by Beth Byers
“Far more than most get.” Severine rubbed her brow. The irritating sound of Florette’s voice was like a knife in the side of Severine’s head.
“Did you meet many men in Austria?”
Severine’s head tilted and she stared at her cousin. “Do you mean single men?”
Florette laughed merrily and making sure she leaned forward in a way to let Mr. Oliver and Mr. Thorne see her chest. “Of course, silly.”
“You do realize I was in a nunnery?”
“So there were no men?”
Oh, it was daggers to the head, that squeaky voice. Severine licked her lips lightly and realized her mouth was dry too. Like she’d had sawdust instead of wine with dinner. “No men. An occasional delivery man or woodsman.”
Florette gasped as though Severine had said she’d been whipped daily. She pressed her fingers hard into her head trying to keep her brain inside her skull.
The two gentlemen turned at Florette’s gasp, no doubt her purpose. Severine leaned back to watch as her cousin upped the charm, hoping she wouldn’t be called upon to participate. So often, as children, it had been in a case of contrasts with Severine always the loser.
Florette leaned in again, letting her hand touch either of the gentlemen whenever possible.
Severine yawned suddenly and then blinked a little rapidly. Her vision blurred with a pressing exhaustion and she realized she was done. “I believe I have reached my limits and will be the first to fade away.” She stood and then stumbled. “Excuse me.”
She dug her fingers into Anubis’s ruff and let him steady her and then glanced around for Lisette. Severine found she couldn’t quite focus. Rather than waiting for her friend, she stumbled from the room. There was a bit of a commotion behind her, but Severine didn’t have it in her to wait. She needed to lie down.
When she was half-way up the stairs, Lisette took hold of her arm.
“What’s wrong?” Lisette hissed.
Severine blinked rather stupidly. “I suspect I’ve been drugged. I’d have realized before, but apparently I am quite dim.”
Lisette cursed and glanced back. Severine didn’t bother. She was too busy clutching at the banister to keep from falling.
Lisette called, “I wonder, Mr. Thorne, if I might have your assistance after all.”
Severine felt herself lifted a moment later and she mumbled a laugh, “‘s like floating,” she slurred.
“I’ve got you,” Mr. Thorne said, and she thought that he might after all.
She felt herself laid down on the bed moments later. Things faded in and out and Severine felt helpless save for the pressing weight of Anubis.
Severine found the envelope in her hand and when Lisette went to take it, Severine said, “No.”
Instead Lisette helped Severine to put the envelope under her pillow. She could hear whispering at the door and then Lisette joined Severine by the bed. “I’ll stay with you.”
Severine was too tired to comment and she had to focus all of her will to say, “Anubis, schützen.”
Knowing her dog was on guard, Severine stopped fighting the drugs.
Chapter Ten
“You’re awake?” Lisette was dressed and sitting next to the bed. Anubis lay next to Severine while the pups were curled into her front and back.
Severine took a deep breath in and then slowly let it out. She pressed her hands to her aching eyes. Kali whined low and then licked Severine’s arm as she tried rubbing her lids.
“Lisette,” Severine groaned. “Would you get the eyedrops from my bag?”
Lisette rose and shuffled through Severine’s things while she tried and failed to gather her thoughts. The headache had only increased since the night before and when Lisette handed her the eye drops, she begged, “Aspirin? Coffee? My heavens, just water? I feel as though I’ve been beaten with a hammer.”
“I believe I was drugged just a few days ago,” Lisette said with humor. “I was not nearly so weak.”
Severine croaked but it was intended to be a laugh. She curled onto her side and then held out her hand until Lisette put two pills in it and handed her a glass. Severine swallowed them with the water, guzzling it down. Did she feel better immediately or was it all in her mind?
“What happened?”
“A member of this household has drugged you.”
“Mmm, yes,” Severine said, far less concerned than she should have been. She forced herself upright and determined that she would survive. “I did realize.”
She rose, her legs quavered, and she grabbed onto the bed until she steadied. “What shall I do?”
“Leave,” Lisette told Severine flatly. “Your parents wouldn’t want you to die to find their killer.”
“Am I dying? I don’t think that I am.”
She left Lisette and made her way to the bathroom, trying not to stumble, and cleaned up and dressing before returning to the bedroom and digging through her trunk. She found one of those black skirts that would reach her mid-cafe and were cut full with pockets. She paired it with a blouse that had a scalloped collar, black stockings, black sensible shoes, and a gray sweater. She supposed she rather looked like a school girl, but she brushed her hair until it shone and added red lipstick to remind herself that she was grown.
“Someone tried to get into the room last night,” Lisette told Severine. “Which was terrifying. Then later, your dog sat up and stared at the wall until I was sure I had gone mad.”
“Did he?” Severine asked. “As though there were rats in the walls?”
“Or a ghost!” Lisette laughed nervously and then added, “I don’t think I am being paid enough for this madness.”
“You aren’t,” Severine agreed. “Where did Anubis find the rats?”
Lisette gestured and Severine snorted. “It must have been terrifying. And was I snoring?”
“You were. Why aren’t you scared?”
Severine grinned and then admitted, “I spent the last half-dozen years in an electric-less nunnery. I suppose it’s quite terrifying to find yourself alone in the dark with a useless heap snoring next to you, but Sister Sophie did snore so. We had different cells, but her snore carried through the wing.”
Lisette stared at Severine. “Have you gone mad, cher? It wasn’t just dark. Someone was trying to get in. You were drugged. Someone means you ill.”
“Or they want this?” Severine said, lifting the envelope that had been tucked under her pillow. “I must find a good hiding place for these.” Severine sighed. “I would give a limb for coffee that I thought might not be drugged.”
“Good luck with that.” Lisette scowled. “I saw Mr. Brand give you that after dinner. Anyone could have seen, too. But you were drugged during dinner. So maybe that isn’t what they want.”
Severine considered. “I am not at my best, it seems. You are right. So, more likely is that they wanted something else.”
“Something,” Lisette said, “that required you helpless.”
Severine shivered despite herself. There were options there, she realized, and the taking of those keys were the most innocent of them.
“What is it going to be?” Lisette snapped, her eyes flashing with a concerned fury. “A pillow over the face while you’re sleeping? Another murder? A rape by those cousins of yours who want your money?”
Severine placed her hand over her stomach. “Coffee?”
Lisette’s mouth dropped. “I won’t be responsible for your death.”
“Of course you won’t be,” Severine said softly. “Wherever my follies lead me, they’re my own. You aren’t my savior, and I am not yours.”
Lisette scoffed. “Damn right. I don’t need you to save me.”
“I might need you to save me,” Severine amended, “if only through your friendship. which I have no desire to lose. What if I take you home?”
Lisette frowned and then muttered, “The roads are flooded. There’s no leaving.”
“Isn’t there?” Severine felt trapped instantly. She could im
agined the feel of shackles on her wrists and ankles. Whatever was intended for her, there was no escape. “I find myself suddenly alarmed.”
“Finally,” Lisette snapped. “You have got to re-engage in your life, Severine. You can’t let them take it away from you.”
Severine looked up and then slowly said, “I know. I just don’t know how.”
“I wish I could tell you.” Lisette smoothed back Severine’s hair before slapping her on the cheeks. It wasn’t the hard strike of the day before from Grandmère but it wasn’t gentle either. “Wake up.”
Severine rose. “I think we start with coffee. Then we’ll check on the car. Then I suppose I’ll find something to bring me joy.”
Lisette muttered under her breath about a spoiled girl who didn’t know what she liked. Severine grinned through it all. She clucked to her dogs, tucked the envelope into her chemise, and said, “I suppose we had better stick together.”
“Are you really going to let those servants fix you coffee?”
Severine laughed. “Darling Lisette, my education was finished by nuns. I shall make my own and some for you as well, thank you very much.”
“What will you say to the servants?”
Severine shook her head at that. She didn’t know. Those who had betrayed her couldn’t really stay, could they? She made her way to the kitchens with Lisette and the dogs, only getting lost once. When they arrived, they heard the sound of a male voice shouting, and Severine stepped silently into the kitchen.
No one noticed them enter and Severine found the shouting fellow to be none other than Mr. Brand.
“Which one of you did it?” It wasn’t the first time he had asked the question, Severine guessed, given the firmness with which every gaze was locked onto the floor.
Silence was the only reply. Mr. Brand repeated the question, growing more incensed as he was met by silence.
Finally, Severine spoke, startling them all. “Perhaps we should leave it at that.”
“Leave it?” Mr. Brand’s fingers were flexing in and out of fists as Severine crossed and took a coffee pot down, filling it with water.
“I can do that, Miss DuNoir,” one of the servants said.
Severine laughed lightly but didn’t offer the coffee pot and she set the water to boiling on the already lit stove before digging through the cupboards on her own to find the coffee. She sniffed a few canisters, locating the chicory, and then turned to face the room.
“Leave it,” Severine said easily, crossing to the back door and letting her dogs out. She left the door cracked, so they could return. She turned to the rest. “Rather than focusing on things in the past, let’s look to the future, shall we?”
No one said anything, but Mr. Brand waved for her to proceed. His fury hadn’t lessened in the least.
“The future?” a timid voice asked.
She turned, but she didn’t see who had spoken. “When my grandmother exits this house.”
“Is that happening?” the housekeeper asked.
“Grandmère rules on the generosity of Mr. Brand now, and eventually, myself. Her day will certainly come to an end.”
“You’ll throw out your granny?” Lisette demanded.
Severine shook her head. “Throw out? One can hardly make homeless a woman who owns a house in her own right.”
Lisette lifted her brows and then glanced at the servants. If Severine hadn’t insisted on establishing Lisette as a friend, would Lisette be able to connive her way into their gossip and secrets? Severine let her gaze move round the kitchens and realized that this was probably the entire household’s staff.
“Trust has already been broken,” Severine said simply. “If you wish to remain, I suppose you’ll earn it back.”
She combined the ground coffee with the water and then set about contentedly making fried eggs, bacon, fried green tomatoes, and toast while the cook barely held back shoving Severine aside and taking over. When Severine was finished, the cook gave her a nod of respect.
“Where did you learn to cook like that, Miss DuNoir?”
“The nuns aren’t ones to leave idle hands alone.” She served up the meal for herself, Lisette, and Mr. Brand.
Mr. Brand took his plate and the coffee carafe and carried both to a small room off of the kitchens. Severine and Lisette followed. When he had seated them, he took his own place and stated, “Miss DuNoir, I am concerned.”
Lisette’s low laugh was sufficient to show that the simple words weren’t enough for her. “There is…is…”
“Dark chicanery afoot,” Severine announced. “Someone tried to get into my rooms last night after drugging me.”
Mr. Brand’s curse was followed by an immediate apology, but Severine felt he rather put the right words on it.
“I thought at first it was for the keys you gave me,” Severine said, “but I was being simple and Lisette set me aright.”
“What do you think the goal is?”
Severine’s head tilted and then she said, “Perhaps Clive or Erik wished to compromise me so thoroughly they could force me to wed.”
Lisette snarled for Severine.
“Surely no.” Mr. Brand looked shocked and enraged at once.
“What would you have done if they succeeded?” Severine asked simply.
Mr. Brand started to reply and then paused. He set his coffee cup down. “I have—I—I suppose I might have been persuaded to believe your father would have pushed for a wedding. Only, he made me swear to let you make your own way, and…in the end…I think I would have let you refuse if you insisted.”
“They’d have made it known,” Lisette added. “Well known, so it would be harder to decline. Her grandmother would have been persuaded. Her relatives. She’d have been driven away or given in. Staying would be impossible. They’d make it so.”
“That can’t happen,” Mr. Brand said. “What do I have to give you, Miss Lisette, to prevent that from happening to Severine?”
Lisette frowned at Mr. Brand. “Nothing. I would do that for any woman. Let alone a friend.”
Severine rubbed her brow. “I think it’s more likely, however, that it was either Andre or Grandmère.”
“To what end?” Mr. Brand demanded.
“Power.” Severine added, “Money.”
“You think they killed your parents?” Lisette demanded. “His mother or her child?”
Severine shook her head, sipping her coffee until her mouth was full and then swallowing with a silent prayer that the coffee would overcome the effects of the drug. “If something happens to me, Andre would get everything. Wouldn’t he?”
Mr. Brand nodded, having confirmed with the lawyer. “If something were to happen to you, given you don’t have a will, the state would look at what was yours and give it to your closest relatives. You have but one brother. Your uncles and cousins are too far out of the line of inheritance. Your grandmother might have a claim, but her own heir is your brother, so what would that matter?”
“And, of course, Grandmère doesn’t need the money. She just needs things to continue as they are so she retains power.”
Lisette stared. “So there are two villains?”
Severine laughed. “Don’t confuse my family with yours, Lisette. Your grandmother didn’t throw out your mother, did she?”
Lisette shook her head.
“Your mother loved you, no matter what your father did, didn’t she?”
Lisette nodded.
“Your family—they’re what I always wanted. Mine?” Severine glanced at Mr. Brand and then sighed.
“Yours?” Lisette asked gently.
“It’s not a question of whether they’re a villain. They’re all varying degrees of villains, even Father. It’s whether they’re the one we’re looking for.”
Mr. Brand cursed again, but didn’t apologize. “Your father saved my life, Miss DuNoir.”
“I suppose even villains have their moments,” Severine said bluntly, looking out the window of the little room. Anubis was st
anding by while Kali and Persephone bulldozed each other over. Severine rose and uttered, “We really do need to find a way out.”
“And to stand together,” Lisette added.
“That too,” Severine agreed, smoothly.
Chapter Eleven
Severine exited the house with only the dogs. She found the rain had stopped, but the grass was soggy and the slope away from the house looked like it could be a river of mud. She stared towards her car just on the other side of the rising water and realized that someone had moved it.
The night hadn’t been kind to her car, and they would need to replace the front window and have dings and dents from falling branches removed from the paint. She started as she saw Mr. Thorne and Mr. Oliver walking up the drive.
“Good morrow,” Mr. Oliver called when they were close enough.
“Miss Severine,” Mr. Thorne said. “I am happy to see you are well again.”
She examined them as they approached. Tall and strong and entirely without suspicion. Was she being naive again? Seeing the best possible version of things? “Thank you.”
Should she apologize for her state the previous evening? Severine was tempted to do just that, but her pride refused to allow it. Mr. Oliver glanced at Mr. Thorne and the two friends seemed to have a private conversation.
“Miss DuNoir,” Mr. Thorne said, clearing his throat. “I am concerned.”
Severine lifted her brows and then glanced behind her. She pulled her black shoulder wrap around her body more tightly. “Are you?”
“You left your auto with your friend and climbed the hill in the dark?”
Severine nodded.
“Did you see anything?”
“The lights of the house. The flashes of lightning. The rain.”
“Nothing else? Another person?” Mr. Oliver asked this time. Her gaze turned to the tall, blonde man and she shook her head.
“There was darkness and rain and a storm. There could have been a battalion of men watching me and Lisette climb that hill, and I doubt either of us would have noticed.”
