Chapter 14 #2
“She’s clearly taken her house confinement as a challenge,” Annaliese said.
“But before we settle down to figuring out where she may have gone, I believe it’s past time the girls got de-skunked.
” She nodded to Seraphina and Irma. “May I prevail upon the two of you to run down some hydrogen peroxide, as well as send notes to Mrs. Zambarello and Mrs. Glessner telling them we need to speak with them?”
“Of course,” Seraphina said. “I’ll see after the girls.” She nodded to Irma. “You’ll pen the notes?”
After Irma inclined her head, Seraphina nodded to the girls, who began trudging toward the castle, looking less than enthusiastic about facing a hydrogen peroxide bath and then a meeting with their mothers.
“Make sure to not let anyone get that hydrogen peroxide in their hair,” Louisa called. “From what I read, it can turn even the darkest hair platinum blond within minutes.”
“Perhaps it’ll be best if we both oversee their baths,” Annaliese heard Seraphina say, which had Penina looking grumpy a second later, rather as if she would have loved nothing more than to turn herself into a blond if Irma’s attention wavered.
“Norma Jean certainly seems to have outdone herself this time,” Louisa said, sending a nod toward Mabel’s back.
“To think that she talked sweet little Mabel into this preposterous scheme of hers is truly beyond the pale, especially when dear Mabel is always so very well-behaved whenever she visits our home. I now find myself wondering exactly what lengths Norma Jean went to in order to get Mabel and the Zambarello sisters to agree to help her.”
“I believe all she had to do was threaten to stop speaking to them quite like she’s done with Phoebe and Coraline,” Seth said.
Louisa lips thinned. “Norma Jean stopped talking to two of her best friends?”
“She blamed them for her getting caught at the fair.”
“My daughter has no one to blame but herself, although I suppose I need to shoulder some blame as well since I’ve obviously been spending far too much time of late being ill,” Louisa muttered before she lifted her chin and began marching toward the castle without another word.
Seth was moving after his mother a moment later, Annaliese striding into motion as well.
“It’s not your fault Norma Jean ran away,” Seth said once they caught up with Louisa. “You know she’s always been headstrong and unmanageable.”
“But whose fault would her unmanageable behavior be except mine—a mother who hasn’t exactly been present in her or any of your lives lately?”
“You’ve always been present in my life.”
Louisa stopped walking. “And while that’s kind of you to say, you know it’s not the truth, but now is hardly the time for me to delve into self-reflection as I have a daughter to run down.”
“Zut!” Pierre squawked, a squawk that left Harriet, who’d been awfully quiet of late, jumping away from where she’d been standing close to Louisa, where she immediately took to looking guilty.
“Give it back,” Annaliese said, earning some monkey chatter from Harriet before she held her paw out to Louisa, or rather, the sparkly brooch she’d nicked from Seth’s mother.
“No need for you to return that to me, dear,” Louisa said.
“I brought that for you, as well as an entire jewelry box filled with costume jewelry that I dug out of the attic.” She caught Annaliese’s eye.
“I thought your mother would appreciate it if Harriet had some sparkly jewels of her own but obviously not real ones.”
“My mother will appreciate that, and it was very kind of you to think of giving Harriet some jewelry.”
“Zut!” Pierre squawked again before she gave Louisa a bit of a peck.
“Bless her heart. I think Pierre wants some jewelry as well, and I might just have a few diamond hairpins we could add to that tuft on top of her head, but . . .” She waggled a finger at Pierre.
“You’ll need to watch your language in order to get that jewelry, and if you’re determined to speak French, you should say things like je ne sais quoi. Now you try.”
“Pierre’s a bonny lass.”
“Bless her heart again, she’s already learned her new name.” Louisa turned to Seth. “Isn’t that impressive?”
“Indeed, although I find myself more impressed that you speak French.”
“It’s amazing what one can pick up while convalescing due to a horrible case of scurvy.”
“You learned French on your own?”
“It’s not a difficult language to learn,” Louisa said before she moved into motion again, pausing once she reached the side of the castle. “I’m going to fetch that jewelry for Harriet and then I’ll meet you . . . ?”
“The right turret should be scent-free,” Annaliese said, earning a nod from Louisa, who rounded the corner and disappeared from sight, Harriet scrambling to catch up with her, the monkey clutching the brooch Louisa had given her as if she was never going to let it go.
“I need to check on the students, as well as the other instructors, before we meet with your mother,” Annaliese said, ignoring the steps that led to the back courtyard and following Louisa instead.
To Annaliese’s concern, after reaching the front of the castle, instead of finding Louisa heading for her carriage, she discovered the lady standing in the middle of the drive, shading her eyes with her hand as she peered at something in the distance.
“What is it?” Annaliese asked as she stopped beside Louisa.
“Someone’s coming up fast.”
Directing her attention to where Louisa was peering, Annaliese felt apprehension crawl through her when she realized Flick, the strongman from the fair, was galloping up the drive, and while wearing a sleeveless shirt that exposed his muscular arms, something that was evidently responsible for more than a few young ladies gawking at him.
More concerning than the sight of a man with no sleeves, though, was the sight of Velma sitting behind him on his horse, and more concerning than that was the fact that Norma Jean was nowhere in sight.