Kassidy's POV
Kassidy awoke to her cousin's panicked cries and rushed out into the main room wondering why she felt hungover when she hadn't had anything to drink. The first thing she saw in the light of the one lantern was her cousin kneeling over his mother who lay on the floor a strange frothy vomit on the carpet next to her face. She rushed over and checked her for signs of life and although she lay very still she was still warm, in fact hot, and had a weak pulse and shallow breaths.
"She's still alive, run to the Doctor's quarters as fast as you can and bring him here, tell him it's likely poison."
"Where" he breathed desperately trying to get a hold of his tears.
"First floor, main building, fourth door to the right," she said. "Now repeat it back."
He did and she placed her hand on his arm. "I'll do everything I can here, now go," she said and gave him a shove shouting the directions again as he ran for the door.
She rushed to the bathroom, soaked some hand towels in cool water, and began whipping her down. She untied her dress and corset and started pealing the layers off until she lay on her side in nothing but her undergarments. To her relief, without the corset, her breathing came a little easier. But when she rolled her onto her side she began to heave until she spewed more white frothy stuff, this time it was tinged with pink and red making her worry all over again.
Not sure what else to do as she waited she replaced the cool towels and rinsed out the old ones already warm from her feverish skin. She propped her up and wrung out some water into her mouth, figuring hydration and cooling her off were the best things she could do until the doctor arrived.
It felt like forever before her cousin and the doctor got there, but she knew it couldn't have been more than a handful of minutes. The Doctor began crushing charcoal and some other ingredients with his mortal and pestle then added cold water and poured it in a cup as he barked orders for her cousin to prop her up and help her drink.
While her cousin and the doctor tended to her aunt she began to look around for the source of the poison. The tea that had been delivered the night before sat nearby... empty. She read the note but the handwriting was different and the blue seal was a brighter blue than the deep royal blue on her first card. It was likely sent by someone else... thinking she'd drink it...
She shared her findings with the doctor and he woridly asked her if she'd had any and she described the overly sweet taste. The only reason she hadn't drank it was because it was too sweet for before bed, she'd never expected it to be poisoned...
The Doctor insisted on an evaluation, then mixed up some more of the muddy-looking charcoal drink and made her drink it. It was disgusting but if it helped her feel less hung over and sick then it was worth the distaste.
After what seemed like an insanely long time that was likely only half an hour or so, her aunt began breathing better her fever went down a little and her eyelids began to flutter open for brief periods of time. The doctor said the worst was over and to keep administering the treatment while he left to make her a restorative tea that should help keep her in a deep healing sleep for several hours.
She saw the doctor off and then turned to speak with her cousin, explaining the situation to the best of her ability and her plan to get help. Looking fretful and warn out he agreed to everything she suggested. Normaly he'd find something to argue about or nit pick over if she were the one to suggest anything, but today all his annoying hottyness was gone and what was left was broken boy who'd give up anything for his mother.
without wasting another moment contemplating this glimpse into her cousin's humanity, she quickly changed into men's attire. She wore her black paints from the hunting competition but borrowed one of her cousin's shirts, as hers was a bit torn up, and folded her uniform jacket inside out.
A little-known fact about the distinctive black uniforms was that they were double-sidded, the inside was a grayish brown that blended better with the trees during the day. The hooded cloak did the same. Dull and made of a lesser quality fabric it also helped to disguise the soldiers if they needed to blend among the common folk.
She dawned her weapons and packed a saddle bag with water and a few necessities then wrote a letter to the Marques, requesting them to uphold the honor of their name in protecting their guests until their "guard" could come back with reinforcements to safely return them home because who knew if the would-be killer would try again.
When they had left for the hunt, they had brought a coachmen and two guards, and a maid. Fully in disguise, she rushed to the room their servants had been staying in. She had the coachmen swap uniforms with one of the guards and instructed them to take shifts guarding their room until she came back with reinforcements and to work nicely with any of the Marques' guards if any were provided.
The trained guard would take the night shift and the coachmen in a guard's uniform would take the day shift as it was less likely there would be any threats during the day. She stole the other guard to go with her. The maid would be tasked with helping to take care of her aunt.
She slipped out of the sables an hour before dawn on her horse with Caiden, a childhood friend of her brothers and a trusted guard, by her side. He was young and lean so he could keep up with the breakneck pace she set for home without overworking the horse and could better handle the lack of sleep as they traveled without rest.
They took all four of their horses, the ones that pulled their carriage there and the ones the guards rode, and swapped out as necessary. The long gruling hours of riding left her with time to think. time to think about who may have tried to poison her and why. Time to realize that didn't really matter, what mattered was that she was alive and what she did next. So she planned out how to best respond to the threat and how she could use this situation to her advantage.
Three and a half days later they would make it to their territory and she'd send the manor into an uproar of organized chaos.