British hegemon

Chapter 16 Deadly Poison

"Stableman, quickly lead the mules and horses away. You few help old Butler Bard into the hall to rest." A soft, sweet voice rang out, and Mrs. Kate appeared behind Roger at some point, coming to his rescue.

"Young Master Roger, please come with me..."

Roger was about to thank her when Mrs. Kate whispered something to him, then turned and quietly went upstairs.

Roger hesitated for a moment, then slowly followed.

After turning around the corner twice on the second floor, I arrived at the innermost bedroom.

Roger pushed open the door and followed Mrs. Kate into the room, unable to resist looking around.

This place was fresher than any lord's room in his vague memory, and the furniture was more exquisite. Tapestries hung on the walls, fur carpets covered the floor, and the bed was surrounded by embroidered curtains.

In front of a chair that resembles a throne is an exquisitely crafted dressing table and a round bronze mirror. Above the mirror is a window inlaid with colorful stained glass.

The room was spotless and exuded a faint fragrance.

In this era of pervasive stench, this place is like a breath of fresh air.

Roger simply stood near the door and did not go inside.

Mrs. Kate, sensing Roger's wariness, teased, "Is the wicked young master Roger worried about being eaten by me?"

Roger hesitated for a moment, then stepped inside.

Mrs. Kate walked to the dressing table beside the bed, took out a wooden box from the bottom drawer, gently opened it, took out a small object, held it in her hand, and turned to walk to Roger.

"This might be useful to you." He said, taking Roger's hand and placing a small, oval ceramic bottle about the size of a thumb into Roger's hand.

Roger picked up the small ceramic bottle and examined it carefully. Although there were some floral patterns on the bottle, it was just an ordinary little thing.

"What's in here?"

"Countless lives lost," Mrs. Kate said with a hint of sadness.

Roger, puzzled, uncorked the bottle and waved to take a sniff.

"Sap from the shortleaf yew." Mrs. Kate said softly, startling Roger so much that he quickly plugged the bottle.

The shortleaf yew, also known as the European yew, is a plant that is highly poisonous in its entirety, except for its fruit, especially its bark and leaves.

When Roger was smuggling in Northern Europe, he once saw a young man in a hospital who had mistakenly used yew leaves to make tea. In less than an hour, the young man began to hallucinate; three hours later, he was in a deep coma.

When the young man was brought to the hospital, he was covered in cold sweat, and his face, neck, and entire chest were dark blue. He died painfully after struggling for four hours.

"How could you have this..." Roger suddenly stopped talking because he remembered that even in later generations, some ignorant girls who had unexpected pregnancies would take products made from this plant, and many girls died as a result.

"How much money do you want this time?" Roger assumed it was just another transaction.

"Half a penny." Mrs. Kate chuckled softly, gently pushed Roger out, and closed the door.

Roger increasingly felt that Mrs. Kate of the Moulin Rouge was not as simple as he had imagined.

However, with life and death at stake, he had no energy to investigate in detail.

Leaving Mrs. Kate's room and arriving in the first-floor hall, several servants and maids were whispering words of comfort to the sour-faced butler.

The man with the bitter face had released his emotions and stopped crying. He just sat blankly on the low stool near the door.

The girl with the ponytail, who had been watching the commotion with her arms crossed, saw Roger coming downstairs and quickly went to greet him. "Young Master Roger, what happened?"

Roger moved a few steps toward a deserted spot, and the girl with the ponytail followed.

"I got the poison." Roger spread his right hand.

The woman with the ponytail glanced at the thumb-sized ceramic bottle, her face showing disappointment. "Only this much? There are more than a dozen pirates."

"This is a highly poisonous agent; just this little bit is enough to wipe out the entire town."

The girl with the ponytail opened her eyes wide and carefully took the medicine bottle.

"Hide carefully. If I were a pirate, I would definitely search you."

The girl with the ponytail nodded. "I have a way."

"Alright, you can slip away later. Remember the details of the plan."

"I've remembered everything: leaking false information, inciting the pirates, poisoning the dinner, and setting fire to the poisoned house." The woman with the ponytail gripped the medicine bottle tightly and repeated it in a low voice.

Roger nodded slightly and walked towards the man with the sour face.

The woman with the ponytail glanced around, and seeing that no one was paying attention to her, quietly slipped into the stable.

He stuffed the wool cloak and high riding boots, along with the bundle of silver coins wrapped in rags and a small dagger, into the hole under the manger.

He dug out two worn-out, open-toed shoes that he had discarded the day before from the manure pile in the stable. Ignoring the animal excrement and urine on the shoes, he put them on and then slipped out of the town, leaving a trail of horse manure along the wall.

No one in the Moulin Rouge noticed the disappearance of the ponytail; Roger was sitting at the square table trying to persuade the sour-faced man.

"...Since I said I had a way, then I must have a way. You should go back now and take good care of Madam and Young Master Louis." Roger's patience was almost exhausted, but the bitter-faced man insisted on staying to die with him.

Roger closed his eyes to suppress his anger and raised his voice, "Since you insist on staying, then do something for me, don't be a useless person waiting to die."

Only then did the man with the bitter face raise his head.

"Many islanders will arrive at Brodick at noon today to apply for the position of city defender. I've announced that anyone who comes will get a free lunch."

"I'll leave this to you. Prepare enough food for one or two hundred people before noon." Roger decided to entrust the task of providing free lunches to the grumpy-faced butler. Originally, he planned to hire the "half-penny" girl from the Moulin Rouge at a high salary to do this job.

"Ugh! Why let them eat for free? Where am I supposed to get food for hundreds of people? And how much will that cost?" The man with the bitter face now thought his young master was both crazy and stupid.

Roger glanced at the Moulin Rouge kitchen. The prices there were usually too high, and the customers weren't there to fill their stomachs. So, while the food in that kitchen was quite refined and delicious, the limited ingredients were hardly enough to feed a hundred people.

Roger pondered for a moment, then a thought struck him.

"Make use of the whole town. The one-eyed eatery at the bottom of the broken wall at the town entrance has a big pot and often makes cheap food. Pay him to come over, along with his cooking utensils and staff."

"If there are not enough people and cooking utensils, then hire servants at the Moulin Rouge."

"At yesterday's wool market, the bakeries in town must have baked a lot of bread. I bought it all and asked them to bake more immediately if it wasn't enough."

"Also, buy the leftover bones and offal from the butcher shop, plus the leftover meat from yesterday at the Red Mill, and make several pots of thick offal soup."

As Roger methodically laid out his plans, the man with the bitter face gradually widened his eyes.

Just as he was about to voice his doubts, Roger magically produced two gleaming gold coins from his sleeve and slapped them into the hand of the man with the bitter face.

Before the man with the sour face could speak, Roger turned around and pulled "Halfpenny's" hand over. "Honey, you know Brodick best. Please help my butler with these tasks."

After saying this, he placed a silver penny into the girl's palm.

The girl holding the still-warm silver coin in her hand had a flushed face, a slight upturn at the corner of her mouth, and a small black mole on her lip that twitched playfully.

"Old man, the whole of Brodick must be filled with the aroma of food before noon..." Before he could finish his sentence, Roger had already stepped out of the Moulin Rouge and headed towards Brodick Castle in the north of the town.

"Butler Bard, should we hire someone first or buy groceries?" the "Halfpenny" girl asked, standing next to the sour-faced man.

......