The Chocolatier's Wife

by Cindy Lynn Speer

  Tasmin felt her spine straighten in surprise. She looked at the others in the room, and realized that everyone, save of course William, looked equally struck.

  “I do not fancy myself in love! How dare you?”

  “That hardly answers the question, dear,” Tasmin said. “After all, the evidence points to you.” She looked at William, hoping for support, for she had no idea at all if she was right or not.

  “Indeed. You were the one who came into the shop to get me the day of the murder. I thought it unusual at the time that you would come and tell me, personally, that mother and father wished me for dinner, but took it for a kindness. So you would have easily been able to steal the chocolates, since I went upstairs to change, leaving you alone in the kitchen.”

  “I didn’t do anything. I left immediately when you went upstairs.”

  “William, I beg you, silence yourself,” Andrew said.

  “Why? Do you wish to see Franny Harker hang so very badly?” Andrew jumped from the chair, knocking it over.

  “You bastard, you have no bloody idea what you’re talking about!” Everyone was taken aback, seeing Andrew loom over his older brother, his hands in fists. Tasmin closed her mouth, swallowing, certain that he would strike out.

  William stared him down. “Sit down, little brother,” he said in a calm, hard voice.

  Andrew righted the chair with shaking hands and did so, looking as if he were considering throwing up. Justin watched with cold, interested eyes; Bonny looked terrified, and Henriette’s cold mask was belied by the worry in her eyes.

  “How did she get the jacket from Pencote’s?” Tasmin asked. She thought perhaps that Andrew’s reaction was a little too much. The words had struck him harder than they should, but why?

  “Stolen from their laundry. It would not be hard, they do not lock the laundry because the jackets are so distinctive no one would want one, not unless they were going to disguise themselves as a delivery boy, which is what Bonny did.”

  “Then she hid the jacket in your old room, because it wasn’t being used!”

  He gave her a pleased smile. “Or because she wanted to encourage the idea that I was behind things.”

  “Nonsense! Sheer nonsense!” Bonny said.

  “‘Tis not. Yester-night I was able to take a peek at your lover’s papers. He has notes on every person in this room. He knows all of your secrets and now,” he sighed, sadly, “so do I.” His eyes lit on Andrew, who had become very still.

  “Then you know why I did it,” she spat the words out. “I’ve only ever done what Andrew Almsley asked me to do!”

  “Good Lord, woman!” Andrew gasped. “I’ve never asked you to pretend to be a delivery boy, or anything else to do with this.”

  “Not you, you little toad,” she said. “But the real Andrew Almsley, my real husband, with whom I should have been all my life. The one you call Eric Lavoussier.” There was a bit of dramatic relish to her tone. Bonny had been keeping a secret for ages, Tasmin realized; perhaps she felt she was going to get a little revenge, at last.

  “You’re joking!” Tasmin didn’t realize she’d spoken aloud until Bonny rounded on her.

  “Joking? The only joke in this room lies in your complacency! You and your belief in William’s devotion to you; Henriette’s belief in her husband’s honesty; but I know better. The men in this room are all... ”

  “That will be enough, Bonailia.” Henriette’s voice was as sharp as an executioner’s axe.

  “‘Tis not enough. I want to know why you don’t believe that I am your husband!” Andrew reached for her hands, but she snatched them away. “I have always been devoted to you.”

  “Liar,” she whispered.

  “Perhaps. But I am Andrew of the House of Almsley.”

  “Whatever gave rise to this preposterous notion?” Justin said. “What lie did this Lavoussier tell you?”

  “Don’t you remember?” Bonnie begged William, ignoring her father-in-law, “when we were children? How robust and strong and different Andrew was?”

  “Until he became ill, yes. He caught Tanigier’s fever and had to be sent away to be cured.” William said it very gently, his anger carefully banked, though Tasmin fancied she could see it in his eyes. “He could not help it; ‘tis no reason to turn your back on him.”

  “But, you see, the real Andrew didn’t come back. They sent this boy instead. Doubtless his parents paid the mages who ran the hospital to send their son to a better life, cheating Andrew, my Andrew, out of his birthright.”

  Andrew’s face went slack with shock and pain. He stood, shaking. “I can’t sit here and listen to this. I must go.”

  “No, no, we must resolve this!” Tasmin sprang up, grabbing his wrist. “You have the look of an Almsley, even the eyes,” she said. “You must be an Almsley, and I can prove it.”

  “As if I would trust your word.” Bonny was hugging herself, looking like a defiant, angry, and very lonely child.

  “I made a spell before these revelations. I bespelled William’s pantry so that only those of his blood or mine (she decided to skip Cecelia and Ayers for now) can open it. If Andrew is, indeed, William’s brother, then he should be able to open the pantry with no trouble. If Eric Lavoussier is not who he says he is, he certainly will not be able to. What say you?”

  “I say ‘tis a capital suggestion.” William rose. “She had no idea of any of this at the time; she could not have known. Send for the Admiral. Ask him to join us at my shop, so that we may see the truth of these matters.”

  Bonny licked her lips, then nodded, once, and went to the writing desk. Tasmin took Andrew’s arm and stroked it gently. She could almost feel the anguish running under his skin, ready to boil over. She leaned forward to see what Bonny wrote.

  My Love,

  They know all! You must come to the chocolate shop, prove yourself, and all will be settled for good!

  Love,

  Bonny

  Tasmin led Andrew away as William took the note, folded it, and called for one of their servants to deliver it.

  This time, their little group was quite alone in its walk, just the family and a stable boy who had been pulled from the yard to be part of the experiment. Tasmin walked next to Andrew to offer comfort, and was surprised when he spoke, his voice filled with pain.

  “I don’t blame her for wanting to believe it, you know. He is quite handsome, even charming; virile. And she is beautiful, and elegant, and very romantic. It makes you wonder what joke the spell was playing, to mate her to me. But then, before I got sick, I was probably a better match for her.”

  “The spell matches souls, personalities. It does not match the outsides of people, the outside does not matter, the heart, who the person really is, that’s what matters. Compatibility to get through the trials of life.”

  “Then why does she no longer love me? God knows, I love her so.” He bit his lip, took a shaky breath. “I loved her when we were children, playing together in the street, before I got sick. I thought of nothing else when I was away. I was a child, but she was my princess, my whole world.”

  “Do not think about it now. All will be resolved.”

  “You do not say all will be well,” he commented wryly, as William pushed open the shop door with more force than strictly merited, making the bell clang in displeasure.

  She tried to say something comforting, but could find no words.

  “‘Tis well.” He did not try to smile, but there was something in his expression, something of his brother’s constant kindness, that told her that he was, indeed, William’s blood.

  They gathered around the pantry door. William’s mother frowned, looking at the presses and grinders and whatnot that dominated William’s counter space. His father looked bored, Bonny secretly pleased. She thinks she will be justified, and all the wrongs done her repaid. Poor, silly woman. Tasmin
folded her hands and waited; there was nothing else to do.

  The bell rang again, and William looked up from idly turning the wheel on one of the grinders. “Ah, Admiral, do come and join us. My intended has a presentation for us, befitting the day.”

  Lavoussier came in, glaring at the group of them. “I do hope this is worthy of the interruption.”

  “It will be,” Bonny said, her voice caressing.

  Lavoussier did not react, but Tasmin could not tell if it was because he wanted to play his cards close to his chest, or because he simply did not care for her.

  Tasmin looked to William, and then stepped forward. “This pantry is bespelled so that only people who have blood in common with those who were part of the spell can open it. Blood keys it, and so blood relations can also open it. William’s blood was in this spell, as was mine, so any of our relations should be able to open it, while this stable boy, who is not related to either of us by blood, should not. Mister Almsley, since you are William’s father, would you attempt to open the door?”

  Lavoussier leaned against the counter, managing to look bored and angry at the same time. “What the devil is this? I feel as if I’m at a penny magic show. Is she going to ask us to pick a card, next?”

  “This is your chance to prove yourself, my love,” Bonny said, and Lavoussier gave her a dangerous look.

  Justin sighed, reached out, opened the door without any trouble, and then shut it again. Tasmin gestured the stable lad to go next, and he approached it slowly.

  “I can’t, Miss. I feel quite ill.”

  “Please try. I promise, the feeling you have is just that, a feeling.”

  After several attempts to approach the door, he succeeded in grabbing the knob and turned it, jerking hard. He worked with a desperation that could not be feigned, and finally William said, “Enough, I believe that we are all satisfied that the door is sealed.”

  Andrew nodded, looking very pale, while Lavoussier continued to watch, his eyes inscrutable.

  Bonny, however, was not impressed. She charged forward, determined to open it. “I am not a blood relation; you could have paid that lad.” She stopped a few feet away, trying to force herself forward, but eventually backed away. “All right; I believe it.”

  Henriette reached over, frowning, and turned the knob without trouble.

  “Interesting,” she said, throwing the pantry door wide. William proved that he was an Almsley by being the one to reach over and shut it without any ill effect.

  “Well, then. Go on, Andrew,” Bonny said, tauntingly, no doubt marking, as they all were, his pale and haunted visage.

  He walked as if the door were a noose, not a test, and carefully, firmly, put his hand on it, and opened it. He flashed Tasmin a relieved half smile and ran his hand through his hair.

  Bonny blinked, and now it was her turn to frown.

  “I suppose it is your turn, Admiral. Or are you going to deny us?” William stood next to Tasmin, his arms folded.

  “Furthest thing from my mind.” He strolled up to the pantry, opened it, went inside, closed the door, and then came back out. He executed a little bow and smiled at Henriette and Justin. “I am sorry I didn’t tell you sooner; I didn’t know how you would welcome me.”

  The silence was absolute. Tasmin looked at William, wondering if he’d known. He met her eyes, clearly as shocked as the rest, but he smoothed his expression. She wondered what to do, and wished, for a moment, that she were somewhere else.

  Justin and Henriette exchanged a significant glance, but it was Henriette who took the lead, her stony glare directed at Bonny. “All this spell proves is that your lover is related to William by blood. Nothing more. If you are whore enough to believe the word of a stranger over the word of your family, then, and forgive me heaven for saying so, be damned with you.” She went to Andrew. “Come. Let us go home, my son.” She smiled up at him and reached up to touch his face. “I shall have that worthless maid your brother foisted off on his intended make up your old room and start the fire. You can forget all this nonsense for tonight.” She led her son off, and Tasmin went to William’s side.

  “Every time I start to like your mother, she says something to really annoy me.” Tasmin whispered.

  William laughed darkly. “You get used to it in time.”

  Lavoussier took Bonny’s arm. “Father. Brother. I will take my rightful place in the Almsley home. I will prove that I am who I say.”

  “Then why don’t you start by confessing to your part in the murder so your poor brother can stop worrying about it?” Tasmin said with a surprising amount of acidity.

  “Because even my brother cannot be allowed to escape justice, sister.” He left, shaking Bonny’s hand from his arm as he bowed to the assembled company before stepping out the door.

  Justin, his face once more a smooth mask, chivvied Bonny out the door ahead of him and the stable boy followed behind.

  William and Tasmin were alone.

  “Hungry?” William asked, and Tasmin nodded.

  “Because even my brother cannot escape justice,” she mocked, as she and William attempted to make dinner for themselves. William had eggs, and some smoked ham, so she made pan bread to go with them, while he made stewed apples. She was unconvinced that the apples would be much good, since he was using dried fruit, but they were starved and it would have to do. “Who the devil does he think he is? So very full of himself!”

  “It was a clever idea,” he said soothingly. “And we know more than we did, which is good.”

  “We know that Lavoussier is a devious bastard.”

  He blinked at the use of the word, and she blushed. “Quite probably, yes. I do not imagine the conversation my parents are having right now is at all pleasant, since my father and mother were both only children.”

  “I was going to ask if Lavoussier could be a long lost cousin.”

  “Nay, my grandfather had two older sisters, one who never married because her intended died at war and the other who died in childbirth. The babe was stillborn. His wife was an only child ... and my mother’s family were all taken by either plague or accident.”

  She nodded, serving the eggs. “What are we to do next? We have no proof and we’ve shown our cards.”

  “Perhaps we’ve prodded people into action; we must watch closer than ever. Ah, thank you, love, that looks good. I hope water will suit?” She sat down opposite him with her dinner.

  “Closer than ever? You know that Lavoussier will press his case against you—though I hardly can think why, as he claims to be family, he should hate you so.”

  “I do not doubt it. In fact, doubtless this very second he is trying to get Franny Harker to recant her confession.”

  “I would in a heartbeat if I were she, but as long as she is behind bars declaring she did it, we can hardly accuse him of the crime.”

  “She will not recant. Not for all the money in the world.”

  “What does she get? Does she really think your father will adopt her children? She’s betting a great deal that you and I won’t have sons, is she not?”

  He picked at his food restlessly.

  “She was a servant in my parents’ house. And her children could open the pantry door as easily as Andrew could, for they are his children. At least, according to the notes Lavoussier has on him.”

  Her fork clattered against the plate. “Good Lord. No wonder you’ve been upset.”

  She took a drink of water, trying to calm herself. After this day, she felt nothing would ever shock her again. “You must be deeply disappointed in him.”

  “Oh, I am. But he does love Bonny a great deal, so I cannot help but wonder if he was not forced into it. One child is two years of age, the other an infant. Perhaps father gave up on the idea of Bonny and Andrew producing children together and decided they would go another route.”

  “I
forbear to comment on how little sense it makes that a man who loves his wife so much can so ill use her as to bear children with another, and instead point out that the birth of the first child would have been before you gave up your claim.”

  “I’m glad you forbore to comment,” he said wryly. “And aye, but I was also a son who was risking his life almost daily. There were times when betting against me surviving long enough to marry, let alone have children, would not have been an unwise investment.”

  She frowned. “I am glad you no longer sail. I never knew it was quite that dangerous.”

  He sipped some water. “That is because I am a good fiancé and did not wish you to fret. In any case, it also makes me wonder how old Lavoussier is.”

  She frowned a moment, then realized what he was thinking. “How long were your parents wed before they had you?”

  “Four years.”

  “Do you think your father sought insurance?”

  “For mamma’s sake, I dearly hope not, though if he were so eager to force Andrew’s hand, it might point to it.”

  They ate in silence, not particularly enjoying the food, which was a shame, since it wasn’t quite so bad as she’d feared. “William?”

  “Hmm?”

  “You wouldn’t…I mean…” She blushed and made a never mind gesture with her hand, taking up a forkful of ham and apples.

  He blushed a little as well, but looked at her squarely. “I did not when I could have. I will not violate your trust now.”

  “Do you promise?”

  He gave her a shy smile. “I promise that you will be the only woman with whom I share myself.”

  “Delicately put.” She covered her red cheeks with her hands.

  “You should promise now, too. Fair’s fair and you are far more desirable than I.”

  “Nonsense, but I promise. My complete fidelity and loyalty, forever.”

  He leaned on his hand and smiled sweetly at her. “Let’s pretend we’re already wed? I could light the fire upstairs and we could forget all of our troubles.”