It took only a moment for the poison to work. The yelps of the dog were so piteous, I covered my ears. ‘Burning a hole right through the dog’s throat, it is,’ said Barnabas. ‘In a man, you can see it more plainly because there’s no fur.’

The dog’s yelps frittered into whines. Misgett waved his hand again, and that dog was dragged out too. Not long after, its whining stopped.

Barnabas removed one more jar from his box. This one had a powder inside. With a gloved hand, he took several pinches and mixed it in a pan of offal. The last dog gobbled it down.

‘A pinch’ll take a day or two to do its work,’ Barnabas said. ‘But I’ve given more so as to see the effects quicker.’ The men filled their cups again, but they weren’t halfway drunk before the howls began. The dog shook and howled and howled and shook. When its bowels opened, Misgett had the same lower rogue take the dog outside.

‘Looks like the bloody flux,’ one of the other rogues said.

‘Indeed,’ agreed Barnabas. ‘But it can be known for a few moments just before death by blue lips, foaming mouth, and great shaking.’

It was one of the worst nights at the Daffreys in a year of worsts.

Bastard Daffreys. They gave me something useful after all.

I’m snapped back to the moment by Tilly moaning. She’s growing more senseless by the moment. She curls to her side and whispers something to the bed curtains.

I lean forward but I’ve missed the words. ‘What did you say?’ I urge her. But Tilly doesn’t reply.

Meg squeezes Tilly’s hand and looks away. ‘She said there’ll be deer heart on her coffin too.’

9. MUTTON CHOP

IT’S LIKE SEEING a big, clawed print in the mud. The first time you see it, you think, sure it’s bigger than a dog’s, but mayhap the mud was soft, mayhap the dog’s foot was swollen. But after the second print, you know it’s wolf.

Two ladies poisoned. Two deer hearts on coffins. Something dark’s afoot. Surely others must have noticed. I name all the folk who saw Corliss and Tilly in their final moments and might have witnessed the signs of poison.

Healers? The Willow Tree, the Queen’s physician, saw to Corliss, but not to Tilly.

Maids? Folk like Tilly don’t have chambermaids.

Who might have come and seen the prints in the mud?

Me. I’m the only folk who saw how both women died. The only folk who heard both Recitations. What do I do with this knowledge? I know I should tell somefolk, but how?