“I’ll have to pace myself or I won’t be able to fit into any of my costumes back home.” The actress smiled conspiratorially at Jax.
“How long do you plan to stay on Isla DeLacqua once we make port?” Jax asked, hastily swallowing a mouthful of cherry tart.
“Not very long. I’ll help my brother get settled, and I have a few performances for the royal court scheduled in honor of Lady Carriena’s birthday, but I hope to travel back to Hestes within a fortnight or so,” Giovanna responded modestly.
“I do hope you’ll consider bringing your talents to Saphire in the near future. Many of our noble houses would be astounded by your voice. It brought me to tears when I last heard it,” Jax said.
Giovanna’s cheeks blossomed into pink petals. “You’re too kind, Your Grace. It would be an honor for me, and my father as well, to perform his work for your duchy.”
Pleased with the woman’s acceptance of her offer, Jax’s attention was momentarily diverted as Charles and Master Archer entered the room, both appearing out of sorts. Charles’s face was flush, just like his sister’s, and Archer’s brow was drawn tight. Neither man spoke to one another as they briskly marched into the room, Archer taking a seat at the far end of the table near Uma and Hendrie, Charles sitting directly across from his sister.
Jax was about to make a comment when Perry’s hand landed on her shoulder, his mouth whispering in her ear. “Our friends from Zaltor are either very skilled in deception or they are innocent. I asked Hazel if she carried cloveroot with her, as I needed some to mix up some paints. Not only did she not have any, but she told me how dangerous it is to carry cloveroot around. She knows its poisonous properties, indeed, but her reprimand was far too real, in my opinion, for her to be the culprit.”
With the slightest tilt of her head, Jax surveyed the two Zaltorians. “What about Vincent?”
“He didn’t say much, but his expression makes me believe in his innocence as well,” Perry shared with conviction.
As much as she wanted to agree with Perry, the stoic nature of the two Ancient Faith practitioners made Jax uneasy. She’d encountered enough people in the past who’d been skillful liars to be hesitant to discount them entirely, especially since Hazel knew of the poisonous side effects of the root. She was about to say as much to Perry, when a loud wail from the door took the whole room off guard.
“My brooch! My brooch is gone!” Lady Florence burst into the dining hall, all grace and decorum thrown aside as she cried in despair. Her gray hair looked as though she had torn it out in panic, her face streaked with tears.
Carriena was by the woman’s side first, taking a trembling hand in her own. “Lady Florence, please calm down or you will faint. What’s this about your brooch?”
“My jeweled clip,” the old woman gasped, clutching her chest. “I wore it to dinner last night and put it in my jewelry box before I went to bed. As I was leaving my chambers for breakfast, I went to put it on and it was gone! It has been stolen!”
Jax pushed her chair back from the table, abandoning her untouched candied toast. “Lady Florence, perhaps you misplaced the brooch. Have you searched your room thoroughly for the piece?”
Florence turned a hostile glare on Jax. “Oh, you think that because I’m almost three times your age that I forgot where I put my family’s most treasured heirloom?” she snapped, her cloudy eyes wild with panic.
Jax was momentarily affronted at being addressed in such a chilling manner, but quickly recovered. “I didn’t mean to imply anything regarding your age, Lady Florence. We all drank a bit too much mead last night, and I was simply asking whether or not your entire cabin had been thoroughly searched.”
“I know that I placed the brooch in my jewelry box last night. Unlike some people here, I can hold my liquor, thank you very much,” Lady Florence barked back, judgment lacing her words.
“Was anything else stolen from your jewelry box?” Perry asked, calmly directing the line of questioning back on track from his position behind Jax’s abandoned chair.
The old woman looked at him for a moment. “No, it hardly looks like the box was disturbed at all, except for the gaping spot where my beloved brooch used to be.” She turned around to face Carriena. “I demand all the ships’ servants be searched at once. One of those grubby hands likely nicked it.” Her eyes searched the room, maliciously landing on Uma and Hendrie. “And those two, as well. The Saphire servants.”
Jax’s temper flared, and her amethyst eyes darkened with anger. “No one from the Saphire delegation would take your heirloom, ma’am. As Duchess, Uma and Hendrie are under my protection and will not be subjected to your hysterical whims.” Her voice simmered with cold fury.
Carriena shot a pleading look at Jax, begging her not to send the woman over the precarious edge she was balancing on. “I will see to it personally that the servants who had access to your chambers are interviewed, Lady Florence. Please, sit down and have some tea while I go speak with the Captain.”
Carriena handed Florence off to the awaiting arm of Master Archer, who escorted the lady to an empty seat by her husband, who, to Jax’s surprise and bewilderment, was fast asleep, butter dribbling down his chin.
Sharing a look amongst themselves, Carriena, Jax, and Perry retreated into the hallway, quickly joined by Uma, Hendrie, and Captain Solomon.
“This is a nightmare!” Carriena wrung her hands. “What are we going to do? That old bat will make the rest of this trip miserable if we don’t find her clip. I must go speak with Captain Valhalen immediately.”
“That might be a bit tricky, my dear.” Jax bit her lip as Carriena turned to her with confused eyes. She and Perry quickly explained to the small group about the Captain’s illness, which was a result of cloveroot-laced water.
“Are you both in agreement that these two incidences are related?” George Solomon asked, looking at both Jax and Perry for guidance.
“It seems a bit too much of a coincidence that our captain is poisoned, then a valuable piece of jewelry goes missing within the span of twelve hours,” Jax surmised, seeing Perry nod his head from the corner of her eye. “Although, I’m still not convinced the brooch is actually missing. I’d like to poke around her room and see for myself, if possible.” She looked at her hostess, who nodded swiftly.
“Lady Carriena, I will go with you to speak with Jogan about this incident,” Captain Solomon stated, offering his arm to escort the young woman to the upper deck cabins.
“I’ll head back into the dining room and keep an eye on things,” Perry said. “I’m curious as to how the guests are reacting to this strange new development.”
“Perfect. Uma, Hendrie, and I will go to Lady Florence’s cabin, then,” Jax said, looking to the valet and lady’s maid.
“There are two sentries keeping watch over the door leading to the lower cabins. They’ll be able to show you which room is hers,” Carriena explained before taking off with Captain Solomon.
“Good luck.” Perry winked as he ducked back into the dining hall, a momentary surge of commotion sliding through the crack of the opened door.
Jax turned to Hendrie and Uma, noticing their faces had become extremely pale. “I want you two to pay absolutely no mind to that horrible woman’s accusations. You are not merely Saphire servants, you know that, right? You are trusted companions of the Duchess and her household. If it was up to me, I’d have that woman locked up. It’s a direct order from your sovereign that you forget what she said.” Clasping their hands to express her conviction, she waited until they nodded acceptance. “Now, let’s see what trouble we’ve come up against this time.”
Chapter Four
“Her room is second to last on the portside,” the smaller of the guards said as he escorted the inquisitive group down the long corridor of the lower deck. In his hands, he held a piece of parchment, which Jax spied to be a manifest, mapping out which guest occupied each of the ten rooms. The first two to the right and left of the entryway were empty, according to
the list. “Her husband’s room is two down from hers.” The young man pointed to the brass plate that bore the number seven. “I swear on my own life that no one entered her room while Ferdinand and I were on duty, Your Grace. We’ve been here since around three this morning.” The man’s muddy brown eyes shone with sincerity.
“Thank you, Diego,” Jax said with a graceful smile. “And there is no other way for someone to access her room?”
“Her room? No, Your Grace. Lady Florence was not given a cabin with a balcony. I suppose if someone really wanted to, they could get into one of the cabins with an attached balcony by entering from the outer door. But, as I said, her room does not have one.” Diego was trembling, obviously nervous under the circumstances; a sea-bound guardsman was not normally interrogated by a foreign Duchess.
Intrigued by what she had heard so far, Jax motioned for Diego to unlock the cabin door. “Are there many master keys aboard the ship?” she asked quietly.
Diego shook his head. “We have one master key that is handed off to the next guards on shift. The Captain also has one. But other than the passenger’s own key, that’s it.”
Jax made a note to confirm that Captain Valhalen or Jogan were still in possession of a master key. “Did anyone need assistance getting into their rooms last night?”
“I’m sorry, Your Grace, but everyone had already retired to their cabins by the time Ferdinand and I arrived on shift. You might ask Sebastián and Eduardo when they wake up. They would have been on watch at that point,” Diego explained.
“Are there any others we could speak with?” Hendrie asked.
“Ferdinand and I monitor the lower cabins until three in the afternoon, which is when Sebastián and Eduardo come back. The only others are the boys watching your suites on the upper deck. Ian and Isaac in daytime, and Alonso and Felipe at night.” Diego mapped out the guards’ scheduled rotation.
“You’ve been so helpful, Diego. We’ll take it from here.” Jax smiled sweetly to the young man once more before pushing open the door to Lady Florence’s chambers. At once, Jax was put off by the small size of the compartment. Spoiled by the regality of her own suite, she was surprised that this appeared to be a rather common-looking cabin, despite being on the realm’s most luxurious vessel. With only space for a bed, a small loveseat, a desk, and tea table, the room was nevertheless decorated tastefully. A small door on the left wall opened into a pristinely white bathroom, with only a few bottles cluttering the hand washing basin.
Lady Florence’s panic over the missing heirloom was evident in the chaotic state of the cabin. The bedsheets had been ransacked and clothes had been tossed carelessly onto the floor. “It doesn’t appear that the maid service has come by her room yet,” Jax noted.
“Both guards said no one had been in the corridor this morning other than the guests themselves.” Hendrie reminded her.
“Here’s the jewelry box,” Jax said, her eyes narrowing in on a small vanity in the corner. The large wooden box was expertly polished; her reflection gleamed back at her as she approached. Lifting off the gold-rimmed top, she peered curiously at the contents. To anyone other than a Duchess, the fine jewels may have left them in awe, but Jax was hardly impressed by the old woman’s collection. Drop pearl earrings and silver necklaces snaked along the sides of the box, a ruby locket on a gold chain coiled along the center. The glaring absence of a signature piece was evident, a large hole announcing where the clip had once rested. “Well, the brooch is definitely not in this box,” Jax confirmed, shutting the lid with a snap. “Any sign of it elsewhere?”
Hendrie was on his knees, looking under the loveseat and bed, while Uma raked her delicate hands under the bedsheets, looking to see if the piece was tucked away in the mattress. “As rude as she was, she unfortunately was right about one thing. Her brooch isn’t here, Your Grace,” Uma said with a sigh, placing her hands on her hips, surveying the last inches of the room.
Jax’s brow wrinkled as she scowled in concentration. “If someone was going to steal something, why not try for one of my crowns or my jewels?”
Hendrie stood up from the floor, rubbing non-existent dirt from his pants. “Perhaps the risk was too great?”
“Why? Both the upper deck and lower deck rooms were guarded, and we already know that someone was able to get cloveroot into Captain Valhalen’s cabin,” Jax pointed out.
“Do you know for certain that someone snuck into the Captain’s quarters and laced his water? Or is it possible that they added the cloveroot in the ship’s galley?” Uma asked, twisting her lower lip as she timidly pushed back on her sovereign’s theory.
The Duchess paused as she considered Uma’s words. “I suppose you could be right, Uma. We really don’t know how or even when the Captain was poisoned. Yet, somehow cloveroot ended up in a pitcher in the man’s room.” She looked at her two companions, their faces a mask of unease. “We will need to be extremely careful going forward. Uma, I hate to ask more of you, but for now, until this nastiness is resolved, I’d like you to personally bring my water to me. You are not to accept water from anyone other than the barrels they come from. Hendrie, I’d like you to do the same for Lord Pettraud. At meals, we will only begin eating after the other guests have started, ensuring that no one in the Saphire party ingests something that no one else hasn’t already tried.”
If either felt put off by their Duchess’s commands, they did not display it. Uma and Hendrie bowed low to Jax before retreating from the room. Hendrie turned to say, “We’ll go to the kitchens right away, Duchess, and secure some water for this afternoon.”
“Wonderful. Be careful, you two.” Jax gave them a matronly nod before setting course to return to the main deck. No doubt breakfast had, by now, concluded and the guests were beginning to settle into late-morning activities. She bid Ferdinand and Diego goodbye, encouraging them to come speak to her or Captain Solomon directly if they saw anything of note. She would seek out Sebastián and Eduardo when they returned to their posts.
The brilliant morning sun caressed her face as she stepped onto the main deck, surveying the scene. Carriena and George were not among the passengers, probably still speaking with Jogan. Perry, too, was nowhere to be seen. The Montivarius siblings were playing a card game with Monsieur Grandeair, while Hazel and Archer lounged near the portside railing, reading. Vincent simply paced around the deck, trying to avoid the deadly looks Lady Florence was shooting him and the other guests. She and her husband sat in the shade near the dining hall’s entrance, glowering at the world, likely watching the upper deck doorway for Lady Carriena’s return.
Jax floated gracefully over to the High Priestess and Master Builder, the shuffle of her skirts pulling their attention away from their books. “Don’t tell me this ship has a library, as well?” she asked with mock surprise.
Hazel merely smiled at the joke, but Archer burst into raucous laughter. Jax smirked inwardly. She hadn’t been that funny.
“I believe I forgot to add a library when I was drawing up the plans for the Rose, Duquessa.” Archer stood up from the quilted lounge chair, offering Jax his spot.
She shook her head, a feigned flirtatious smile struggling on her lips. “I’m afraid I’ve spent too much of my time reading boring political documents and scrolls to want to read for pleasure on this glorious day. I just wanted to check in to make sure everyone had calmed down after this morning’s outburst.” Jax tilted her head toward Lady Florence’s foreboding figure.
Hazel straightened in her chair. “I gave her some herbal tea to help placate her nerves. She was in quite a state, indeed.”
“You’d think a little brooch would hardly be a drop in the bucket for a noble house such as the Haulsingers,” Archer commented, giving Jax a charming, yet snide, look.
Jax bit her tongue, remembering the lackluster assortment of jewelry the old woman kept hidden away. Normally, Jax would have agreed with Master Archer’s assessment about the noble class, but Lady Florence’s hysterics told Jax this piece
was more valuable than anything else in the old woman’s possession. How she wished she had spotted it last night at dinner. “Lady Hazel, are you concerned that this may affect her health further?”
The High Priestess’s fire-yellow eyes appraised Jax momentarily before she responded with finesse, “I believe the shock of the incident has run its course. She’s in relatively good health for her age, so I do not think she’s in any danger.”
“That’s good to hear,” Jax said. “Her room has been thoroughly searched and the brooch is indeed gone. However, there was nothing to suggest an intruder in the cabin, so we have very little to go on.”
“So it is true, what they say,” Hazel said, her smooth voice followed by a tight smile, “the Duchess of Saphire does like to dabble in detecting the truth.” Her stoic expression revealed little else about her statement.
Jax’s cheeks reddened, not realizing word of her past adventures had reached the deserts of the realm. “I am a proponent of justice, that’s all, Priestess.”
From the look on his face, Master Archer appeared to not follow the line of conversation. “So, I take it the jewel is lost?”
Jax directed her gaze to the ship’s builder. “For now, yes. Master Archer, would there be any way for someone to enter the cabins other than through a door?”
Her question clearly puzzled him. “Are you asking if I built any secret passages in the Rose?”
Jax continued to stare at him, waiting for him to work it out himself.
Closing his book with a snap, he paced around the chairs. “Nothing was built into the lower cabins that would constitute a passage. On the upper deck, the suites are connected by a series of hidden hallways, designed to allow servants to travel between the rooms without crowding the corridor. They’re not in use yet, as this ship currently is not at full staff.” He stopped roaming around and turned to Jax. “No, I can think of no other way for a person to enter the lower deck rooms.”
Inwardly, Jax cursed. How in the name of the Virtues did someone get into Lady Florence’s room without the guards seeing anything? She needed to speak with Sebastián and Eduardo immediately. “Well, thank you for the stimulating conversation. I’ll leave you both to your reading.” Jax didn’t wait for a reply as she turned on her heel, her eyes narrowing in on the two guards surveying the upper deck entrance. If she remembered Diego correctly, the two daytime guards were Ian and Isaac. “Excuse me, gentlemen,” she said as she approached the regal guardsmen, “would you mind pointing me in the direction of where I can find the off-duty sentries? I’d like to speak to them about my continued safety, considering last night’s events.” While Jax was not immediately concerned for herself, she figured it was a more plausible reason to speak with the guardsmen. Hazel had already surmised she was investigating the incident, but Jax preferred her own inquiry be kept secret as much as possible. She didn’t need a larger target on her back.
A Voyage of Vengeance (Ducal Detective Mysteries Book 3) Page 5