Reborn to Dodge the Bad Marriage novel Chapter 24

Chapter 24 One Glass

Nora showed off the marks on her throat and then held out her wrists as well.

Her skin marked easily, and the slightest pressure left something behind.

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Constance looked them over with a thoroughly satisfied smile and still shot Julian a mild glare. “Nora marks easily. Be gentler with her from now on.”

Color came into that cold face, and he offered nothing beyond a short, quiet yes.

Olivia set down her fork and turned to Constance. “Grandma Weston, I came today for two reasons. The first was to give Julian the needle treatment. The second is that I brought medicine that should improve his appetite and make swallowing easier.”

Constance’s eyes lit up. “There’s medicine that would let him eat?”

Olivia smiled gently. “There is. I tested it over and over until it worked, prepared the finished batch yesterday, and brought it along today.

“Once Julian takes it, his appetite comes back enough for soft food, and his throat will stop feeling like a blade going down.”

Constance could hardly contain herself. “Wonderful. Thank you for all that work, Olivia. Get it out now and let him take it.”

Julian did still eat, though even a mouthful of water cut on the way down, so he managed very little in a day and lived mostly on IV nutrition.

Olivia took a small sealed jar out of her bag, and before she could say anything she watched Nora pull out a paper packet, open it, and tip a white powder into that glass of warm water.

Then she watched Nora stir it and hand the glass straight to Julian.

Nora said, “Drink it.”

After the dreamless night her needles had given him, Julian trusted her enough to take it without a single question.

Olivia saw him about to drink and rushed to stop him. “Julian, don’t!”

Julian gave her one flat look, lifted the glass, and drained it in a single go.

Alarm swept across Olivia’s face. “You didn’t even ask what it was. What if she’s poisoning you?”

His voice came out cool and completely certain. “She wouldn’t.”

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Chapter 24 One Glass

Finished

Given how Nora felt about him, poisoning him made no sense at all when she could simply wait for him to drop dead and be widowed young.

Olivia let that go and turned on Nora instead. “What did you just give him?”

Nora looked up and answered without a trace of hesitation. “Something for his appetite.”

Olivia nearly laughed. “Are you a doctor? Do you have any idea what his condition is? You hand him medicine like it costs nothing, and if something goes…”

Nora cut her off, out of patience. “You can give him something for his appetite and I can’t, Miss Blithe? You’re reaching a long way into a marriage that isn’t yours. I’ve seen women throw themselves at a man before, but never quite like this.”

The phrase throwing herself at him turned Olivia’s face red, and her voice climbed with it.

“My grandmother is Dr. Blithe. I could recite the Meridian Codex from memory at three. I was licensed in both conventional and herbal medicine at 15 and finished a postdoctoral fellowship in pharmacology at 18. Julian has been my patient since I was a child. You tell me where I have no standing.”

And where does she get off calling it throwing myself at him?

Nora regarded her without much interest. “Huh.”

That careless little syllable felt like throwing a punch into a pillow, and every bit of the anger came back at Olivia and left her worse off than before.

Olivia did not believe a word of it. She crossed to Julian, picked up the glass, brought it to her nose, and breathed it in.

Her expression changed on the spot and she rounded on Nora. “That is not an appetite remedy. That’s blackroot, and it’s extremely toxic.”

The color left Constance’s face. “Olivia, was that glass actually poisoned?”

Olivia nodded hard and delivered it with complete seriousness. “I’ve smelled it. There’s a small amount of appetite medicine in there, but the blackroot is far too concentrated for any of it to help. It will accelerate his condition instead.”

She bit her lip and forced the rest out. “After a glass of that, I don’t believe Julian lasts past

tomorrow.”

Something clattered against the floor.

Constance had dropped her fork, and she turned to Nora in a hurry. “Nora, did you…”

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10:54 Thu, Sep 17

Chapter 24 One Glass

Finished

Nora lifted her head and blinked at her. “It isn’t poison. It’s for his appetite.”

She intended to say it exactly once.

Whether Constance believed her was entirely her own business.

Her eyes were beautiful, wide and clear with something like starlight sitting in them, and nothing anywhere in that look was hidden.

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