Feud by Lady Grace Cavendish

close that he'd notice us, but not wanting to risk losing track of him, either. He took a winding path, twisting and turning through the New Buildings until he reached a low doorway and a staircase. We watched as he ran up the steps. We were stuck! If we tried to follow him upstairs he'd be sure to see us, but we couldn't possibly see what he was up to from the ground. We looked around frantically for a handy tree, but there was none.
    Then Masou spotted a balcony being repaired on the building opposite. We climbed up one of the ladders—of course, Masou had to show off by shinning up a scaffolding pole—and found we could see across to the room opposite quite clearly. It was a large room with big windows, and it was full of wood panels and pieces of canvas stretched on wooden frames. All of them were in different stages of being painted.
    We heard the door bang and had to duck down quickly as Nick entered the room and glanced out of a window.
    “Ooer!” gasped Ellie, suddenly.
    I looked where she was pointing and saw Richard Fitzgrey striding along the alley, looking a little furtive.
    We peeked over the poles of the scaffolding, expecting him to go straight past. But to our surprise, he went in at the same low doorway Nick Hilliard had used, and we heard his feet on the stairs.
    Ellie looked at me in dismay. “Oh no,” she said. “I can't believe that lovely Richard Fitzgrey is involved in a poisoning.”
    I didn't know what to say to her. I was utterly confused. Whoever I had been expecting to buy thepoisonous orpiment from Nick Hilliard, it had surely not been Richard Fitzgrey. My mind was racing as I tried to fathom what Richard could possibly have against poor Carmina. I could think of nothing. Perchance he was here in error, or mayhap Richard was selling the poison on, or perhaps he was here for some other reason entirely, I thought. It was certainly a puzzle, and we could do nothing but sit and wait and watch.
    We heard the door open and voices, and we saw Richard enter Nick's room and sit down. But we couldn't see Nick properly through the windows. The men were talking but we couldn't hear their words clearly—it was terribly frustrating.
    Richard sat there for a long time. Eventually, Ellie was worried about getting back to the laundry, Masou was anxious that Mr. Somers would miss him and I was wondering if I would be in trouble with Mrs. Champernowne. We had just decided to give up and climb down, when Richard stood up and a moment later we saw him coming back down the stairs. He emerged from the doorway and headed back towards the main part of Nonsuch Palace again.
    “I must return to Mr. Somers,” said Masou, looking extremely smug. “But I told you it must be the posing players, and now here is the proof.” Heswung himself down one of the poles and dropped to the ground.
    “Masou!” I called, scrambling down a ladder in a hurry. “Wait, I really need to talk to you.”
    “Why?” he asked. “We've found the poisoner. Obviously Richard Fitzgrey is paying Nick Hilliard to take poisonous paint from the Workroom so Richard can use it to poison your friend. It's exactly what I would expect of a player.”
    “That's manure,” said Ellie—well, she almost said that, I've changed it to make it more respectable.
    “Ellie's right, Masou,” I put in. “We can't know that's the case. We didn't see Nick hand over the poison. And why would Mr. Fitzgrey want to poison anybody, leave alone a Maid of Honour he does not know at all?”
    Masou shrugged. “He's a player so he's half Bedlamite anyway,” he said. “Maybe he thinks he's in a play, or maybe he just thinks it would be entertaining—”
    “Lady Grace!” interrupted a voice behind us. “What on earth are you doing here?”
    I spun round. There was Nick Hilliard standing in the entrance to the stairway, with his jerkin half on and hanging from one shoulder.
    “Um, I … ,” I began, nervously.
    Masou and Ellie moved closer to me. I was