Chapter 15 #2
A chance to get into the master’s locked rooms? “Oh,” I said brightly. “If your knee is hurting you this morning, I can help Mrs. Culpepper. Since I don’t have my morning nursing duties…?”
The valet seemed relieved. “Would you? That is so kind. You can meet her upstairs when you’re done eating.”
He headed back to the kitchen with his dirty breakfast dishes. And as I finished my oatmeal with a racing heart, trying to think of the best way to accomplish the task that Nin had set out, Mrs. Culpepper popped back into the dining room with a copper bin.
“You’re my helper this morning?” she asked, breathless.
“Indeed I am.” I followed Mrs. Culpepper through the servants’ wing, dropping off my dishes with Filomena on the way out.
As we walked, our chatelaines jingled a dueling rhythm against our skirts.
When we got to the foyer, I spotted Bethany hiding behind a pillar and signaled for her to follow us.
And while she did, I watched the housekeeper carefully, making sure she didn’t glance at Bethany.
Nothing.
Even so, my nerves were unsteady as we crested the staircase and approached the master’s golden doors. I smoothed my hair into place, hoping the housekeeper didn’t notice how anxious I was.
“We may not have a lot of time, so we should work as quickly as possible,” she told me as she pulled out a massive key ring from her chatelaine and found the right key, a golden one to match the golden paint on the doors.
Giving Bethany a look of caution over my shoulder, I followed the housekeeper into the suite of rooms. I’d taken no more than a couple steps when ferocious barking made me startle.
I wasn’t the only one. Bethany screamed in my ear.
I nearly tripped over my own skirts trying to back up too fast, before I realized the barking was not within the room but instead was coming from a nearby inner door—leading to a room I’d never seen.
“What is that?” Bethany demanded, eyes wide with terror.
“Voss’s hunting dogs,” I said aloud, then quickly covered by adding, “I forgot about them.”
“They haven’t forgotten you,” Mrs. Culpepper joked darkly. She crossed the floor to jiggle the handle of the inner door and shouted, “Enough, wicked beasts!”
After a few more barks, the dogs settled down.
“All right,” the housekeeper said. “I’ll remove all the old flowers. You strip the bed of linens. We’ll get the rugs afterward.”
I mumbled an acknowledgment as my heart continued pounding inside my chest. And after doing a visual check of Bethany to make sure she wasn’t going to scream again, I headed toward the big bed.
There they were.
The strange books in Voss’s library.
They were haphazardly stuck every which way on the shelves that lined the back wall. Several stacks were piled on his desk, and even on the floor.
Just stay calm and coolheaded…
I had no plan for how to find Nin’s book, nor what to do when I did. I wasn’t even sure how I’d utilize Bethany’s help when I couldn’t communicate with her in front of the housekeeper. Likely I’d dragged her here for no reason.
On the side of the bed nearest the library, I began removing dozens of embroidered pillows scattered across the mattress so that I could strip the sheets, all the while inhaling the smoky scent of clove incense that permeated all the velvet and silk.
It was so strong, I already could feel a headache coming on.
Concentrate, I told myself.
“How does he stand all this incense?” I asked the housekeeper as my gaze skimmed the bookshelves. Red spine, red spine… “Maybe his cough is due to all the smoke.”
“No, he was coughing before he started burning incense,” Mrs. Culpepper said, dumping wilted flowers into a copper bin.
“I was merely joking,” I said, heart fluttering briefly when I spotted a red book… that didn’t have a silver star on the spine. “But you say that he hasn’t always burned the incense?”
“That started after Agnes died. She used to burn it. I suppose he’s just grieving.”
“Yes, he talked about her quite a bit when he took me into town. I definitely wondered if it was grief.”
“So very sad,” the housekeeper mumbled. “He’s been such a trooper about all of it.”
Red spine! But once again, no silver star.
“Um, how long have you worked for Master Voss?” I asked the housekeeper.
“I was brought on last year.”
That surprised me. I’d assumed she’d worked here forever.
She continued, “I worked at the Jansen estate north of here. The twins approached me about leaving Jansen Hall to come here, as they were having trouble with their staff. There was a small rebellion amongst the Riverbend Manor servants after the Voss parents went to Europe last year, and the twins were eager to replace the staff with people who were more loyal, harder working.”
Last year… “Didn’t Voss’s parents die in Europe?”
She nodded. “And the remainder of the old staff quit when they did. It was all such a mess, apparently. But I helped whip the house back into shape when I arrived.”
I wanted to ask her about Hoffmann, but Bethany interrupted.
“Hey, look! Is that the book you’re hunting for?”
My gaze fell to where she pointed, bottom bookshelf near the bed. A red book was turned around backward. I pretended to drop a pillowcase, and when I was bent low, I snatched up the book.
It was very old, leather-bound.
Silver star on spine. Written by John Stearne. Title…
A Witch-Hunter’s Compendium of Pagan Gods and Devils.
My blood chilled.
“Is that the one?” Bethany said, eyes widening at the title.
“Flowers are done,” Mrs. Culpepper announced. “Just need to bring up fresh bouquets.”
I pushed the book under the bed skirt and popped up, breathless. “Ma’am?”
“You’ve got the bed stripped, good.” The housekeeper stopped at the bed to gather all the sheets I’d been removing. The toe of my boot touched the corner of the book beneath the bed skirt, and panic swept over me.
But Mrs. Culpepper was too busy wrangling dirty sheets to notice.
“Let’s wait to put on new linens until right before we’re ready to leave,” she said.
“First, let’s get the rugs. Those smaller ones can be shaken out over the balcony.
You get those while I take the soiled linen across the hall to the dumbwaiter.
I’ll send them downstairs, and then we can roll up the bigger rugs and take them outside. ”
“Okay, sounds good.” I breathed a sigh of relief when she ambled off to the dumbwaiter. The second her black dress was through the golden doors, I snatched up the red book from under the bed.
“That’s the book that the boy wanted you to read?” Bethany asked, positively scandalized.
“Apparently so,” I whispered. Problem was, I needed to sit down in private to read it.
How would I sneak it out? I tried to shove it beneath my skirts, but unless I planned to walk with it between my legs, it was too bulky to hide.
“Bollocks,” I murmured, looking around in desperation.
Even if I found a place to hide it, how would I get back inside?
Mrs. Culpepper would just lock the doors when we were finished.
I knew I couldn’t have more than a minute left to decide, and I was supposed to be shaking out rugs. Anxiety rose as I carried the book to the balcony doors and opened them. At least it wouldn’t look like I was standing around, doing nothing.
I spotted my room across the grassy atrium that separated the manor’s wings. It was dark and empty.
“That’s us?” Bethany asked, hugging herself against the cool breeze that blew through the open doors. “If our window was open, you could throw the book.”
Maybe if I were a baseball player.
I started to turn around but spotted a figure walking near the goat pasture. It was too far away for me to make out anything other than the blond head… and the bow in hand.
“Voss?” I whispered.
“What?” Bethany said, scooting closer. “Is that the master? I thought he was supposed to be gone.”
Dammit, I thought as fresh panic washed over me. Had he returned already? Funny that he was walking out there. The goat pasture was turning into quite the popular hiking spot.
Or shooting spot.
I couldn’t care about that now. Any second, Mrs. Culpepper would return, and I’d never get this book out of here. What was I going to do?
Bethany’s words fired through my head again. I couldn’t throw the book across the atrium. But I could do something else. “Bethany, you’re brilliant,” I muttered.
“I am?”
Making sure that Voss couldn’t see me, I leaned over the side of the balcony and dropped the book.
It nose-dived fast. Hit a bush. Fell through the bush. Then I couldn’t see it anymore.
“What are you doing?” Bethany cried out.
“Trust me,” I whispered. But that was all I could manage to say because Mrs. Culpepper strode through the golden doors.
The housekeeper lifted her face and asked, “How are the rugs coming?”
“Umm, well…” I struggled for a moment, then cleared my head and blurted out, “The master is here. There.” I pointed across the lawn.
The housekeeper frowned. “What are you…” She rushed toward the balcony and peered in the direction I pointed.
“Oh my goodness gracious! What in the world is he doing out there again?” She shook her head and swung around to face the rooms. “Hurry, child! Forget the rugs, just help me get the sheets on—now, girl! Now!”
“What about the book?” Bethany said.
I couldn’t answer her.
My heart pounded furiously as I raced back to the bed to aid Mrs. Culpepper.
I didn’t know why the master was hunting instead of visiting his tenants like he’d said, but at that moment, I really didn’t care.
I was too worried about the same thing that worried Bethany.
I need to find a way to get that book. I hadn’t had a plan when I’d thrown it over the balcony, so now I’d have to make up an excuse to go outside and retrieve it.