The Impossible Poisoning.

Chapter 6

"Het" I murmured. "Read what you just read, and think about it."

"What?" Hettie asked, looking back at the pages.

"The description of blood poisoning" I prompted quietly.

"Allie, no!" Hettie sighed. shutting the book with a crack. "You aren't being poisoned, if that's what you're thinking. Nobody in this house would want to hurt you."

"Het, he's everywhere" I pointed out weakly. "How do you know he doesn't have followers here?"

"How can you say that?" Hettie snapped suddenly. "Allie, you're just being silly now. Of course you're safe here. You're just ill. The doctor said you'll be better in a couple of days!"

I looked pleadingly at her.

"Stop it" she sighed, standing up and walking to the door, leaving the book on the sideboard. "You're fine."

She left, but I was left very worried. Was I being poisoned? Who was poisoning me? Was it someone on Stephenson's orders? It wasn't Stephenson himself, as I knew what he looked like, but he had a whole circus of people at his command, so...

Slowly, I raised myself up to a sitting position. The nausea was overpowering, as was the dizziness, but with a lot of deep breaths I managed to get there. I needed to check the factual accuracy of what Hettie had read to me. The Sedgefield Carburry books usually had a little bit of factual reference at the back of them, and I tried to focus my eyes on the words.

"Allie!"

Newham was standing at the door.

"What are you doing?" he demanded. "You're supposed to be resting!"

"I think I might be being poisoned" I argued desperately. Newham groaned.

"I know. Hettie said" he told me, sounding frustrated.

"She hasn't told everyone, has she?" I exclaimed in horror.

"Just me and Isabel  Newham said, coming over, taking the book firmly from my grasp and lying me back down in my bed. He sat down next to me, stroking my hair.

"Allie" he murmured quietly. "I assure you-no, I promise you that nothing bad is ever going to happen to you here. Hettie trusts these people, and if she does then surely you must?"

I sighed. Newham was right about the trust thing.

"So just relax" he carried on. "The more you fret and panic, the worse you're going to get. You'll be better soon."

I shut my eyes and groaned, and he kissed me gently on the cheek.

"Happier?" he asked. I nodded weakly.

"A little."

I was lying.

He left the room, and I sat back up instantly to try and read the information I needed. But my vision kept tilting and my head felt like lead, so I had to give up. Lying there almost helpless with my eyes shut, I put to work the only part of me that was still working properly-my mind. If I was being poisoned, I had to act sooner rather than later, as in a couple of days I could be completely comatose. The first question was, undoubtedly, how. I could figure out the whos later, when I wasn't on my deathbed.

The poison had to be getting into my system in some way, I mused. But how?

I was interrupted by Isabel, who strode in, banging the door open and standing angrily at the foot of the bed.

"What have you been saying?" she demanded.

"You as well?" I murmured sadly, screwing up my face. Her loud voice was giving me a headache.

"What do you mean, you as well?" Isabel spluttered. "Ill or not, Alianna Winter, you've been very rude! And ungrateful!"

I groaned.

"Izzy, can you just..."

"No!" Isabel snapped, her voice rising along with (I assumed guiltily) her blood pressure. She flounced down on the bed, taking my hand a little roughly.

"Sometimes I just don't understand you!" she sighed frustratedly. "You pick up and leave London at the drop of a hat, launching yourself and us at Hettie with no warning whatsoever, then as soon as she finds a way to keep us all safe you go and accuse her closest friends of trying to bloody murder you! Could you for once, Alianna Winter, be a little more gracious, or even polite?"

I was too drained to raise my voice, but I still looked her clear in the eye and found some momentum for my reply.

"Politeness?  Is that really all you care about when someone could be trying to kill me?"

Isabel stood up abruptly, turning her back and walking to the other side of the room.

"If I die in this bed" I added thickly. "You'll only have yourself to blame."

There was a split second of perfect silence.

"STOP IT!" The words burst from my sister's mouth louder and more violently than I had ever thought she could. "Stop being such an insolent little witch! Lying there in that bed like butter wouldn't melt! You think it's all to do with you, you think the whole world revolves around you, you and your cleverness and your crimes and your...wretched stories! Your world you so ardently believe in" Isabel stopped for breath, leaning heavily on the bedposts for support "is back there in London. In fact, it's not even there. Did you think for one second before you dragged us all out here that maybe this Stephenson guy just wanted to scare you out of the way? For God's sake, Alianna! Who are you really? You're an orphan girl scrimping a living off her older sister, you've got no job, no prospects, and all you've ever really learned is from a silly set of backward old books! How could anyone as powerful as this-consulting criminal you care to describe so well possibly be bothered  by a silly little dreamer like you are? Because you are a dreamer. And you've become so wrapped up in your own little crazy world you forget that these are real people! Real people, Alianna, who, may I just remind you, are far more important in this world than you will ever be. Now, I'm going to say this one more time, and if I hear one syllable  from you about it afterwards, I am going straight home, whether you like it or not."

I had long since looked away from her, and it was only then that I realized tears were streaming down her face.

"Nobody" Isabel growled slowly "is going to kill you. Because to the only person who would, you're not worth the effort."

With that, she half ran to the door, escaping to the hallway beyond. I realized Fisher had been standing on the other side, listening in. Our eyes met.

"I 'ope yer 'appy now" Fisher muttered, closing the door after Isabel.

Nobody else came to visit me for the rest of the day, and I didn't want them to. I didn't read, didn't ask to see any of them.

What I did do was find the energy to throw my toothbrush as far out of the window as possible.