Chapter 4: The Unspoken Pledge**
Clara jumped, clutching the towel against her chest like an infant. When she saw Arthur’s towering silhouette filling the doorway, the frantic panic in her face softened into profound, devastating sadness.
"I knew this night would come, Mr. Sterling," Clara whispered, slowly rising to her feet. "I only prayed I could keep her alive until you opened your eyes."
"Keep who alive? What are those vials?" Arthur took two aggressive steps forward, snatching one of the empty amber bottles from the bedspread. "Digitalis extract? This is a heart medication! Eleanor had a heart condition, Clara. Are you telling me you had this in your room all along?"
"Eleanor never had a weak heart, Arthur!" Clara raised her voice for the first time in twenty years, using the master’s first name without hesitation.
The sound of his given name on the old maid’s lips stopped Arthur in his tracks. In aristocratic households, such a breach of protocol was unthinkable, yet Clara’s tone held the raw, agonizing authority of a desperate mother.
"Look at the dates on those prescriptions," Clara said, tears streaming freely down her wrinkled cheeks. "Look at who signed the pharmacy slips. It wasn't your family physician, Dr. Hayes. It was Dr. Vance—Victoria’s personal cousin."
Arthur felt the floor tilt beneath him. "Victoria didn't even move into this town until six months before Eleanor died."
"She was Eleanor’s college roommate, Arthur! She spent ten years planning her entrance into this family!" Clara stepped forward, handing him the leather-bound book. "Eleanor found out about the offshore accounts Victoria’s family embezzled from the Sterling charitable foundation. When Eleanor threatened to expose her, Victoria didn't run. She embedded herself into your life like a venomous tick."
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Arthur flipped the book open. Eleanor’s handwriting, unmistakable and delicate, filled every page with increasingly frantic notes. The last entry was dated two days before her death: *The tea tastes like copper again. Clara is the only one I can trust to test Lily’s food. If I do not wake, Clara will take the secret to the silver tray.*
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