanded, her face draining of color. 'Is someone ill? Who is it?'
