Carriena, at Jax’s side, drew in a breath. “I didn’t realize Bernard actually appeared at Tandorian court when he was under Lord Craite’s tutelage.”
Jax felt a tightening in her chest at the uncertainty lacing her friend’s comment. “Neither did I.”
After glancing at a stone-faced George, Carriena turned back to face Jax, her cheeks growing red. “When I said Bernard kept me occupied all night…We were so full of brandy by the time charades wound down, I fell asleep not long after we—” she lowered her gaze with a suggestive shrug. “I slept straight through until we woke up to Corporal Highriver making noise in the hallway.”
“What are you saying?” Jax feared she already knew where this conversation was going.
Carriena gulped. “Bernard could have snuck out of the room in the night without my noticing. I was quite intoxicated. I slept like the dead.”
Her mind whirling, Jax reread the last note Olavo penned. And of course the debts of Lord Brunovaris run deep. “Let’s speak with Thanasis first,” she decided. “Bernard has already given us an account of his movements, and his story seemingly aligns with yours.” Jax’s jaw tightened. “I need to understand what other debts your father has out there in the world.”
Chapter Sixteen
Standing outside the ornate door to Lord Thanasis Brunovaris’s chambers, Jax knocked.
“Who’s there?” a gruff voice barked from within.
“Thanasis,” Jax began, “Captain Solomon and I need to speak with you.”
The door swung inward, revealing the lord dressed in a dark robe that matched his stormy gaze. “It’s about time. I feel like a prisoner confined to my rooms. In my own home!”
Jax bit back the retort that this was in fact her home, knowing that antagonizing the man would get them nowhere. “I’m sorry you feel that way, but with a murderer among us, your safety is of the utmost importance.”
The deference she displayed seemed to mollify him, and he ushered her, George, and Carriena inside. “Yet, my daughter is allowed to roam about? Some friend you are, Duchess.” The biting joke fell flat.
“I’ve been cleared of suspicion.” Carriena managed to look down her nose at her father, who physically towered over her. “And am assisting in the matter.”
Thanasis’s eyebrows knitted together. “So, I take it I am a suspect, since I am still banished to my room?”
Jax cut off whatever feisty reply Carriena was concocting. “Thanasis, we are simply here to get your version of last night’s events so that we may cross you off our list and continue seeking the truth.”
Placing a hand on the mantle of the glowing fireplace, Thanasis sighed. “Well, what do you want to know? I attended dinner last night and went to bed after it concluded.”
George stood as tall as his bandaged side would allow. “Lord Brunovaris, the nighttime sentries reported that you went to the library for a time before retiring to your chambers.”
Thanasis batted the Captain’s words away. “Yes, fine, so I indulged in a drink or two. I keep a nice malt whiskey tucked behind one of the shelves.” Irritation fluttered across his face. “But I went upstairs shortly after. It couldn’t have even been eleven by the time I was in bed.”
“And you heard nothing out of the ordinary in the night?” Jax asked calmly, knowing she had to keep Thanasis’s anger at a minimum for their plan to work.
He grunted. “No. The malt makes for a nice bedtime tonic. I slept quite soundly. I only had just woken up and ambled down to breakfast when you arrived with your harrowing news.”
Jax struggled against a frown. Questioning the members of the household was getting them nowhere. With no guards on the second or third floors, Jax had no way to know for certain if anyone actually stayed in their rooms all night. With the recurring alibi of “I was asleep the whole time,” it was going to be hard to catch the killer in a lie. They needed to find other evidence.
With a quick signal to Carriena, Jax abruptly turned and headed toward the doorway. “Well, Thanasis, thank you for sharing your account of the evening. Feel free to resume your normal activities around the estate.”
“Wait, what?” Thanasis’s eyes widened. “What about remaining inside my room for safety?”
Jax smiled. “Well, let’s hope you’re not the killer’s next target. See you at lunch!” Issuing the confused man a cheery wave, Jax herded George out of the room, leaving Carriena behind to work her magic. “Come on,” Jax hissed once they were out in the hall, “we’ll hide out in Vita’s suite and wait for them to leave.” With that, she propelled George to the apartment closest to Thanasis’s.
Hurrying inside and quietly shutting the door, Jax and George waited, their ears pressed against the wood paneling.
“Goodness! What’s this?”
Jax nearly jumped out of her skin at Vita’s muted yelp. The young woman stood in the opposite corner of the room, wiping her hands with a towel.
“Vita, I’m so sorry. We didn’t expect you to be here—wait, aren’t you supposed to be shadowing Ellamae?” Jax’s tone turned harsh.
Red splotches blossomed along Vita’s neck. “I’m so sorry. After I collected Lady Sabine and Master Charles from the cellar, I offered to help Sabine with a bath to get all the blood off her.” Vita shuddered. “It wasn’t until a few minutes ago, when I was in the kitchens with Ellamae, that I noticed a bit of blood had gotten on my gown. I just had to change.” She bowed her head. “I’m sorry I left my post.”
Jax immediately regretted her aggressive tone. “No, I’m the one who is sorry. This whole ordeal has me on edge.” She realized how ridiculous she and George must look to Vita, their ears pressed against the door like naughty, eavesdropping children. “Carriena is getting her father out of his room so we can search for anything connecting Lord Brunovaris to Duchess Tandora.”
“Sounds like you’ve made some headway,” Vita said.
George rolled his eyes. “It doesn’t feel that way. Every time we think we find a connection, something else doesn’t add up.”
Vita did a quick visual survey of her tidy sitting room before heading to the door. “Well, now that I’m all washed up, I’ll return to helping Ellamae prepare lunch.”
Jax held up a hand. “Wait with us until the coast is clear, if you would.”
With a nod, Vita joined them in listening at the door.
After a few minutes of tense silence, a musical laugh cut through the atmosphere. “That’s Carriena.” Jax pressed her ear harder to the wood. “They’re on the move.”
Waiting until Carriena’s chattering banter died out, Jax inched the door open, peering down the vacant hallway. With no one in sight, she sprang into action. “Vita, see if you can get any useful gossip about Bernard and Thanasis from Ellamae. We’ll come find you when we’re done in here.”
Vita nodded, gathered her skirts, and dashed down the hallway, while Jax and George slipped back into Lord Brunovaris’s apartment, leaving the door slightly ajar.
“Let’s check the desk first.” Jax pointed to the rolltop desk. It was perched by a window that afforded a majestic view of the estate. “See if we can find any incriminating correspondence about these supposed debts.”
“I thought Bernard kept an eye on Thanasis’s communications?” George asked as he began rummaging through the top drawer of the cedar desk. “Wouldn’t he handle anything related to Thanasis’s finances?”
Jax pressed her lips together as she set to task on another drawer. “He has been, ever since Thanasis relocated to Galensmore. But perhaps we might find something Duchess Tandora sent prior to the Isla DeLacqua acquisition. From the note in Olavo’s journal, it appears Thanasis had debts to be paid that I didn’t know about.”
Together, they moved quickly through the disorganized clutter littering the drawers. It seemed in the time Thanasis had been living in Saphire, he had taken a liking to jotting down his own poetic lines and stanzas.
George snorted after he read a particularly bad verse Jax h
ad discovered. “I can’t help but wonder how bad the pages are that he actually threw away.”
Jax surveyed the near-overflowing drawer she was finishing up on. “I’m not sure if he actually has thrown anything away. What a mess!”
Despite sharing a few laughs over the horrendous imagery Thanasis’s poems concocted, by the time their search concluded, both Jax and George fumed with disappointment.
“Absolutely nothing of use.” Jax slammed the bottom drawer shut, steam billowing from her ears. As much as she did not want to consider that an ally of hers could be at the heart of this matter, the possibility of the unknown frightened her more. If Thanasis hadn’t had a hand in the matter, who was left? Julian, Ellamae, and Martán were all Saphirian born and bred, and had served the Xavier family for many years before their assignment to Galensmore. Even if any of them had turned traitor, how would any of them have known about the master key to Olavo’s room being in George’s possession? Only Thanasis and Bernard, along with Uma, Vita, Charles, and Sabine, had been in the parlor at the time Corporal Highriver placed the key in George’s care.
George’s dark gaze met hers. “From the looks of it, you’ve stumbled across an unsettling truth. What is it?”
Jax placed her hands on her hips. “Our list of suspects keeps getting shorter without any answers. But I’ve just realized, we’ve been overlooking a huge question: how did the killer gain entry to Olavo’s room?”
George stroked his chin as he considered the scenario. “Well, the door was locked from the outside by the estate’s one and only master key, which was in my possession. Of course, quite a few people were present when Highriver gave me the key.” He frowned. “And because of the pain medicine Charles gave me, I could have easily slept through anyone coming into my room and searching for it.”
Jax recalled placing the key in George’s bedside table. At the time, the room had a hub of activity with everyone running around, worrying over the Captain’s floundering health. Had someone noticed her action amidst the chaos? It seemed highly unlikely, given that everyone’s attention was focused on the injured Captain. “Did you relocate the master key from the nightstand to a more secure place?”
George rubbed his neck. “No. I’m ashamed to admit, I didn’t even remember where the key ended up. It took Ansel and Wynn a few minutes to find it when they came to check in on Olavo for the first time.”
“Was anyone else in the room as they went about their search?”
Closing his eyes in an obvious effort to bring back the blurred images of that afternoon, George’s brow furrowed with worry. “Charles and Sabine came in at one point to administer more medicine and refresh my bandage wrappings.” He brought a forceful palm to his forehead, as if trying to knock the information from his muddied brain. “But I don’t remember if they were there when Ansel and Wynn discovered the key in the drawer.”
“Sabine might have been present?” Anxiety clawed the base of Jax’s stomach.
George’s shoulders slumped. “You don’t honestly think she’s physically capable of running Olavo through and tossing him out the window, do you?” His tone conveyed his own incredulity.
Jax’s lips drew into a thin line. “Never underestimate a woman’s strength, Captain,” she said coolly, her mind racing with possibilities. “Whoever attacked Olavo had obviously made him feel comfortable enough to let his guard down. Who better than a pretty young woman to make a pompous old man feel at ease?”
George waved a hand around Lord Brunovaris’s sitting room. “I think it would be a better use of our time to continue searching Thanasis’s chambers to see if we can find anything tying him to Tandora.”
Jax was about to make a snappy retort back when the sound of an echoing sneeze erupted from out in the hall. A theatrical sneeze. “Carriena must be signaling she’s returning with her father.”
“How are we going to get out of here without him seeing us?” George growled.
Jax hurried over to the door they’d left ajar and peered into the corridor. “They’ve just reached the landing.”
“Some sneeze,” George muttered, clearly impressed with how far the sound had carried. “Maybe Carriena should have pursued acting instead of the Academy.”
“Virtues, don’t let her hear you say that,” Jax warned with a feline grin, “or she’ll whip out the mind-numbing soliloquy she performed our first year away at school.”
Keeping careful watch to ensure Thanasis’s attention was elsewhere, Jax and George slipped noiselessly out of his room and hastened down the hall. When Carriena finally drew attention to their presence, it appeared as though Jax and George had been in deep conversation, just exiting the Captain’s suite.
“Oh, did you two stretch your legs after being cooped up all morning?” Jax asked, feigning surprise at seeing the father and daughter duo.
With a covert wink, Carriena dipped her chin and smiled. “It’s far too nice a day not to take in the sun, but Father insisted on returning to his chambers until the culprit is apprehended.”
Thanasis scowled, obviously not appreciating being painted a coward. “I merely did not want to stray too far from the orders issued at breakfast this morning.”
A rumbling moan from within Jax’s stomach reminded her just how long ago breakfast had taken place. “Might I suggest we all head downstairs for lunch? Safety in numbers and all,” she said in a quick reassurance to a hesitant Thanasis. “I imagine Mistress Ellamae has something prepared for us by now.”
Carriena raised an eyebrow as the foursome fell into step. “You let Mistress Ellamae run about the kitchen? Is she above suspicion?” she murmured low, so that Thanasis, who led the way, could not hear.
“Ellamae’s room is on the first floor. She couldn’t have gotten past the sentries without them noticing. Not twice in one night,” Jax explained. “Besides, Vita’s been keeping an eye on her, under the guise of helping her bake.”
“What about Julian and Martán?” Carriena asked. “They have rooms on the second floor.”
“We haven’t searched their rooms or anything, but Uma has been shadowing them while they go about their estate chores this morning. I plan to question them after lunch.”
Wariness blanketed Carriena’s face. “It doesn’t sound like you truly suspect they could be involved. And from the warm reception you gave him, it doesn’t appear like you found anything to link my father to Tandora.” She bit her lower lip. “Jax, who’s left?”
Jax wrung her hands, the feeling of losing control of the situation quickly taking over. “George and I were talking it through and realized we’ve overlooked a critical point. Olavo’s door was locked with the estate’s master key, which Highriver gave to George shortly after we arrived. There were very few people around when the key exchanged ownership.”
Carriena raised an eyebrow in wordless question.
“Your father and Bernard were in the room,” Jax began, “but so was Lady Sabine.”
Halting mid-step, Carriena clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle a snort of surprise. “You can’t seriously think she’d be able to kill a man almost twice her size?”
Jax watched as Thanasis and George continued to walk away from them toward the dining room. “I’m not about to discount her based on appearance alone,” she murmured. “Olavo was attacked from behind with a fire poker. Anyone with the strength to lift it could have had the strength to wield it as a weapon.”
“But why? Why would Sabine do such a thing? What’s her connection to Tandora?”
Her shoulders sagging with frustration, Jax took a deep breath. “I haven’t figured that out yet. All I know is that I cannot afford to overlook Sabine as a suspect.”
Carriena threaded an arm through Jax’s as they resumed their walk down the hall toward lunch. “Well, I can’t claim to understand your reasoning, but let me know if I can be of help to support it. Despite our rocky past, I don’t relish my father being the main suspect in a murder investigation.”
“Speaking
of your father…” A smile danced on Jax’s lips. “Did you know he’s an aspiring poet?”
Carriena’s stunned, speechless response clearly conveyed she was not aware of her father’s hidden-yet-lackluster talent.
By the time Jax and Carriena entered the dining hall, George stood resting his weight on one of the chairs, while Thanasis poured himself a generous amount of amber brandy from an awaiting decanter.
Vita was already at work, putting out place settings. “I imagine you’ve worked up quite an appetite?” She beckoned for them all to sit down. “I’ll go fetch the others.”
One by one, the inhabitants of Galensmore Manor began to trickle into the room. Julian and Martán arrived, followed closely by Uma. Charles, Bernard, and Vita strolled in together. Sabine, though, was nowhere to be found.
Jax, George, and Carriena all shared curious looks as they wondered about her absence, but were quickly distracted by the clinking arrival of the silver cart Mistress Ellamae rolled in from the pantry to the head of the table. “I figured with everything going on, you’ll need your strength to get to the bottom of this grisly matter,” she said, lifting the golden lid off the large serving tray with fluid grace.
The steaming roasted haunch of meat brought water to Jax’s mouth. “Good thinking.” She smiled at the cook, placing her hands under her thighs to avoid grabbing her fork and immediately spearing the juicy pork.
Ellamae proceeded to serve everyone, pausing at the last empty place setting at the table. “Are we missing a guest?”
As if on cue, Sabine breezed into the room. “I’m sorry to be late. I just finished up recording my findings from this morning.” She plopped down in the open seat between Carriena and Julian.
“Recording your findings?” George asked, his brow crinkling with curiosity.
Jax would have asked the same, but her mouth was full of the apple-infused pork.
Nodding, Sabine positioned her napkin across her lap before joining the others in eating the hearty luncheon fare. “Yes. Ever since I started apprenticing Mistress Lenora back in Pettraud, I make sure to jot down notes from every session. I use it as a reference guide, and Master Charles certainly provided a wealth of information today.”
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