Charles swallowed in fear, then put a hand on his own stomach, which was also throbbing. He ascribed it to terror; clearly he was not feeling the same agony his wife was experiencing.

“Ooooooohhhhhh!” she yelled, starting to convulse.

Charles sprang to his feet and ran back to the open door. “Someone get here now!” he shouted, just as Helen and Cordelia came running around the corner.

“What happened?” Helen asked breathlessly.

“It's Ellie. She's sick. I don't know what happened. One minute she was fine, and the next…”

They raced to her bedside. Cordelia took one look at Ellie's pathetic form and announced, “She's been poisoned.”

“What?” Helen asked in horror.

“That's ludicrous,” Charles said at the same time.

“I've seen this before,” Cordelia said. “She's been poisoned. I'm sure of it.”

“What can we do?” Helen asked.

“She'll have to be purged. Charles, bring her to the washbasin.”

Charles regarded his aunt dubiously. Was he right to trust his wife's welfare to an old woman who was admittedly a touch senile? But then again, he didn't know what else to do, and even if Ellie hadn't been poisoned, Cordelia's suggestion made sense. Clearly they needed to remove whatever was in her stomach.

He picked her up, trying not to let her agonized groans affect him. She twitched violently in his arms, her spasms shaking him to the core.

He looked to Cordelia. “I think she's getting worse.”

“Hurry up!”

He hurried to the washbasin and pulled Ellie's hair from her face. “Shhh, darling, it will be all right,” he whispered.

Cordelia held up a quill. “Open her mouth.”

“What the hell are you going to do with that?”

“Just do what I say.”

Charles held Ellie's mouth open and watched in horror as Cordelia thrust the feathered end of the quill down her throat. Ellie gagged several times before she finally vomited.

Charles looked away for a moment. He couldn't help it. “Are we done?”

Cordelia ignored him. “One more time, Eleanor,” she said. “You're a strong girl. You can do it. Helen, get something to rinse out her mouth when she's done.”

She jammed the feather down her throat again, and Ellie released the rest of the contents of her stomach.

“That's it,” Cordelia said. She took a glass of water from Helen and poured some into Ellie's mouth. “Spit that out, girl.”

Ellie half spit and half let gravity pull the water from her mouth. “Don't make me do that again,” she pleaded.

“At least she's talking,” Cordelia said. “That's a good sign.”

Charles hoped she was right, because he'd never seen a person look as green as Ellie did right then. He let Helen wipe her mouth with a damp cloth and then carried her back to the bed.

Helen picked up the dirty washbasin with shaking hands, and said, “I'll have someone take care of this,” and ran from the room.

Charles picked up Ellie's hand, then turned to Cordelia and asked, “You don't really think she was poisoned?”