Chapter 577: Go and Test the Waters (Bonus Chapter for Monthly Pass)_1
Purple Summers frowned slightly, sighed softly, and muttered to herself, “I still feel like something’s missing…”
“What’s missing?” Jane McCain asked, puzzled. “There are so many suspects already, you think there are too few?”
“Insufficient motive,” Purple Summers said. “The housekeeper disliking Mrs. Douglas, or the driver being docked pay, such reasons aren’t enough for someone to harm a newborn baby, right? And not just one, but two babies in succession.”
Jane McCain was stunned for a moment, then said, “If that’s the case… Doesn’t that mean the private tutor is innocent?”
“Why?” Purple Summers asked.
“Because… the private tutor was hired by the Douglas family after Mrs. Douglas’s children had accidents,” Jane McCain explained to her. “After losing two children in a row, Mrs. Douglas developed severe depression and was unable to care for Young Master Douglas. Mr. Douglas did not trust the servants with the child, so he hired a private tutor who could both care for and teach the child.”
Purple Summers thought for a moment and said, “Could it be that Young Master Douglas did it? Like… not wanting his love to be taken away by a younger brother or sister?”
Jane McCain was shocked by Purple Summers’ bold assumption and exclaimed with wide eyes, “Impossible, right? Young Master Douglas was only five years old when Mrs. Douglas’s first child had an accident. What does a five-year-old know?”
“Maybe it was one of the servants behind Young Master Douglas? Worried that the new wife’s child would affect Young Master Douglas’s status in the family, so they took drastic measures,” Purple Summers felt this was a strong possibility. “You said earlier that many of the Douglas family’s servants were from Mr. Douglas’s legitimate wife, so their affection must be extraordinary.”
After hearing this, Jane McCain felt something was off, as if it made sense yet it didn’t.
“If it’s about affecting status… But the first child was a girl, there was no need to worry at all.”
People in the world often valued sons over daughters and never worried about daughters usurping family wealth, only about sons.
“That’s true,” Purple Summers was stumped. “Either the baby was an obstacle to someone’s interests, or someone intended to torment Mrs. Douglas…”
What kind of grudge or enmity would someone have to vent on an infant just a few months old?
“Could it be…” Jane McCain hesitated. “That Mrs. Douglas is really ill?”
After thinking it through, she couldn’t come up with anyone who would harm Mrs. Douglas, so explaining the entire event with paranoia actually made a lot of sense.
But Purple Summers shook her head, “The first child suffocated to death less than a month after birth, the second child only lived three months before falling to death from a staircase, and now this third child, without those nannies and servants watching over, has survived almost five months without any incident. If this isn’t a coincidence, then Mrs. Douglas has been fiercely protective.”
Upon hearing this, Jane McCain’s expression betrayed her fear. “A servant just told me that Mrs. Douglas suspected someone in the house wanted to harm her child, so she refused to come home after giving birth, and even after the puerperium was over, she still refused to come back, insisted on returning to her parents’ home, and wanted a divorce from Mr. Douglas… Mr. Douglas wouldn’t agree, forcibly brought Mrs. Douglas and the child back home, and afterward, Mrs. Douglas moved into that house and refused to see anyone anymore.”
The more Jane McCain thought about it, the more frightened she became, and in a soft voice, she asked Purple Summers, “It couldn’t have been Mr. Douglas, could it? Although the servants were from the legitimate wife, in the end, they are paid by Mr. Douglas, and whatever they do, it’s at Mr. Douglas’s urging…”
Purple Summers pondered carefully for a long while, then patted Jane McCain’s shoulder and said, “Come, let’s go and test him.”
“How will we test him?” Jane McCain didn’t understand.
“You’ll know in a moment,” Purple Summers teased, pulling Jane McCain back the way they had come.
Her eyes briefly swept past the tulips alongside the staircase, and she felt a sense of regret.
What beautiful flowers…