45. Lily
LILY
She twisted in her seat as they bumped down the gravel drive, craning to look at the rows of vines carpeting the hills.
A massive stone farm complex appeared among the rolling terrain, complete with silos and turrets and a covered walkway.
Metal letters, stylishly patinated, welcomed them to the Fieldstone Winery.
As Seb swung the car into the mostly empty lot, a young woman in catering blacks and an apron came out to greet them.
She exchanged a look with Seb. “Van Bergen,” he mouthed silently at her. So Selene Bevoire had become Selene van Bergen and had worked with, and possibly loved, Cornelius Windermere, a man nearly twice her age. Lily raised her hand.
“I was wondering if you could talk more about Windermere’s assistant, Selene? We’re up from the City, and we were just at the museum. They said that Windermere educated her? That seems very strange for a woman in her day and age.”
Seb cocked his head at her casual lie.
“Of course.” The guide smiled at her. “Not much is known about Ms. van Bergen or her relationship with Windermere, but what we do know is that Windermere was impressed by her tenacity and cleverness while he negotiated the sale of the land with her father.
“The Huguenot community at that time was very small, and Selene’s marriage prospects were slim.
Windermere offered to educate her in exchange for her help running the winery.
Of course, at the time, a woman’s value was tied to her marriageability, so her father was more than happy to divest himself of the burden. ”
One of the other women, one who actually seemed to be from the City, broke in. “But she did marry? Eventually?”
The vintner leaned in, putting her hands in her pockets.
“There’s a lot of speculation as to what occurred between Ms. van Bergen and Cornelius Windermere, but really no one knows for sure, or why she eventually pursued marriage at an age when she would have been considered past her prime.
” She raised an eyebrow. “What I can say is that since Windermere had no children of his own on the continent, everyone assumed he would leave Ms. van Bergen’s son the winery, and that certainly didn’t transpire. ”
“And the farm-to-table charcuterie—thanks.”
In the car she’d insisted on paying for her own tour, and Seb had shrugged, not taking his eyes off the road, with a “suit yourself.” But when they’d walked in, he’d put both of their tours on his card and she hadn’t stopped him.
Lily had pride, but if he wanted to, she wasn’t going to stop her filthy rich beau from spending money he wouldn’t even know was missing.
Especially when she had a new laptop to buy.
Her stomach cramped when she thought of it.
She’d filed a report with campus security, omitting names.
She and Seb had found the laptop with a tracing spell, smashed to bits in a dumpster behind one of the dorms. Fury had run through her, so intense that she couldn’t even cry.
Now, Asher’s spare production laptop sat on her desk at home, most of her things safe in the cloud, but she’d still had to rewrite an entire paper.
“Charcuterie,” she said, trying to mock him with a straight face and failing.
“What?” He fared better with his mock offense. “Did you see the size of those pours? We need to get home in one piece.”
When it came, she speared a piece of cheese, washing it down with a sip of her first sample. She knew nothing about wine, but Seb’s polite grimace and bracing swallow implied this was not a shining example.
“Do you think whatever happened between Selene and Windermere is important to the Elumnara?”
He nodded, setting down his wine glass and managing only a slight wince. “It gets better the more you drink,” he confided.
“Tastes fine to me.” She said, shrugging.
“Yes, well.” He pursed his lips. She finished her sample in a single gulp. “You’re unhinged.”
He pressed his knee between hers underneath the table. She pressed back. Lily almost never drank, and the wine rushed to her head, making her silly and pliable. The stone tasting room, which had felt drafty when they’d first gotten there, now felt warm and stuffy.
“There’s no way it isn’t. Everything keeps leading us to them.” He paused, staring thoughtfully into a middle distance. “Everything keeps leading to the Conjunctio. That letter, this clue.”
“‘The rouge, the blanc, shall be refined,’” Lily quoted. “Red king, white queen.”
“Exactly. When you’re ready, head to the bathroom. I’ll follow in a few and we can get started there.”
Lily finished her wine. “It’s a date.”