Knowing she wouldn’t change his mind, she let him go and returned to her rooms. Half an hour later, she watched Rio zoom down the drive on his motorbike, relishing the chance to return to his favoured mode of transport. She wondered how he would answer the questions about what happened on Friday night when everyone asked him. What negative slant would he put on it? That she clumsily wandered into a knife?
To earn herself more time on her own, Meri told Leah she was going to be painting and preferred not to be disturbed. She did even make a start, beginning a project she’d had in mind for a while, which was to paint the view from her window in her favourite Pointillist style. She was going to split the canvas from horizon to close up, the points growing like pixels until the final ones were revealed to have yet more tiny images inside them. It was her commentary on the state of science and its rabbit hole jump into quantum.
More time passed than she realized before she looked up. It was already nearing lunch. If she was going to make her foray into the buildings she had better do it now. Wiping the oil paint smears from her hands, she grabbed a baseball cap and shoved her feet into trainers. A final thought was to grab the camera. To anyone watching her on the security cameras, it would look like she was just stretching her legs. She made certain that her path did not appear deliberate, a meandering through the garden terraces. She even stopped to have a word with an old gardener clipping the topiary hedge. She hoped he wasn’t the one who had spat at Daro. He seemed kindly enough but she was learning not to take the Teans on trust. The elderly man asked after her health and she took the opportunity to let the word spread that she was convinced it wasn’t a Perilous who had attacked but another party. If he did as she expected and repeated this to other members of staff, hopefully there would be no more awkward moments for Daro on her account.
The bell tower over the central courtyard of the palace tolled midday as Meri turned into the leafy access road that serviced the outbuildings. Some she had already visited: old stables now used for vehicle parking, a series of greenhouses and associated potting sheds. A row lay beyond these, less busy with the comings and goings of staff, usually left empty except at harvest when they sometimes housed the overflow of produce. Checking she wasn’t being followed, Meri took a narrow path between two sheds and approached the buildings. They were tastefully designed like all the outhouses: creamy stone and terracotta tiled roof. Every single window, however, was shuttered and barred. She went down the row trying each door. Locked. She crouched to peer through a keyhole, thanking fortune that it was the old fashioned sort requiring a big key rather than an electronic swipe. In the gloomy interior, all she could see was empty storage space in this particular building. They really were unused as she had been told on her original tour.
But Rio had definitely brought something here a few days ago and there had been no sign of him taking it out unless she’d slept through it, which she had to admit was possible.
Which building would he choose? If she was going to break in, she wanted to get it right first time.
I could demand the key, she thought, running her fingers over a crumbling plaster detail of a wheat sheaf.
But then Rio would know she knew and that would lose her advantage. He’d have time to think up his excuse.
She tried another tack: to see which door looked like it had been used recently. Old leaves had settled in the corners of some of the entrances, so she dismissed them. Walking to the very end of the row, she found two doors that were swept clear. She knelt before one. Parked inside was the motorized cart she had seen Rio using but the flatbed was empty. Maybe he had already removed the crate to somewhere else? Meri was surprised how disappointed she felt. She’d been really enjoying her fantasy of revenge by having something to hold over him. Determined not to give up, she peeked into the final building.
A crate like the one she had seen stood on the concrete floor. But it wasn’t alone. There were three others just like it. Jackpot. He had to have been squirrelling these things away for some time. It was just his bad luck she had caught him in the act moving one of them.
Meri stood up and brushed off her knees. Rattling the handle didn’t produce any result other than confirmation that it was secured. She walked around the outside looking for a way in. Then her eyes went to the roof. The traditional building method in this part of the world was to lay the tiles on top of each other, weighted down with stones. Rarely was a ceiling included in the interior as what was the point? It only reduced headroom. If she could get up there she could be like that Bible story where the friends lowered the paralysed man through the roof, except she would have to be the one doing the dropping to the ground.
‘Come on, Meri. It’s only one storey,’ she murmured to encourage herself. Going back to the potting sheds, she found a lightweight ladder and sneaked back to the end of the building, hoping no one would hear the rattle. It didn’t quite reach the roof but it would be enough for her to pull herself up on top. ‘I’ve got to be crazy to be doing this.’
A squirrel scampered by, obviously in agreement as it flicked its tail in disdain.
She was perspiring heavily by the time she had found a perch on the ridge and begun moving tiles. She was intending to replace them so she made every effort to preserve them in the same order she took them off. Unfortunately, she also learned why roofing was a skilled profession. A pile of three toppled and slid into the hole she had made, smashing on the floor below. Fortunately they missed the crates.
The squirrel leapt up the nearest tree in alarm.
‘See there, squirrel? I’m not much good at this breaking-and-entering malarkey.’ Was talking to woodland creatures a sign of how desperately lonely she had become? Meri wondered. It probably was.
It really was too late to go back on the plan now. She had made the hole purposely over one of the roof beams to aid her entry. Gingerly, she eased through the gap and balanced on the strut. When she was certain she had her footing, she went into a crouch and swung down. It was still a long way to drop so she took a chance and aimed for the top of a crate. It was toughened plastic, so it should be able to withstand her weight. A second later she was safely on the ground.
She looked back up at the damage she had done to the roof. ‘I hope this is worth it,’ she murmured. She wasn’t going to be able to hide the break-in now.
The crepuscular light made it difficult to see much of the interior away from the shaft coming from the hole in the roof. She had spotted strip bulbs hanging from the beam so deduced there had to be a switch. Going to the door, she felt around until she found the right place. The lights hummed on, bathing the floor in a clinical glare that made the smashed tiles all the more conspicuous.
She had better make this quick before someone stumbled over her.
Going to the crate she had landed on, she wiped the footmarks clean with her sleeve, then lifted off the lid. It was a stretch but she was able to wrestle it so it leant on the side. Packing foam obscured the contents. She lifted that off and took out the camera.
‘Hello, my friend,’ she whispered in awe.
The mosaic she had seen in Dr Severn’s library stared back at her, the girl with the sun-ray eyes and floating hair. Rio had managed to rescue it from underwater after all, but what was it doing here?
She took off the lid on each of the other crates. The other three parts of the mosaic lay inside. One was missing quite a few fragments but two of them were in as good condition as the first. It was like looking at a kid’s puzzle in four big chunks. How did they fit together? There were a lot of swirling lines and limbs. She took photos of all four. Around the edge was more writing: perhaps the rest of the poem. And there was a second figure standing behind the first. The piece that had lost most tiles appeared to show where their hands met. Looking closer, Meri saw that the mosaic had been deliberately defaced. The rest of the tiles around that part were in fairly good condition. Someone had gouged them out.
Then she heard the sound of a motorcycle approaching. Even though s
he had every right to be here, Meri did not want to confront Rio until she had worked out what this mystery meant. What did the mosaic show and why was it here? She put the lids back on the crates and gathered up as many roof tile fragments as she could so it wasn’t so obvious someone had entered from above. Lastly, she remembered to turn off the lights and to hide in the shadows. Fortunately, her ladder was around the side of the building so unless someone went past the door they wouldn’t see it.
There was a rattle of a key and the door opened.
‘See, I told you I had them safe.’ Rio pushed the entrance wide.
‘I don’t understand why you put them here rather than in the lab. How am I going to translate them if they’re stuck in storage?’ asked Clarice.
Yeah, Rio, why? echoed Meri. She held herself still, hoping he only had eyes for his girlfriend.
‘You know that in our agreement for the funding we can select some of the most significant finds for our museum.’ He took a step inside and noticed the hole in the roof. ‘Damn, looks like we’ve lost some tiles last night. I didn’t think the wind was that strong.’ He moved under it and saw how large the hole was. He swore again and ran to the crates. Finding nothing touched inside, he groaned in relief. ‘Sorry, bad moment. I’ll have to order that they fix the roof this afternoon and get these moved to one of the other units.’
‘But why, Rio?’ Clarice brushed his shirtfront, doing a shimmy to close the distance between them that Meri did not think herself capable of mimicking without looking stupid. For Clarice the gesture was sexy. ‘Why not move them to the university? The labs there are much more secure and the mosaic is so different from the other finds. I wanted to translate it.’
‘Sorry, bebé. I’ve given Dr Severn my word he gets first crack at it. That’s another reason it is here.’
Clarice pouted. ‘And you prefer him to me?’
‘Oh, bebé, no!’ Rio leant in for a kiss. Clarice moved even closer and put her arms around his neck. As the embrace heated up, Meri decided this would be a very good moment to make her getaway. She slid along the wall to the door.
She would’ve got away unnoticed if she hadn’t tripped over the bike Rio had left parked across the entrance. It fell off the kick stand with a crash no one could miss, no matter how into the kiss they were. She bolted, using as much cover as the alley offered.
‘Hey! You!’ Rio was in pursuit.
Meri knew her legs were too short to outpace him so she would have to outwit him. She squeezed back through the narrow alley between sheds and dived into the third of the large greenhouses. This one held ranks of tomatoes in various states of ripeness. Throwing herself down between rows, she lay flat.
Footsteps ran past the door. He hadn’t thought to check.
Did he recognize her? She had a ball cap hiding her hair and a nondescript grey tracksuit top and dark long shorts. That would be easy enough to change. She tugged off the hat and stripped down to her peril coloured T-shirt. She stuffed the spare clothes in a basket that lay at the end of the row. Quickly she picked a handful of big tomatoes and arranged them over the top. It was an audacious plan but it was the best she could come up with. She patted her chest, urging her heart to calm down so she didn’t look like she had just run for it.
‘Excuse me?’ It was Clarice who had found her. ‘Have you seen Rio? Oh, hi, Meri. I didn’t expect to see you up and about. How are you feeling?’
Hot and stressed. ‘Good, thanks. You’re looking for Rio? I did hear his bike a while ago.’
Clarice came in to join her by the tomatoes. ‘That was us arriving. We disturbed someone hiding out in one of the sheds and Rio ran off after him.’
They thought they’d disturbed a boy, which gave Meri an idea. ‘Not another attacker?’ She shuddered.
Clarice put her hand on her arm in a consoling gesture. Hopefully she would attribute a racing pulse to fear of another stabbing. ‘No, no, nothing like that. I’m sure you’re safe here. I’ve always thought this place was like Fort Knox. I can’t see a mugger getting in here. That was probably just some gardener’s lad getting inquisitive.’
‘Yes, I expect so.’
‘I imagine he was hiding out as he’d cut school.’
‘Sounds about right.’
‘I’m so sorry about what happened to you. To be mugged right in the middle of the festival! Such bad luck. How’s your back?’
‘Healing but I’m taking it easy today.’ Not climbing buildings and dangling off beams, nope, not her. ‘I’m painting.’
‘Ah, so that’s why you’ve a green streak down your cheek.’
‘Really?’ Meri rubbed and found she must’ve wiped her face while painting. ‘Thanks.’
‘You haven’t got it all off.’ Clarice took a clean tissue from her pocket and cleaned off the stripe. ‘There.’
Meri shoved the tissue in her pocket. ‘I took a break to collect materials for a still life. I want to paint the tomatoes in all shades of ripeness.’
Clarice reached up and picked a deep red one on the point of going over. ‘You missed this one.’
‘Thanks. I was wondering how I’d reach that.’
‘You must show me the picture when it’s finished.’
‘Sure.’ Now she was condemned to painting tomatoes for the next few days: the penalty for her subterfuge.
‘Clarice! Clarice!’ Rio sounded panicked.
‘In here!’ she called. ‘With Meri.’
Rio strode in. ‘Thank God. I was worried something had happened to you, Clarice. I’m sorry I abandoned you.’
At least Meri wasn't the only one who got that treatment when he was in pursuit.
‘Catch him?’ asked Clarice.
‘No, he’s gone but I think I know who he is.’ He nodded to Meri. ‘Good to see you up and about, Meri.’
Mr Nice Rio was back in town. ‘Thanks. It’s Meredith to you, remember?’
‘Meri’s doing a still life of fruit.’ Clarice picked another globe, one entirely green, and put it in her basket.
‘Who were you chasing? Meri asked, trying to sound borderline interested.
‘Just a boy who broke into one of the sheds.’
‘Which shed?’
‘An old place I use for spare equipment.’ He cast a look at Clarice, hinting she shouldn’t contradict his story.
‘Did he take anything?’ asked Meri, pretending she hadn’t noticed the significant glances.
‘No, but he damaged the roof.’
‘And you think you know who it is?’
‘Yes. It’s that boy, Daro. I’m always stumbling across him in places where he shouldn’t be.’
Of course, Rio would pick on the Perilous outsider—she should’ve anticipated that. ‘Rio, he lives here. He’s allowed to go anywhere.’
‘Not into my sheds.’
‘Your sheds?’ She raised a brow.
‘The family sheds,’ he amended, with another glance at Clarice.
‘Rio, can we go? Sorry, Meri, but I’ve a lecture at two.’ Clarice took a last tomato and popped it in her mouth. ‘These are gorgeous.’
‘OK, bebé.’ Rio put an arm around her shoulders.
‘Rio?’ called Meri as the two made to leave.
‘Yeah?’
‘Daro’s my responsibility. I’ll ask him if he did the damage and let you know.’
‘You think he’ll tell you the truth?’
‘I give you my word he will.’
In front of Clarice, Rio couldn’t dismiss Meri as he normally would. ‘OK. Appreciate it. I’ll see you later then.’
‘Enjoy painting!’ Clarice gave her a wave.
Once they were gone, Meri put down the basket and slid to the floor. That had been too close for comfort.
Back in her room, Meri arranged the still life and began a new canvas just in case Rio wandered in later to check her story. When she judged she’d made enough progress, she went in search of a printer. A friendly footman informed her that the steward had a good colou
r one for printing out menus and work schedules.
The steward was in his office snoozing at his desk when she knocked. When he saw who was calling, he leapt to his feet, tugging his white jacket straight.
‘Your highness, you should’ve summoned me!’ he protested.
‘It’s OK. I just have some photos to print out for my art project and I was told you had a decent printer.’
‘Indeed. Let me do it for you and I’ll send a footman up with the printouts later. What size?’ He nervously dusted off the machine standing on a side table.
‘It’s OK, I want to choose the images myself. If you’d just let me use it for fifteen minutes or so?’
‘Ma’am, it is at your disposal at any time. As is everyone in the household.’
That gave her an idea. ‘Actually, I’m feeling a little parched. I don't suppose you could get me a cup of tea?’
‘Of course, ma’am.’ He looked relieved to have a task given to him.
Meri slid the memory card she had removed from the camera into the slot on the front of the slimline printer. Not wanting to waste time, she pressed ‘Print All’ and waited as the machine churned out the pictures she had snapped. She had forgotten she had also taken several trial photos, the ones Rio had looked at. She shuffled these to the top of the pile. A final surprise was a selfie of a smirking Rio. Had he done that on purpose to annoy her? If so, it didn’t hit his target. She found it more human than many of his other annoying gestures.
The steward came back with her tea on a tray and a tiny plate of biscuits. ‘Ben mentioned you were missing home cooking so the chef has been learning cookie recipes,’ he explained. ‘These are peanut butter.’
‘Yum. I must drop into the kitchen and thank her in person.’
‘She’d like that, ma’am.’
The printer stopped whirring, leaving an awkward silence.
‘Sorry to be a pain, but can I take the tea back to my room? I’m terribly behind on my homework.’
‘Nothing is too much trouble, your highness.’
Meri scooped up the photos and he followed her up the stairs to her rooms. Meri was grateful for the reminder that not everyone in the palace hated her. The chef and the steward appeared genuinely happy to serve. If only she could convert more people to her side, life here would be so much easier.
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