"Jane M. Lindskold - A Touch of Poison" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lindskold Jane)

He covered his horrified reaction to this revelation of how close he had come to death by becoming quite
severe.

"Tell me, Widow Baker, what purpose did you have in first trying to poison me and then warning me
against your own handiwork?"

"Well, late last nightтАж"

In a short speech, obviously rehearsed in advance, Widow Baker told Reid about her visitors of the night
before, about how her son had been kidnapped.

"And then I realized that they had no real need to return Jori to me and every reason to reveal my part in
your death."

Her pretty, rounded face was ill-suited for the expression that shaped it, but Reid had seen its like on the
trading floors and in the halls where the Opulent met to decide the business of the nation.

"I told them then to find another tool! It is my great-est desire that before the sun sets tonight they will
regret what they have tried to do to me. And," she added hastily, "to you, too, Master Reid."

Privately shaken as he was to learn how his home had been infiltrated, nonetheless, Reid admired her
pluck.
"You have given me my life," he said. Then, because it is always good business to settle a debt as quickly
as possible, he asked, "What do you wish in return?"

"I want my son given back to me alive," she replied fiercely, "and I want a chance to show those who
thought me a tool taken easily to hand that I am a knife who will turn in their hands and cut them to the
heart."

Greene Reid was not a parent himselfтАФbusiness having delayed his pursing a matrimonial contractтАФ but
he supposed that the fire that lit the pretty young baker's blue eyes was maternal in origin.

"And how shall I aid you?" he asked, impressed despite himself.

"Feign your death," Adalia said promptly, "but not from this morning's pastry. It would be impossible for
me to hide my part convincingly and the assassins must be convinced that I have done exactly as bidden.
As it is, I must hope that the servant I bribed to let me take her place does not talk."

"Then you wish to 'poison' me at another meal?" he prompted, intrigued despite himself.

"Yes, this evening. I understand from Cook that you will not be at home for the midday meal."

'True, though I admit that I will be nervous about eating anything anywhere after what you have told me."

"I believe you are in no greater danger than usual."

Adalia replied thoughtfully, "less so if the assassins believe that I am planning to do my part. The powder
they gave me had a distinct odor of bitter almonds and would not be easy to administer randomly."