Carriena’s face whitened at the mention. “I suppose you’re right. As you’ve likely guessed, I didn’t tell anyone else how the banker really died,” she said, her voice barely a whisper. “And considering how everyone has handled it thus far, I am inclined to believe Hazel has not broken her oath of secrecy.” Carriena twirled her spoon between her slender fingers. “I will tell Valhalen once he’s back on his feet tomorrow, and let him decide how to proceed.”
Jax nodded in understanding. “Any news as to when the weather will turn around in our favor?” She dearly wanted the ship to resume sailing across the glassy waters.
“Jogan said earlier there were some growing clouds that looked like they might bring the wind with them, but it seems they have vanished from the night’s sky,” Carriena replied, rather glumly. “Perhaps for my birthday, I’ll receive the breeze as a gift from the Virtues.”
Jax smiled tightly, placing a hand over her friend’s arm, a gesture she hoped appeared natural and not forced. “What a gift it would be.”
As Carriena’s narrowed eyes roamed over Jax’s face, the Duchess did her best to keep her expression neutral. “I think I’m going to go back to my stateroom early. I’ve had enough of this day.” Pushing her chair back, Carriena left the table without a word. Everyone’s eyes fell to Jax, each probably wondering what she had said to make their hostess retreat so suddenly.
Ignoring their questioning stares, Jax cleared her throat. “Lady Giovanna, would it be too much to ask you to sing a few pieces from your father’s show On the High Seas? I think it would be a lovely follow-up to Jogan’s pirate tales.”
The young actress’s face beamed at the suggestion. “Oh, what a wonderful idea, Your Grace. I’m sorry I didn’t think to offer it up first.” She stood, motioning for everyone to follow her into the ballroom.
Perry pulled her into the corner of the emptying dining hall, concerned. “What happened between you and Carriena?”
Jax sighed, watching as Uma and Hendrie disappeared through the double doors, leaving them alone. “I’m not entirely sure. I think this journey is taking its toll on her. Whether it be guilt or nerves, I really don’t know.”
“Guilt? So, you really think she’s behind all this misfortune?” Perry asked in obvious surprise.
“I thought about it all afternoon. As much as it tears my heart in two, I really don’t see any other logical explanation.”
He looked at her for a long moment, his eyes revealing a true sadness behind them. “I’m so sorry you’re having to go through this, my love, but whatever the outcome of this voyage, just know that I will always be here by your side.”
Although he had not said as much, she knew what sorrow he was referring to. The pain of losing a trusted friend was still so raw in her heart. If Carriena turned out to be behind all this, how was she going to cope with another betrayal? Was everyone in her inner circle destined to deceive her at some point? Was that the life she’d been resigned to as Duchess of Saphire?
Chapter Ten
Jax awoke the next morning, her spirits lifting from the previous night. Not only did she intend to determine the identity of the guilty party, but she could tell from the gentle rocking of the ship that they were skimming across the crystalline waters once more. With any luck, they would be pulling into port by tomorrow evening.
“Did you sleep well, dear one?” Jax asked with a chirp as Uma opened the door to her side chamber bedroom. Her lady’s maid looked surprised that Jax was already up and wide awake.
“I did, and it appears you did as well. You’re never this friendly in the morning,” Uma teased, clearly relieved that the tension from the previous evening had all but evaporated.
“I’ll ignore that slight. I am too giddy at the fact that we are once more moving toward Isla DeLacqua. I want to get off this ship.” Trapped on board with a murderer was one thing, but the fact of the matter was that Jax hated feeling caged. She liked having the freedom to go out and about as she pleased, and since becoming Duchess, that freedom didn’t seem so real anymore. Being confined to the borders of a boat only intensified her agitation.
“It’s a shame we were delayed. I bet Lady Carriena was looking forward to celebrating her birthday on land,” Uma said as she helped Jax into a lace-trimmed golden gown.
“I imagine Monsieur Devoyier will orchestrate a wonderful feast tonight in her honor. This way, she’ll get to celebrate twice. I’m sure the Duke wouldn’t pass up the chance to host a regal ball for his daughter, if it meant he could showcase his duchy for important guests,” Jax said with a smirk.
To her delight, as she walked out of her suite, Jax ran into Captain Valhalen, who, although a bit pale, appeared nearly back to normal. “Duchess! It is a gift from the Virtues to see your beautiful face first thing in the morning. After being cared for by my son, it’s a relief to see something other than his haggard features.”
Jax grinned at the dashing older man. “I am thrilled to see you up and about, Captain. Have you made a full recovery?”
“Yes, almost. I feel foolish that I let myself be drugged by laced water. I was surprised at how long it took that blasted cloveroot to work its way out of my system, but I am happy to report I am more than able to command the ship.”
“Jogan did a wonderful job in your stead, Captain,” Jax praised.
At this comment, though, Valhalen’s weathered face darkened. “Not good enough, if there has been stealing and murder going on under his watch.”
Jax remembered that Carriena had planned to tell Valhalen the true cause of Grandeair’s death. “I take it that Lady Carriena spoke to you already this morning?”
“It was hardly dawn when the poor woman came in. She’s in a sorry state, if you don’t mind me being so forward, Duchess. I know she’s your friend from school; it might do her some good to have a bit of fun with everything happening around us.” Valhalen’s peppery gray eyebrows drew together, giving Jax a knowing look. “It’s certainly not been the maiden voyage we expected, that’s for sure.”
Immediately, Jax’s heart swelled for her friend. How awful the woman must feel after all that had happened during a cruise that was supposed to be a celebration. “I’ll see if I can find her and help take her mind off things.”
“Excellent. I’m going to have a word with my crew and see if I can rustle up any information that your Captain Solomon was not able to squeeze out of them,” the sea captain said with a growl before making determined strides down the hallway.
Jax considered his words and moments later found herself knocking on Carriena’s door. “This is your birthday wakeup call!”
After a few beats of silence, the young woman’s ashen face appeared in the crack of the door. “I don’t feel like celebrating, Jax.”
“Nonsense.” Jax pushed her way through, waltzing into the Rose Suite. “Remember what we used to do at school when either of us was feeling down?”
“Raid Professor Keelnori’s mead cabinet?” Carriena said with a smirk, unable to resist Jax’s prodding.
“No! We’d raid each other’s closets and try everything on.” Jax’s eyes landed on the large boudoir near the regal canopy bed. “You must have a few extra items tucked away in that monstrous piece.”
Carriena’s eyes lit up with genuine excitement. “I did do quite a bit of shopping in Tandora’s port city. Come on, I’ll show you.”
Quite a bit of shopping had resulted in Carriena purchasing eighteen new gowns. The two friends spent most of the morning, breakfast long forgotten, trying on the delicate fashions and modeling them for one another. Jax was pleased by the color returning to Carriena’s cheeks, the birthday girl’s eyes bright once more.
“That looks exquisite on you, dearest,” Jax exclaimed, truly mesmerized by the elegant evening gown Carriena now showcased.
Twirling in the dazzling sunlight streaming in from the balcony windows, Carriena finished with a curtsy, gentling lift the blue satin sash from her waist. “Why thank you, I thought
so as well. It’s an original Voltistè.”
Voltistè. Voltistè. Why did that name bounce around in Jax’s mind so stubbornly? “I’m ashamed to say that I have not heard of that designer.”
Carriena whirled around once more. “Actually, you have. You probably just didn’t know they were one and the same. Voltistè is Florence Haulsinger’s family name. She used it professionally after she married into the Haulsinger house.”
“Florence Haulsinger is Voltistè?” Jax’s mouth dropped open.
Carriena snorted a laugh. “I know, it’s hard to believe, right? The fact that she can design such lovely creations but still be so frigid in person is beyond me.”
But Jax was no longer listening. Florence Voltistè. F. Voltistè. The name she had seen in Monsieur Grandeair’s ledger! Rushing out of Carriena’s suite, Jax ran to Perry’s door, pounding fiercely against the emerald-encrusted wood. A startled Hendrie greeted her, only to be barreled over as she ran straight to the mahogany desk where Perry said he’d secured the accounts ledger.
Thumbing through the pages with trembling anticipation, she found the missing piece to all the puzzles that had been laid out before her. For nearly twenty-five years, F. Voltistè had been paying back a 20,000-gold loan to Monsieur Grandeair with interest so high, Jax wondered how it was legal. Each payment was meticulously recorded, every year, the payments growing larger and larger. Lady Florence must have paid Grandeair nearly three times the amount he loaned her back in the days when she must have been trying to start her tailoring business. From her shabby appearance, and frankly unremarkable jewelry collection, he must have been bleeding her dry.
Perry’s casual words echoed in her head. Not a single name rings any bells. If it did, we’d have our killer. The amount that man forced people to pay him in return was murder itself.
Jax sat down, oblivious to both Hendrie’s questions about whether she was feeling all right and Carriena’s confused arrival into the room. The Duchess merely let the rest of the story unfold for her. She should have thought to question the guards more astutely after she had her run in with Lady Giovanna emerging from her brother’s room. From down the long passage, in the dim light, it honestly looked to Jax as if the singer had emerged from Master Archer’s cabin. But the illusion of light and depth tricked her, just as it must have tricked the guards the night Monsieur Grandeair was killed. She had been so caught up in figuring out how they could have missed someone going into the banker’s room that she totally overlooked the fact that they did witness it. Only, they saw what they thought they should be seeing.
Lady Florence left dinner in an outrage that night, Sebastián and Eduardo reporting that she went right into her room. From their post at the end of the passageway, they could have easily made the same mistake Jax did. Lady Florence did not go into her own chambers; she would have picked the lock with a dress or hairpin, just as Jax had, and gone directly into Grandeair’s room. Sebastián and Eduardo would have assumed from a distance that she was simply struggling to unlock her own door, which wouldn’t have been hard to believe, given the condition her husband said her hands were in. Jax doubted Lady Florence was suffering from any type of acute hand pain, considering the beautiful creation Carriena modeled for her moments ago. It was all an act to fool everyone, even her decrepitly old and cruel husband.
As the evening wore on, Grandeair left the ballroom early, returning to his cabin where the guards saw him enter and shut the door. What likely happened was Florence closing the door herself, before lunging at Grandeair and stabbing him with all the fury she’d been harboring for twenty-five years. Even with her success as a renowned designer, the interest Grandeair was charging her for an under-the-table loan was more than enough to cripple her from truly advancing into financial prosperity. Knowing that the man before her was responsible for her hopeless lot in life, Jax did not have to wonder how the old woman was able to summon the strength to plunge the dinner knife she had stolen from the luncheon repeatedly into the moneylender’s flesh.
Once he was dead at her feet, Lady Florence simply waited until she heard everyone else come back from the ballroom. At that point, she emerged from the last door on the left, the narrow walls tricking everyone into thinking she was actually coming out of the second to last door, her own. There, she apologized and made peace with the guests, no one suspecting that her dark red gown was masking a trail of blood, an ensemble chosen thoughtfully before dinner for that very reason. She then finally entered her own room for the first time that night, her plan executed to near perfection. If only she had thought to find and dispose of the ledger, it would have been impossible to prove her guilt.
Lady Florence Haulsinger had tricked them all. Jax was ashamed to note that the elderly noblewoman never had been seriously considered a suspect, one because of her apparent age and, two, because she had been a victim herself.
The brooch. The telltale crime that started it all. It had been a ruse right from the very start. By orchestrating the missing brooch, Lady Florence masterfully linked the two crimes together. Who would steal an old woman’s heirloom and then kill a banker? The fact that no one was seen by the guards entering Lady Florence’s room was another factor in causing Jax to pursue the wild theory that someone was climbing the sides of the ship to commit these acts, when in fact, there had never been any crime at all. No one was seen entering cabin seven to take the brooch because no one actually did. Jax wondered what had really happened to the piece. Had Lady Florence simply thrown it out the window into the open arms of the sea? She supposed only one person knew the truth to that question.
As for the cloveroot and its role in poisoning Captain Valhalen, Jax remembered the offhanded comments of Ernest Haulsinger, something she barely paid attention to due to her own fears of her lies being revealed. After Vincent told Jax where Perry could replenish his supply of cloveroot in Beautraud, Ernest had rudely grumbled that they had traveled through the duchy on their way to Tafreeni’s port. Lady Florence must have acquired the poison at that point. She had arrived early to the ship and likely was able to slip the root into the Captain’s water before the guards started paying close attention to their posts.
It all fell into place in Jax’s mind so effortlessly that she couldn’t believe she hadn’t figured it out sooner.
“Jax! Are you having a seizure of some sort?” Perry’s panicked voice finally claimed her attention.
She blinked a few times, taking in the worried expressions around her. Carriena and Hendrie had been joined by an anxious Perry, George, Uma, and Jogan. Hazel and Charles both appeared in the doorway of the Emerald Suite, Hazel with her bag of herbs and Charles with a thick medical tome. “I’m fine. I’m fine!” she protested, holding her hands up in reassurance. “I’m so sorry to have frightened you, but I just got lost in my thoughts.”
“What in the name of the Virtues were you thinking about?” Carriena shrieked, tears of relief flowing freely from her eyes. “We thought you’d gone into a trance or something dreadful.”
“I guess it was a bit of a trance,” Jax chuckled, making light of the situation. “My mind was piecing everything together so quickly that the rest of me hardly had time to catch up.”
Perry’s eyebrows raised. “Piecing everything together? Jax, have you figured out what’s been happening on this cursed ship?”
Jax smiled suggestively, beaming already with pride. “Oh, I think I have.”
Chapter Eleven
Without another word of explanation, Jax motioned the assembled passengers to follow her to the main deck. Ernest Haulsinger and his wife were sitting up near the bow of the ship, each engrossed in a book.
“Greetings to you both,” Jax said brightly while the others behind her exchanged questioning glances.
Ernest grumbled a reply, not even bothering to look up from his text. Lady Haulsinger, however, looked up at the Duchess and smiled warmly in return. “Hello, Duquessa. Are you enjoying the weather today? It’s wonderful the breeze has retur
ned.”
“Yes, I am enjoying it. Gives me some time to sink my teeth into a riveting read.” Jax held up a small leather-bound book in her hands.
The way Lady Haulsinger’s smile lost its luster told Jax the woman recognized the ledger. “I found this little book in Monsieur Grandeair’s quarters. It paints quite the interesting story. Care to share your version of events, Florence Voltistè?”
She felt Perry stiffen beside her as he put the pieces together before her other companions, no doubt recognizing the name from his review of the notes.
The rosy red flush drained from the elegant woman’s face, leaving a pale, haunting look. “You have no proof.” Her words were ice.
Jax challenged her triumphantly. “I think if we search your cabin, we will find the beautiful red gown you wore the night you murdered Monsieur Grandeair, a gown you designed specifically to mask the victim’s blood. Perhaps, if you decided to keep it as a souvenir, we’ll also find the dinner knife you stole to plunge into his back. And let’s not forget the cloveroot to poison our dear captain. Or did you throw everything overboard like you did your beloved brooch?”
Lady Florence pursed her lips as she grimly looked at the assembled faces before her. Vincent, Giovanna, and Archer had joined them all up on the bow, curious as to what was unraveling.
“Admit it,” Jax ordered. “Grandeair had been hustling you for nearly three decades, and you saw this voyage as an opportunity to seek vengeance. Grandeair only knew you as F. Voltistè. He had no idea what you looked like, as he never conducted business with his clients face-to-face, or that your married name was Haulsinger. He likely let it slip in his financial correspondence that he was invited on the inaugural journey of Rose of the Sea, and when you received an invitation as well, you must have thought the Virtues were smiling down upon you.”
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