She glanced at me, drenched in blood from the waist down, then settled into a chair by the table and poured herself a cup of tea as if she had all the time in the world.
"Don't blame me. The child in my belly has to be the firstborn heir. That's the only way I'll have any standing in the Delgado household. Surely you understand."
I braced myself against the wall, barely upright. "So you had my child killed."
Shelagh let out a short laugh. "Now that's unfair. Chester was the one who laced the food. Chester was the one who didn't want it. All I did was mention it in passing."
I stared at her, unblinking. My nails dug into my palms until the skin split.
She rose and walked over to me, one hand resting on her belly.
"Besides, you should count yourself lucky. Even if your child had survived, it would have been taken from you and raised under the legitimate wife. Better this way, really."
"Bring the tonic over. Make her drink it. Help her recover."
The servants pried my jaw open and forced the liquid down my throat. I recognized the taste. Safflower. The sterilizing concoction.
I thrashed, tried to spit it out, but they pinned me down and held my mouth shut.