Strong Poison · Chapter 16 (3/3)

Another purchase was a length of stiff black-bound wire, such as is used for making hat brims. Used double, neatly bent to a double angle and strapped to the wrist, this contrivance was sufficient to rock a light table. The weight of a heavy table would be too much for it, she feared, but she had had no time to order blacksmith’s work. She could try, anyway. She hunted out a black velvet rest gown with long, wide sleeves, and satisfied herself that the wires could be sufficiently hidden.

At six o’clock, she put on this garment, fastened the soapbox to her leg⁠—turning the box outward, lest untimely cracks should startle her fellow travellers, muffled herself in a heavy rain cloak of Inverness cut, took hat and umbrella and started on her way to steal Mrs. Wrayburn’s will.