“We had almonds with sugar. I ate mine,” he said. Katherine ran up and tried to push a sticky sugared almond between my lips.

“I saved it for you,” she said.

“I saved one too!” shouted Henry.

“You ate it,” said Katherine.

“I saved it first!” said Henry. Barbara arrived with worried eyes that I found hard to look at.

“Have they been good?” I asked.

“They are all good children,” she said. “Mary has drunk something but not eaten.”

I fished in my purse for a golden sovereign. Barbara stared at it suspiciously and I was grateful that the money was not compensation for Ingram’s satisfaction.

“This is from the Countess,” I said, looking my daughter squarely in the face. “You are to go straight to the Blue Feather and talk only to Mr. Price, not any other serving there. Tell him of Mary’s fever, the smell of her water, the loss of flesh … anything he wants to know. After this payment he may extend us credit again, so say nothing to make him doubt our worth. Be sure to question him about each simple and how it is to be administered. No purges. Be sure no false coin is mixed in the change.” I handed Barbara our shared cloak, wondering how long it would be before I could buy my daughter her own. “If you are hungry, buy a pie while Mr. Price makes up the physick. Do not pay a vendor with that coin, change it with the apothecary first.”

Barbara curtsied and as she slipped through the door I wondered if I had, after all, made a fearful mistake. Had I missed a chance? Should I have let Ingram do what he wanted? With the money he offered I could have kept my household afloat, bought Barbara a cloak, paid old Maggie who had worked for nothing the past six months because she had nowhere else to go. Had I sent a vial of poison on its way when I could have lifted my skirts instead? I stood staring at the door, feeling Ingram’s fingers digging into my breast. Was it not worse to kill Overbury than to become a pawn merchant’s whore?

“Take the children out with you to buy provisions,” I said to old Maggie, pulling another of Ingram’s coins from my purse. “I need not warn you of the dangers of such a coin. Bring back the change from which I shall pay you what you are due. There may be no more for many weeks so have a care what you buy.”