Sowing Poison Read Online Free Page B

watched through the window as a seemingly endless number of trunks and cases were pulled down from it. It appeared that Temperance House was about to acquire its second customer.
    Lewis knew that Susannah was in the kitchen dicing vegetables for the evening’s stew and he had seen Daniel disappear upstairs sometime earlier, so he supposed it was up to him to greet their new guest. Lewis sighed and took one last hasty sip of his tea, folded the newspapers into a neat pile, and walked out onto the verandah just as the carter handed down a striking woman who was dressed in a fashion that signalled her origins; her finely cut cloak spoke of the city and shops, of the latest fashion and of clothing made with the greatest attention to detail. She wore a hat that fit snugly to her head, with a small brim and ribbons that matched the satin loop on the muff she carried. It was quite unlike the flowered and feathered headwear that Canadian women generally wore when they dressed up. This woman wore no cap under her hat either; instead, her face was framed on each side by long curls that dangled down to her chin. She was quite unlike anything Lewis had ever seen.
    â€œHow do you do, ma’am,” he said as she looked up at him. “Could I be of assistance?”
    She smiled, an action that gave her heart-shaped face a distinctly cat-like appearance.
    â€œHow do you do. I wonder if I might take a room — a very private room, please.” Her voice was high-pitched, almost shrill, with a telltale twang that spoke of somewhere in the south of the American republic. It grated on Lewis’s ears and he found himself hoping that he wouldn’t have to listen to it for long.
    â€œOf course,” he said. “Please come in and I’ll fetch the innkeeper.”
    The bell on the front door jangled as he opened it for her. Daniel must have heard it and came running down the stairs, wiping his hands on the filthy apron he had tied around his waist after breakfast and had neglected to remove. However, when he saw the woman, he hastily tore it off.
    â€œWelcome, welcome,” he said, beaming at her. “Are you looking for a room, miss? We have a pleasant one on the ground floor. It has a view of the street and there are two beds in it.”
    â€œI should prefer a second- or third-floor room if that is possible,” she said. “Horatio must be away from the awful dust that is thrown up from the street.”
    Lewis hadn’t noticed the small, pale boy who had entered behind the woman. He must have been hidden amongst the trunks and hatboxes that the carter had stacked beside the wagon. Whatever dust had been in the streets of Wellington had long since dissolved into a muddy mess with the cold rains of autumn, but perhaps this woman from away was unfamiliar with the usual state of the streets in Canada in the fall.
    â€œAnd I must insist that it be well-curtained,” she went on. “Poor Horatio needs a great deal of rest and I must be able to draw the curtains against the light if he’s sleeping, poor lamb. And is there a sitting room attached? If not, could I ask you to also furnish a good table and a few chairs?”
    Lewis knew that he should go and help the poor carter, but he was mildly intrigued by the woman’s requests, and so he remained standing in the hall to see how his brother-in-law would respond.
    â€œThat’s no problem, ma’am,” Daniel said with barely a moment’s hesitation. “We can prepare rooms to your specification if you give us but half an hour. Perhaps you would like to take tea in the dining room while we make it ready?” He shot Lewis a glance, as if to tell him to get busy with the luggage, and then he almost bowed as he showed the woman the way to the dining room. “And of course we’ll ensure that the rooms are adjoining, although I must inform you that there will be an extra charge for it.”
    â€œThat would be