Playing the Part

by Jen Turano

  Mr. Skukman blinked, blinked again, smiled, and then headed immediately through the door that led down to the dungeon.

  “I didn’t know he knew how to smile,” Abigail said to no one in particular.

  Leaving Iris and Abigail discussing the benefits of Ruby apparently being interested in a strong, yet practically mute type, Bram led the way down the narrow steps with Lucetta right behind him. Reaching the hallway that led to the dungeon, he found Ruby engaged in an actual conversation with Mr. Skukman, that gentleman once again smiling at something Ruby was saying.

  “Bram,” Ruby exclaimed as she looked up, hurrying over to give him a hug, her animosity with him evidently a thing of the past. “Can you believe the mess the Macmillans made throughout the castle?”

  “Do you know why they made it?” he countered.

  Ruby shook her head. “They won’t answer any questions, and believe me, Tilda, Stanley, and Ernie have been badgering them endlessly.”

  “Would you like me to have a word with them, Mr. Haverstein?” Mr. Skukman asked even as he gave a single crack of his knuckles.

  “Thank you, but no, not unless they refuse to talk to me.”

  “Very good, sir. Would you like Miss Haverstein and me to wait out here while you question the criminals?” Mr. Skukman sent him a rather innocent look, one at complete odds with his intimidating appearance.

  Biting back a grin, Bram inclined his head. “That might be for the best, Mr. Skukman. We wouldn’t want to overwhelm our criminals, would we?”

  “Off you go, then,” Ruby said, waving Bram and Lucetta away right before she moved closer to Mr. Skukman and they immediately returned to whatever conversation they’d been having before Bram had interrupted them, a conversation that seemed to concern . . . favorite poems by Lord Byron from the sound of things.

  “They may just be a match made in heaven after all,” Lucetta said under her breath as she took him firmly by the arm and practically pulled him into the dungeon and away from his sister.

  What he found in that dungeon had him coming to an immediate stop.

  Mrs. Macmillan was sitting on the torture rack, a chain attached to her ankle, while Mr. Macmillan was sitting on the floor, leaning up against a wall with his arm shackled to a bolt a little above his head. Stanley was pacing back and forth in front of them, looking disgusted, while Tilda sat at Bram’s desk, her feet propped up on it as she twiddled her thumbs. Sending her a smile when she caught sight of him, Bram waved Tilda back in the chair when she jumped to her feet before he proceeded across the dungeon and stopped directly in front of Mrs. Macmillan.

  “Would you care to tell me why you and Mr. Macmillan felt compelled to tear apart my castle while I was away?” he asked, seeing no point in beating around the bush. “As my housekeeper, I would have thought making such a disaster of the place you were entrusted to maintain would go against your very nature.”

  Mrs. Macmillan took him by complete surprise when she actually opened her mouth. “I’m not a housekeeper.”

  Pulling a hardback chair right up next to her, Bram took a seat. “Which explains a lot, but . . . why have you been masquerading as one, and for quite some time, from what I understand?”

  Mrs. Macmillan exchanged a look with Mr. Macmillan and then blew out a breath. “If I tell you the truth, will you let me and Mr. Macmillan go?”

  “I’m not certain. It depends on what you’ve done.”

  “We haven’t really done anything yet, except make a bit of a mess in the castle.”

  Tilda let out a snort. “A bit of a mess? It’s a good thing I came back from New York City when I did or Ravenwood might not still be standing.”

  Mrs. Macmillan ignored her. Keeping her attention centered on Bram, she released a sigh. “Oh, very well, if you must know . . .” She drew in a deep breath, released it, drew in another, and continued rapidly. “Mr. Macmillan and I were hired by the lover of Ravenwood’s previous mistress, Mrs. Woodward, to recover a large collection of diamonds he’d given to her—and a collection Mrs. Woodward would not give back after she severed ties with him.”

  Bram blinked. “What?”

  Waving her free hand in the air, Mrs. Macmillan shook her head. “I know, it’s a rather torrid tale, but that’s why we came to Ravenwood to work for the Woodwards. However, Mrs. Woodward had hidden the diamonds, you see, obviously wanting to keep them from being discovered by her husband. When we learned that, we had to alter our plan, which is how it came about that Ravenwood suddenly took to being . . . haunted.”

  “We needed everyone to think ghosts were strolling about so that no one questioned the noise we were making at night,” Mr. Macmillan added before he heaved a heavy sigh. “We just didn’t realize that Mrs. Woodward would start suffering from a nervous condition due to all the ghostly encounters she thought she was experiencing. That had her moving the diamonds on a regular basis. But the poor dear, well, she eventually forgot where she’d hidden them because she kept them split up, not hidden all together.”

  “So you’re still working on behalf of this . . . lover?” Lucetta asked, stepping forward.

  Mrs. Macmillan shook her head. “No, when the Woodwards left Ravenwood, Mrs. Woodward’s lover decided it was time to move on. Since he’s one of those industrialists, he has more money than he knows what to do with, so recovering the diamonds had only been a matter of principle for him.”

  She nodded, just once. “We’re working for Mrs. Woodward now. She approached us right before they moved out, asked if we’d like to earn a bit of extra money every month with the promise of a bonus if we found her jewels. Well, it was too good of an offer to pass up, so . . . here we are. But she’s decided she’s getting tired of waiting so gave us until the end of this week to find the diamonds or she’s bringing someone else in.”

  “I think I’ll be having a few words with Mrs. Woodward about that,” Bram said. “But tell me, did you end up finding the diamonds?”

  Mrs. Macmillan smiled. “Well, Mr. Skukman actually found the first of them, when he pulled that necklace out of the fireplace, and then we found the rest of them right before Tilda called everyone back from New York.” Her smile faded. “Mrs. Woodward had stashed the majority of her collection in the hems of numerous tapestries hanging on the walls, the absolute last place we thought to look.” She gave a snort of clear disgust. “One only had to notice the way they weren’t hanging like the rest of the tapestries to realize something was amiss.”

  “That might have been where having experience as a real housekeeper would have come in handy,” Tilda pointed out. “Real housekeepers, you see, have the tapestries beaten and cleaned every so often.”

  “Perhaps it’s time for you to change positions yet again, Tilda, taking over a role I do believe will be available immediately—that being the housekeeper role,” Bram said with a nod Tilda’s way, earning a delighted grin and a nod back from Tilda in response.

  Mrs. Macmillan completely ignored all that as she caught Bram’s eye. “What are you going to do with us?”

  “Well, I suppose I’ll have you return Mrs. Woodward’s diamonds to her first.”

  “You don’t think the diamonds should go back to the lover?” Tilda asked.

  Bram shook his head. “No, he apparently gave them to Mrs. Woodward, and even though she was not behaving in a respectable manner, a gentleman should never try to retrieve a gift he’s given a lady.”

  Clearing his throat, Mr. Macmillan shifted a little on the ground, the shifting causing his chains to rattle. “We never considered keeping the diamonds for ourselves. I think that needs to be made clear.”

  “Oddly enough, Mr. Macmillan, I actually believe you,” Bram said. “Clearly I have been a little too trusting when it comes to you and your wife. However, since no real harm has been done, although you have scared a lot of people during your service here at Ravenwood, I’ll let you go on your way after the diamonds have been returned. I’ll even make certain Mrs. Woodward honors her promise to y
ou and pays you your bonus. But, I would appreciate it if you’d extend everyone at Ravenwood an apology, especially Miss Plum, who got chased by Geoffrey and scared by a suit of armor, two circumstances that I’m going to assume you were responsible for.”

  “We are sorry, Miss Plum, especially about Geoffrey,” Mrs. Macmillan said with a nod Lucetta’s way. “I, for one, remember full well what it feels like to be chased by that beast, which is actually why we chose him to bring up to your room. We thought that type of fright, the type I experienced when Geoffrey chased me, would be enough to send you packing, so we could finish searching the tower room.”

  “How did you get him up there?” Lucetta asked.

  Mrs. Macmillan smiled. “Through the secret passageway that can be accessed from the hidden door in the bookcase, or through stones that move in the stairwell. There’s a hidden lever in the bookcase behind the third book on the top shelf, and there’s another lever behind one of the gas sconces on the wall of the stairs.”

  “I knew there were secret passageways.”

  “That’s how I was able to duck out of sight when I was wearing the armor,” Mr. Macmillan said. “Mrs. Macmillan is the one who closed the door for me and locked you in the room, while I crashed my way into the secret passageway, then stood as still as a statue until I heard you run down the stairs.”

  “Where Mrs. Macmillan then lured me out of the castle and locked me out of that as well?” Lucetta finished for him with an arch of a brow Mrs. Macmillan’s way.

  Mrs. Macmillan’s only response was a weak smile.

  “Did you also set the dogs on me when I first arrived at the castle?” Lucetta continued.

  “That was Ernie,” Stanley said. “He’d dashed off while I was going to stop Mr. Macmillan from blasting off the cannon, having come to the belief that Mr. Haverstein hadn’t quite realized how much of a threat you and Mrs. Hart posed. Not that you actually turned out to pose a threat, mind you, but with all the other lady shenanigans we’d been experiencing, well . . .” He smiled. “I do believe Ernie has been meaning to apologize about the dog incident, but again, what with all the other shenanigans going on over the past few weeks, I’m afraid he hasn’t gotten around to it quite yet.”

  “Speaking of shenanigans, though,” Bram said with a glance Mrs. Macmillan’s way. “Why were we experiencing so many shenanigans of the lady sort?”

  “Mr. and Mrs. Macmillan needed to search the castle more thoroughly, of course,” Tilda said before Mrs. Macmillan could answer. “And with you being a writer and all, you were here all the time, so they were trying to drive you away from Ravenwood as well.”

  Catching Mrs. Macmillan’s eye, Bram quirked a brow. “Is that true?”

  “Are you still going to let us go if I admit that it is?”

  Realizing that he’d been a bit of an idiot, but knowing full well he would not stop bringing in questionable sorts to work at Ravenwood, even if Mr. and Mrs. Macmillan had let him down, Bram rose to his feet. “Of course you’re still free to go. And while I’m certainly not in agreement with your actions over the past year or so, do know that I wish you and your husband all the best.” With that, Bram left Tilda to get Mr. and Mrs. Macmillan undone, taking Lucetta’s arm and walking with her out of the dungeon.

  Ruby and Mr. Skukman met him directly outside the door.

  “That was a bit anticlimactic,” Ruby remarked, taking the arm Mr. Skukman offered her. “We heard everything, and honestly . . . I’m not certain I would have been so forgiving, Bram.”

  “Life is far too short to hold on to grievances that don’t really matter,” he said.

  Mr. Skukman sent him an approving sort of nod. “Well said, Mr. Haverstein, very well said indeed.” With that, he vanished with Ruby up the stairs, leaving Bram alone with Lucetta.

  She smiled at him. “I do believe we’ve just had all of the remaining mysteries solved, although I quite agree with Ruby. It was a little anticlimactic, and not a single gasp-worthy moment was to be had as Mr. and Mrs. Macmillan told their story.” Her smile suddenly faded just a touch. “I wonder what the future has in store for the two of them.”

  Lucetta’s mention of the future had Bram pausing for a moment, realizing that with all the insanity of the past week or so, they’d not had much time to talk about anything, let alone what either of them wanted for the future.

  “Even though I was disappointed with the explanation behind the supposed ghosts at Ravenwood, you have to admit that some of what Mrs. Macmillan told you would make good fodder for a new book,” Lucetta continued, pulling him from his thoughts. “Readers would especially like the part about a hidden treasure, although, in my humble opinion, the hero should get caught trying to find it and . . .”

  As Lucetta continued musing about different plot points, it suddenly hit him how absolutely wonderful life would be if he could spend it with the amazing lady standing right next to him. That she was beautiful, there could be no doubt, but her true beauty wasn’t physical in nature, it was soul-deep—seen in the way she treated her friends, animals, and even a mother who’d brushed her aside for a man who was less than worthy.

  She’d been through so much, and yet, here she was, contemplating his work and what could help him, and . . . he wanted to give her a spectacular gesture, something that would show her exactly how special he found her.

  She’d been on her own for far too long, and during that time, she’d decided she didn’t need anyone else, or rather, she wouldn’t need anyone because that could cause her pain—pain she’d experienced when her father had left her, and then when her mother had done the same thing by choosing Nigel.

  “. . . and I know that you seem to be keen on the whole pirate idea, but really, Bram, if you’d create a hero who is more on the intelligent side, less on the race to the rescue of the damsel in distress side, well, I mean, I’m no author, but . . .”

  As she stopped for just a second to gulp in a breath of air, and then immediately launched back into a conversation she didn’t seem to realize he wasn’t participating in, Bram got the most intriguing and romantic idea he’d ever imagined.

  Taking a single step closer to Lucetta, he leaned down and kissed her still-moving lips. When she finally stopped talking and let out the smallest of sighs, he deepened the kiss, reluctantly pulling away from her a moment later.

  “I know this is going to seem rather peculiar,” he began. “But I need to go to work right this very minute.”

  “Work?” she repeated faintly.

  “Indeed, and I do hope you won’t get too annoyed by this, but I need to get started straightaway, which means you might want to go back to the theater so that you don’t get bored.”

  “You want me gone from Ravenwood?” she asked in a voice that had gone from faint to irritated in less than a second.

  “I don’t know if I’d put it quite like that, but I might be able to work faster without you around.” He sent her a smile, kissed her again, but when he started getting too distracted with the softness of her lips, pulled back, kissed the tip of her nose, and then . . . after telling her he’d see her before too long, headed straight back into his dungeon.

  27

  One week after leaving Ravenwood—without speaking to Bram since he’d disappeared into his dungeon and had not come out, much to Lucetta’s annoyance—she leaned closer to the vanity mirror in her dressing room, smoothing her eyebrow with a small comb.

  “Are you glad to be back?”

  Looking up, she found Millie’s reflection in the mirror. “My first reaction is to say yes, but . . . I’m not sure that’s the full truth. I’ve been through so much of late, and now, with all my secrets out, and after seeing how much Bram has done to help people from the tenements, I’ve actually been considering leaving the theater to do something else, something . . . meaningful.”

  “You do something meaningful when you take to the stage, Lucetta,” Harriet said as she slipped into the dressing room and moved to stand beside Millie. “Y
ou give people an evening of escape, and that’s not something many people can claim.”

  Lucetta picked up a puff and began to powder her nose. “I don’t think I’d leave theater for good, perhaps teach others how to act, but . . . I’ve been tossing around the idea of helping those in need learn how to make investments—showing them how to take a little money and grow it into something more.”

  “That’s a wonderful idea,” Harriet said. “And an idea I imagine Bram would be interested in helping you with, especially since he has so many contacts in the tenements.”

  “It would be difficult to know at this particular moment what Bram would be interested in since he’s made himself so annoyingly scarce.”

  “And I’m sure he has a perfectly reasonable explanation for that,” Harriet said as Lucetta saw her exchange a glance with Millie in the reflection of the mirror, one that clearly said neither one of her friends had any idea what to make of the Bram situation either.

  “However,” Millie said, lifting her chin, “now is hardly the moment to stew about Bram, especially since you have a full house waiting for you.” She smiled weakly. “Apparently society learned that you’ll be on stage tonight, not your understudy, so . . . there’s not an empty seat or box to be had.”

  Harriet shook her head. “Society also has learned Oliver and I have returned to town, and they’ve taken to fawning.” She shuddered. “I don’t care for fawning in the least, but at least we’re sitting in Abigail’s box, which does provide a little protection from all but the most zealous of society.”

  “That’s what happens when a real aristocrat comes back to town,” Millie said with a wink to Harriet, who simply rolled her eyes. “But speaking of Abigail’s box,” Millie continued, “we really should go rejoin the others and let you, my dear friend, finish getting ready for your performance.” She stepped up and gave Lucetta’s cheek a kiss right as someone knocked on her dressing room door, signaling that she had ten minutes until curtain.