Chapter 7
Seven
“Do you think Norbert has a point about your mother and the monkey?” Seth asked, although what he really wanted to revisit was the whole Annaliese-finding-him-charming business, something that had left him feeling rather odd, almost as if one of his flame throwers had taken to flaming up inside him.
Annaliese smiled, albeit rather weakly. “Mother will come around in the end, quite like she did with the ferrets, as well as the beavers I once brought home, although . . .” She tilted her head.
“Come to think of it, she wasn’t all that fussed when I left the beavers behind in New York with a friend of mine who’s also an animal advocate. ”
Before Seth could get a single beaver question out of his mouth, the sound of carriage wheels trundling up behind them distracted him.
Turning on the seat of the wagon they had yet to put into motion again, Seth discovered Riley, the Merriweather stable hand, driving a brougham carriage, which pulled up directly beside them before a groom jumped from the back perch and hurried to open the door.
A sturdy black boot preceded the sight of a billowing gray skirt, which then heralded the arrival of Miss Seraphina Livingston.
To say that Seraphina was an unusual lady was an understatement, especially when she made a habit of wearing overly large hats that always shielded a face that at first glance didn’t appear all that remarkable, undoubtedly because, for some unspoken reason, Seraphina took great pains to disguise her appearance.
Seth inclined his head in Seraphina’s direction, but before he could do more than that, Annaliese promptly took to looking Seraphina up and down.
“Did your outing with the Zambarello sisters get canceled?” Annaliese asked, a question that left Seraphina stopping in her tracks, shoving up the brim of her hat, and frowning, which caused one of the moles she’d attached to the side of her mouth to move in a rather curious fashion, quite as if the adhesive she’d used was beginning to come undone.
“Not at all,” Seraphina said. “I’m just now getting back from what turned into a delightful day of shopping, followed by tea.
And while I didn’t want to risk taking the Zambarello sisters to the Palmer House yet, my outing was still what I’d consider a success, even though we visited a small, out-of-the way tearoom off State Street. ”
Annaliese’s brows slammed together. “That almost sounds as if you didn’t experience any unfortunate events at all during your outing.”
“I suppose it was somewhat unfortunate when Donata and Penina engaged in a bit of a tug-of-war with a hat both of them wanted at Mandel Brothers. But before I could intervene, Caterina—being the oldest and scariest Zambarello sister, of course—made short shrift of that when she threatened to tell their mother they’d been misbehaving during their first official academy excursion. ”
Seraphina grinned. “Everyone knows Elena is beyond terrifying, and since she went to such great pains to get Drusilla to agree to admit her five frequently unruly daughters into the academy, the threat of Caterina tattling on her younger sisters was enough to snap them back to the straight and narrow.” Seraphina’s gaze suddenly shifted to the wagon bed, and after directing that gaze to the still-sleeping monkey, she moved directly up to Annaliese, considered the parrot for a brief moment, and frowned.
“Why do I get the feeling your excursion today might have been rather disconcerting?”
“Because it was,” Annaliese began, “but before I divulge the particulars—”
Whatever else Annaliese had been about to say got lost when the monkey took that moment to open its eyes.
It then sat straight up, took one look at Seraphina, released a shriek, then scampered up and over Annaliese before it jumped on top of Moe’s back, which sent the donkey plunging forward as it began braying up a storm, Dolly’s brays joining in as she was forced to plunge forward as well since she was still harnessed to Moe.
All the plunging resulted with Annaliese listing against Seth, and odd as it seemed, given their current circumstances, he found himself enjoying the close proximity because—Annaliese, even covered in dirt and soot, smelled exactly like lemons and bottled-up sunshine, a scent that would make him a fortune if he ever figured out how to bottle it up, and . . .
“Pippin, no!” Annaliese yelled, which snapped him out of all thoughts of bottled-up sunshine when he realized that Pippin had woken up from her snooze on his lap and was now launching herself through the air and toward the monkey, landing on Moe’s back a heartbeat later.
The monkey took one look at the ferret, who was baring its teeth and hissing, released an ear-splitting shriek, then leapt from Moe’s back and scampered off toward a grove of trees.
Pippin didn’t hesitate to launch herself off Moe’s back, where she promptly took off in hot pursuit of the monkey before Annaliese could get the no she clearly wanted to voice again out of her mouth.
Moe, evidently taking umbrage over the idea that his back had been used as a springboard, came to an abrupt halt—their immediate lack of forward mobility sending Annaliese careening forward.
Before she could catapult off the wagon seat, though, Seth managed to snag hold of the back of her dress, tugging her back on the seat and earning one of her symmetrical smiles in return before she straightened a hat that had gone askew.
“Thank you,” she muttered right as Seraphina jogged up to join them.
“I believe I can say with all certainty that watching your ferret chase a monkey on academy grounds was not something I was expecting to see today,” Seraphina said, stopping when she reached Annaliese’s side of the wagon.
“The question of the hour now is what you’re even doing with a monkey and .
. .” Her gaze drifted over Annaliese, lingering on some soot that was marring Annaliese’s cheek.
“Don’t tell me you got into another tussle with a fur trader, did you? ”
“Perhaps it would be best if I just start at the beginning,” Annaliese said before she drew in a breath and proceeded to do exactly that, ending with “Seth and I then hand delivered each girl to their respective homes, where I then had to admit to all the mothers how delinquent I was with their care, followed by my assurances that I would resign from my position at the academy with all due haste.”
Seraphina’s overly bushy eyebrows, and ones Seth was relatively convinced she’d enhanced with extra hair, gave a bit of a wiggle. “And you assured them that you’d resign because they asked for your resignation?”
“Not at all,” Annaliese countered. “They were all very gracious and encouraged me to stay on at the academy, and not a single mother broached the idea of pulling their daughter from classes, something I’m sure Drusilla will be relieved to hear.”
“I’m afraid I’m confused then,” Seraphina admitted. “If the mothers don’t want you to resign, why does it seem as if you’re determined to do so?”
“I misplaced two students, which then resulted with all the girls being placed in mortal danger. That right there proves I’m a dismal excuse for an instructor.”
“You’re not dismal,” Seraphina argued.
“Of course I am,” Annaliese argued back.
“And before you disagree with that, allow me to remind you that you took the Zambarello sisters on an outing today, and even though they hold the reputation of being the most questionably behaved students we’ve enrolled to date, you didn’t misplace a single one of them.
Given that I know for a fact that Caterina has her eye on a young man who works in a tavern off State Street, and you mentioned you took them to tea off State Street, I think your ability to not misplace a single sister speaks volumes regarding what skills a competent instructor should possess, and skills I clearly don’t. ”
“You’ve been showing remarkable success with improving students’ table manners, and within a very short period of time.”
“You wouldn’t be saying that if you’d seen the disaster that happened today regarding the gnawing of turkey legs.”
Seraphina shot a glance to Seth. “This is where you should jump in and state that the turkey legs incident wasn’t worthy of a resignation.”
“I’m afraid I missed any turkey-leg debacle, but know that I had trouble as well when I was eating that tasty treat today and ended up with grease splattered all over my jacket.”
“Hardly helpful,” Seraphina muttered. “With that said, though, I’m sure Drusilla will be a voice of reason for you, Annaliese, so what say we go run her down and get her take on the matter?”
“And while I’m certainly feeling all sorts of anticipation to disclose to my sister what a disaster I made of the outing today, I have to find Pippin and the monkey first,” Annaliese said.
“Hopefully, Pippin hasn’t chased that monkey up a tree because while my ferrets are perfectly capable of climbing, they aren’t exactly proficient with getting down.
That’s why I often have to climb up after them. ”
One look at Annaliese’s somewhat forlorn expression left Seth reaching over to give her knee a pat, something that left Seraphina’s eyes widening ever so slightly. “Given the day you’ve had, if Pippin gets stuck, I’ll get her down for you.”
The forlornness disappeared in a flash as Annaliese sent him a brilliant smile. “That’s the most chivalrous offer any gentleman has ever extended to me, Seth. Thank you.”
The brilliance of her smile left Seth feeling completely off-kilter again, which exactly explained why he almost fell off the wagon seat when she gave a flick of the reins and Moe and Dolly plowed forward again, Dolly breaking into a near gallop, undoubtedly because she’d had enough of being harnessed to Moe for one day and wanted to get back to the barn as quickly as possible.
Given their rate of speed, the Merriweather castle came into view a moment later, and to say it was a spectacular view was an understatement, even with the castle resembling something straight out of a gothic novel.
It had been purchased some years before by Annaliese’s aunt Ottilie, a woman who’d then signed the deed over to Annaliese and Drusilla before she’d gone off on one of her grand adventures.
Interestingly enough, it had recently come to light that Ottilie had only gifted her nieces the castle as a way to keep it safe from nefarious developers.
And unfortunately, it had also come to light that, while Ottilie was notorious for not keeping to any type of set schedule when she was pursuing her true passion in life—that being tracking down treasures—the fact that she’d been gone for over two years wasn’t intentional.
Foul play was suspected, a direct result of a criminal underworld boss having paid two small-time criminals to get rid of Ottilie so he could convince her heirs to sell him the castle and surrounding land.
Fortunately, it turned out that paying small-time criminals hadn’t been the brightest move for the underworld boss as the two criminals in question had bungled the job after deciding the best way for them to assure that Ottilie’s heirs sold the castle as soon as the ink was dry on a death certificate was to make it appear as if the castle was haunted.
If that wasn’t bad enough, they’d then decided to search for a copy of the treasure map Ottilie was supposedly pursuing on her latest adventure, the two bungling criminals having decided that Ottilie was onto a legitimate treasure.
All the haunting episodes were what eventually led to the criminals being caught, and after realizing that the Pinkertons were considering charging them as accomplices to murder if Ottilie turned up dead, they’d disclosed everything they’d done to make Ottilie disappear, as well as disclosed their belief that there was a chance the crew of motley sailors they’d engaged to do away with Ottilie might not have done away with her after all.
The possibility that Annaliese’s aunt could still be alive was why the Pinkertons were now working to uncover where Ottilie had traveled to search for her treasure, something that might be exactly why Agent Pearson, as Norbert had mentioned at the gate, had come to call at the academy today.
“What are the odds that it’s another bad sign that my mother seems to be running down the front steps of the castle?
” Annaliese asked right as a shriek rent the air—one emitted by Irma, Annaliese’s mother, who was, not merely running down the front steps, but barreling down them, the reason for the barreling appearing a second later in the form of the monkey.
A sliver of apprehension stole through Seth when he realized that the monkey was chasing Irma, who was now shrieking louder than ever as she bolted down the drive, clutching the necklace she was wearing.
“Oh dear,” Annaliese muttered as she tried to rein Moe to a stop, the donkey turning contrary and picking up his pace instead.
As she gave another tug of the reins, Pippin took that moment to scurry down the steps, followed by her two siblings, Wiggles and Fidget.
Following the ferrets was Agent Pearson, the Pinkerton, who held a pistol in his hand as he raced after Irma.
Before Seth had the presence of mind to do more than sit forward on the seat, Annaliese handed him the reins and leapt from the still-moving wagon, the parrot giving a squawk as it fluttered from her shoulder and landed on his head.
There was no time to contemplate that unusual situation as his attention stayed on Annaliese, who was dashing off in the direction of her mother, yelling at the top of her lungs for Agent Pearson to not shoot the monkey, words the agent evidently didn’t hear because a blast from his pistol sounded a second later.