by Beth Byers
“I think judges can be eminently bribable. And there is an old boy’s network that will work against me. He’s doing all the things he can to build it up.”
“I will stand with you. I would have even if we weren’t allies. I suspect your brother knows that.”
Severine rubbed her brow. “No doubt why he’s doing what he’s doing. Drugging me and destroying my room. If I had done that to myself, could I even look madder? The rumors among the servants. Grandmère being reminded I drank too much.”
Severine’s laugh was dark. “Enough is enough, Mr. Thorne. I can’t hide from him until the flooding dissipates. Perhaps we wade across the rising water, take the auto, and go for help?”
He shook his head. “If you go alone, you don’t know who your brother’s allies are. You may reach help and discover an enemy and no support. I don’t like it, Severine. Why don’t we just round up your brother, lock him in the cellar, and wait until we can get help from someone we trust?”
Severine nodded. She didn’t object to such a thing. Not after her room had been destroyed. She put her things in her old room, locked the door, made a slight mark and placed a hair over that mark. If someone opened her bedroom door while she was gone, she’d know.
She glanced at Grayson and nodded. They made their way down to the dining room and found it empty. They tried the parlor, and it was empty. They tried the library, the great hall, the kitchens, but everywhere was empty. Finally, Severine said, “Would they be in the yard?”
They made their way out through a back door and found Oliver and Florette.
“I say,” Grayson called, “Where is everyone?”
The two looked up in surprise.
“Whatever do you mean?” Florette asked.
“Even the servants aren’t in the kitchens,” Severine called. “We were looking for Mr. Brand and my brother.”
“Ah,” Oliver said, a light blush on his cheeks, “we’ve been out here since luncheon.”
Severine lifted a brow and Oliver’s blush deepened lightly. Had he decided that it didn’t matter about the income comment? It was no concern of hers, she told herself.
“Was everyone at luncheon?” Grayson asked sharply.
“No,” Florette said. “We were told Severine had a headache.” Florette’s happy gaze moved over Severine, and her eyes glinted with humor. “Andre never comes to luncheon. Or hardly ever. Mr. Brand was gone. Again, no excuse. Grandmère was furious. Your Lisette was late and surprised about everyone being gone.”
Severine glanced back at the house, her skin prickling in uneasy. Someone was watching them from the second floor, but she couldn’t see who it was, just a featureless shape.
“There,” Serveine said, but the figure stepped back too quickly for the others to see.
“What is it?” Florette asked happily.
“Someone was in the window.”
Florette laughed merrily. “It’s a fine day. Why wouldn’t someone be looking out?”
Severine didn’t bother to answer. She glanced at Oliver. “Perhaps keep Florette close.”
His gaze sharpened even as Florette’s narrowed. “Whatever for?”
“Andre has struck.”
“Struck?”
“Struck,” Severine answered. She moved back toward the house, Grayson with her.
“That was my bedroom,” she said quietly. “He was in the one I just left.”
“By Jove, I think you’re right,” Grayson said. They hurried back to her room and he threw the door open.
“Oh my,” Severine stared, her mouth dropping.
The room looked perfect. The bloodied mattress was gone or cleaned. No, it must be gone, swapped for a clean one. The paintings were back on the wall. The pile she had made of her ruined underthings had vanished.
“What in the world?” Grayson demanded.
“Don’t you see?” Severine asked softly. “No one knows you saw it with me.”
Grayson’s gaze narrowed.
“Hysterical female,” Severine said, agitated, “too many novels, raised by useless virginal women in the woods, of course she’s gone mad. Maybe that was why I was sent there in the first place.”
Grayson shut the door behind them while Severine raged. She was pacing, almost shouting. “I was with you,” he finally said.
“You were with me, yes. Thank goodness for our accord. Mr. Brand was with me earlier. But Andre doesn’t know that. He’s been working his plan while we work ours.”
“We need to speak with Mr. Brand,” Grayson replied. “It’s necessary that we combine forces and deal with your brother. What we saw here today, Severine…it’s madness.”
Severine spun and then rushed down the stairs with Grayson right behind her.
Chapter Sixteen
“Sevie,” her brother said silkily from the bottom of the steps. His voice was something she’d expect from a snake. All clever and sneaky, with a dash of evil.
She and Grayson were only halfway down the grand staircase when he’d called her name, and they came to a stop. A sudden sense of the presence of her male cousins and uncle, and they appeared, spread out as though they intended to block her path.
“What have you done with Grandmère?” her brother demanded.
“Grandmère?” Severine replied stupidly, a rush of fear flooding her. What had he done with Grandmère? Had he hurt Grandmère as he’d ruined Severine’s things? Was Grandmère rended to bits somewhere as Severine’s possessions had been? Was Grandmère the person who had bled on Severine’s bed? She hadn’t considered where the blood had come from when she’d seen it.
“Grandmère,” Andre said, his voice was all threat. “She’s missing. What have you done with her?”
Severine stepped back. She couldn’t help it. Not with the image of that bloody bed in her room. What if…what if that hadn’t been animal’s blood from the kitchens, but Grandmère? She felt sick, and her stomach roiled.
“What have you done?” Severine demanded, pressing her hand against her stomach. Outrage overtook her fear and she shouted. “What have you done?!”
“I?” Andre held a hand to his chest in innocence, but his amused look said the opposite. As he was standing in front of the other men, they couldn’t see it. “You, Severine. What did you do?”
Grayson stepped up behind Severine. “Enough of that Andre. We know what you’ve been doing.”
“I?” His laugh was mocking. “What could I have done? Why would I do away with Grandmère?”
“Do away with?” Severine stared at him, aghast. “What do you mean?”
When Andre only tutted, Severine snapped, “Clive!”
“She’s missing, Sevie.” Her cousin’s gaze was moving over her face and she could almost hear him debating whether she could have or would have hurt Grandmère. “We’ve been searching the house for her, and we can’t find her.”
Grayson stepped in front of Severine, but she side-stepped.
“And you’ve decided I did something. That for some reason, I decided to…what?” She let her gaze move from each of the men, lingering long on Clive, who flushed red.
“Your grandmother is missing,” he said, as if that were proof of her guilt.
“And you’re a lemming,” she muttered too low for anyone but Grayson to hear.
“You weren’t at lunch,” Andre said accusingly, but with a smile that said he knew she had been in his room. Poor flower, she mocked in her mind, knowing he didn’t realize she hadn’t been alone.
“You weren’t either,” Severine countered, shuddering at the memory of what she’d found in her room. “I’ve heard it twice now. Grandmère, however, was at luncheon, so why does it matter where I was?”
“She left luncheon early,” Uncle Alphonse answered, shushing his two sons, “to find you as one of the servants said you were unwell again.”
The emphasis meant something to him, Severine knew. What tales had Andre been telling? What crimes had they convicted her of while she had been doing her
own detective work?
Severine had to hold back a sudden gasp. What had Grandmère found when Severine had been moving her things to her old bedroom? Had her brother returned to the bedroom, thinking to find an upset Severine and finding a horrified Grandmère instead?
If so, he must have given himself away. He’d done something to turn Grandmère’s suspicion toward him. Or more horribly, he had just seen another opportunity to trap Severine with whatever he did to Grandmère.
“This is quite a large house.” Severine kept her voice even in an illusion of calm. “Are we so sure she isn’t in a distant room or has fainted somewhere?”
“The servants checked every room, every closet.”
Severine’s gaze met her brother’s, and his smile was deliberately antagonizing. He wanted her to accuse him of what he’d done to her room. Did he think that she hadn’t been back and seen that he’d cleaned it? He must have had reason to believe that she was elsewhere.
No, she realized, he’d been ridding himself of Grandmère, hoping that in the meantime, she was elsewhere. Perhaps pouring her woes out on her guardian’s shoulder. Except…oh, oh no.
“Where is Mr. Brand?”
“Mr. Brand has an unhealthy willingness to believe you are your father reincarnate.” Andre was so certain that he was right, and that he’d caught her finally. “We don’t need him.”
“He’s her guardian,” Grayson said. “Whatever has happened, Mr. Brand is—in fact—quite necessary.”
“Keep out of this,” Andre hissed. “This is a family matter.”
Grayson started to reply, but Severine cleared her throat, and he stopped. He shot her a look which she ignored.
Severine asked Andre, “What is your goal here, Andre?”
“To find Grandmère and get you the help you need.” He tried to sound as though he cared.
“What have you done with Mr. Brand?” And Lisette would have been with him. Severine’s stomach dropped. Andre would see no reason to keep Lisette alive, but accusing him of murder outrightly would surely backfire.
Andre shook his head and countered, “What have you done with Grandmère, Sevie? Maybe she upset you like your father used to upset Mama. You can tell us, Sevie. We want to help. Maybe you had a fit like Mama used to have. Do you remember those, Sevie? Remember how Mama would rage? She’d fly at your father and he’d have to confine her to her room? It’s not your fault if you struggle as Mama struggled.”
Severine blinked only once as she processed her brother’s intentions. He was far more like her mother than Severine ever had been. Andre, like their mother, believed what he wanted to believe. Severine had once watched her father get his mother’s compliance by asking her to do the opposite.
“Have you dreamed up a world where I get put into an asylum and you get control of the money?” She laughed lightly, a pretty lie of a noise that sureprised even herself since she was inwardly sinking in despair. “Do you think Mr. Brand hasn’t known you were intending something? Do you think he doesn’t have a plan in place? He told me just today that you were pursuing becoming my guardian.”
“I should be your guardian,” Andre shouted. “I should have always been your guardian. Some poor nobody to take care of my sister? It has always been unacceptable.”
Her laugh was mean, just the way Father's was when Andre asked for something or bragged about a feat that Father thought was worthless. Andre heard her father in her voice, as she’d intended, and he flushed in fury. His hands clenched into claws, and Grayson put his hand on her shoulder in warning.
Andre slowly sheathed his fury at Grayson’s move, and Severine wanted to snap at the man. Chivalry had no place here when she was trying to drive her brother past his control to madness. She needed him to reveal himself.
“Why don’t we find Mr. Brand, locate Mrs. Charpentier, and move from there,” Grayson suggested calmly. Severine noticed he’d left out Lisette. Was it intentional or had he simply forgotten about her? “It’s madness to assume that because Miss DuNoir wasn’t at lunch that she attacked a woman who isn’t present.”
“But we can’t find her,” Erik said stupidly.
“That only means that we can’t find her,” Grayson said calmly. “There’s absolutely no evidence that Miss DuNoir did anything to her grandmother.”
“They were fighting,” Andre said, furiously.
“Her mother was known to have rages,” Uncle Alphonse added thoughtfully as though only then realizing the way the conversation had been going.
“Severine is not her mother.” Grayson cleared his throat before eyeing each of the others. “Rages could be caused by many things. Too much alcohol. A morphine or opium habit. Deep provocation.”
“Stay out of this, Thorne,” Andre warned.
“Your problem, Charpentier, is that you expect to tell these fellows your facts and they’ll believe you, but as for me, I happen to know that Severine and Mr. Brand were together during luncheon discussing her future and that he stayed with her until I joined them and later joined Miss DuNoir in walking her dogs.”
“What now?” Clive asked.
“Miss DuNoir has an alibi for her grandmother,” Grayson said, “given that I saw Mrs. Charpentier and then saw Miss DuNoir. You’ve been mislead.”
A tense shock filled the air with worry showing in Clive’s and Erik’s faces.
“Sevie,” Clive said, striving for charm and failing. “Sevie, we were just so worried.”
Severine continued to speak calmly, as though she wasn’t offended to the core by her uncle and cousins turning against her so easily. “Of course you were. Are. Let’s find Grandmère and Mr. Brand—” and Lisette, she added silently, praying the girl was still alive, “—and we’ll move from there.”
Andre eyed Grayson with a fierce dislike that promised retribution. Severine, however, eyed her cousins with a forgiving lie of an expression, so they’d be on her side rather than Andre’s. It would be better for them if they knew their allowances were at risk even if she had no intention of stripping income from anyone.
“Sevie, you’re with me,” Andre said, “we’ll search the house again in pairs.”
Severine simply said, “No.”
“She’ll stay with me,” Grayson said.
“I’ll go with you, Andre,” Uncle Alphonse said with an expression that proclaimed suspicion.
“Sevie,” Clive tried, “I’ve been wanting to talk to you, perhaps we could search for your grandmother together?”
Severine wasn’t that kind, nor did she trust Clive. She smiled gently and patted him on the arm. “I think I had better stay with Mr. Thorne. Are the servants still searching?”
“We’re to meet back at the great hall at 5:00pm and ring the dinner gong if we find her,” Uncle Alphonse told them. “The servants are looking. Everything else is on hold until we find her.”
“Of course,” Severine stated. She let Grayson pull her away from the rest. She ordered Anubis to heel and as soon as they were out of sight, Severine said, “Anubis can help. I need something of Lisette’s.” She paused. “Do you think he killed her?”
Grayson looked away. “I don’t know.” He gathered himself. “We also need to find your Mr. Brand and grandmother, and have Oliver keep an eye on Florette.”
Severine nodded.
“Your brother is mad, Severine. I can’t even follow why he thought he could just declare it was you and expect everyone to follow in line.”
“My mother was like that,” Severine said, rubbing her brow in a failed attempt to dissipate her headache. “My mother would just declare something. It could be factually wrong with the proof in front of her face, and she’d still insist upon what she wanted to be true.”
Grayson huffed. “But how did she get away with that?”
“She was terrible if she didn’t get what she wanted,” Severine told him flatly. “The decision always had to be whether you wanted to deal with the aftermath or just ignore her nonsense. I had forgotten until today how
Andre would try the same thing. Father never let Andre get away with the same nonsense, but Mother did. Grandmère did too. He probably thinks this will work because it has worked in the past. And he’s spent much more time with my family than I have. If they do see me as my mother’s daughter, especially with the rumors going around, it might have worked.”
Grayson scoffed at the idea, but Severine shook her head. Andre was spoiled and inherently mean. Her father had once told her that Andre didn’t understand that he wasn’t the center of everything and that for some people, he was simply a fellow who didn’t matter to them personally.
“Severine,” Grayson started to say carefully, but before he could finish his thought Anubis growled darkly.
They both spun to see where Anubis was staring and there was nothing there.
Grayson frowned. “He seems better trained than that.”
“Something is amiss,” Severine replied. “Anubis, punkt.”
A moment later her large dog moved towards a wall and snuffed along it before barking at a closed door. Severine opened the door and Anubis rushed across the floor and lifted his paw towards the far corner of the room.
Chapter Seventeen
“What is on the other side of this room?” Grayson asked.
Severine shook her head. This old place was a maze and she could barely find her way to a few of the rooms without backtracking. They rushed out of the small parlor and examined the room next door. Nothing.
They turned a corner and found an old office for the estate manager, but it was simply an empty room covered in sheets.
“The dog’s gone mad,” Grayson muttered.
“No,” Severine defended. “Lisette said that Anubis was the same way in my room last night. He’s smelling something in the walls. Let’s find something from Lisette for Anubis to sniff and try again.”
Grayson hesitated. “I fear we cannot be in accord if we don’t tell Oliver what is happening and ensure he stays with your cousin. I wouldn’t put it past Charpentier to turn to Florette instead.”
Severine wanted to argue but he was right. They needed to unify themselves and protect one another. Severine nodded and took Anubis’s collar, commanding the puppies to heel, though Severine left them on their leads. She could just imagine her brother trying something with her dogs. She would keep them with her every moment until this was over.
