I stood and began pacing. “Wait a second. Fournier was accused of trying to steal the goldware, but that’s not true, is it? What was that?”
Blanche sighed, leaning back in her seat. “He was going to replace the goldware with silverware to expose us.”
“But why?”
“For the same reason I came to find that Hargrove spoiled several batches of tea with trace amounts of silver. If we were exposed, if the household staff witnessed something supernatural, it would call attention to us. We might even shift from the surprise and pain. And then, we would be forced into hiding. We would have to leave the comforts we’d secured for ourselves over the years.”
I pursed my lips. “I don’t understand. Were the servants catching on? Were …” I blinked. The mysterious woman in the hedge maze. Her brother. They had been meeting with Hargrove and Fournier. The woman herself had tried to gain access to Blanche’s room. “The apothecary shop owner …”
Blanche nodded sadly. “I don’t know who she was, or her brother. Red hair is often the mark of a witch. They were likely guardians of the lunar deities, and thought that we were getting too complacent in our lives when we were meant to suffer for our ancestor’s sin. They must have recruited Fournier and Hargrove to their cause.” I recalled the book I’d perused. The Children of Hecate, sworn to expose the enemies of the goddesses, for “death was too merciful for them.” The injections had allowed them to grow complacent, surrounding themselves with wealth and community, when they were meant to suffer as outcasts for eternity. If the witches were to learn more of the arcane arts from the goddesses, it was their duty to ensure the Montoni family was exposed and driven from their comfortable lives.
Blanche shrugged. “I don’t know how Montoni knew, but he killed them all: Hargrove, Fournier, the strangers. He’s a very angry man, angry at the curse, angry at the world.”
“But you’re not angry?”
“Me?” Blanche chuckled, although it held notes of bitterness. “Of course I’m angry. But I’m not homicidal. I wouldn’t harm anyone. At least not unless it was the full moon. I just … I just want to find a cure. I want to be rid of this curse. I pray to the goddesses all the time, begging their forgiveness, asking them to lift the curse.”
“But they never do,” I said.
“No, they do not.”
“And Henri?”
Blanche grunted. “Henri is somewhere in between our uncle and me. He wouldn’t kill anyone either, but he likes the wolf. He enjoys running around the woods at night, alongside other animals, feeling an affinity to nature. I don’t know if he would take the cure even if there was one. But he’s a good soul, Emile. He does not share our uncle’s bloodlust.”
I nodded slowly, thinking about the taxidermy animals at Château le Blanc and how it felt like the wilderness had been brought indoors. “Yet you live with the blood of your uncle’s crimes. You overlook his murderous rampages. He has killed, Blanche. He’s killed people you know.”
She looked away. “I know that. It’s not … it’s not easy to live with that, Emile. Henri and I have spoken about killing our uncle, but he’s too powerful. He has the strength of three of our kind, if not more, as the alpha has always held that power. So, yes, he murders, and we must live with that guilt. What other choice do we have? He has many allies, while Henri and I are alone in our struggle. If you knew how many times Henri has been beaten at Montoni’s hands when he’s tried to interfere …” She shook her head. “We are powerless to stop him, Emile.”
I closed my eyes, trying not to conjure images of Henri’s throat, ripped open at the bridge. Henri had indeed been keeping secrets from me, but I understood why he couldn’t divulge them. I wasn’t sure I would have believed them even if he had.
“What of the legends of a werewolf’s bite? Can you make more werewolves that way?”
“The curse is passed through our bloodline. Sometimes when we mate, like my parents, we create a new wolf. But it’s not something we take lightly. It is a curse, after all. And only the alpha is strong enough to pass the curse on to another through a bite. Currently, that’s our uncle. The rest of us aren’t strong enough.” She shifted. “The bite has to have several minutes to flow through a person’s bloodstream to infect them, which is why none of the men Montoni killed at the château transformed. He finished killing them well before the curse could take hold. He is always careful that way.” She let out a breath. “My parents thought that the curse was stronger the nearer they were to this castle, the point of origin of the curse. But I’m not sure if there’s any truth to that. Nevertheless, traditionally, our family weds at Udolpho if a new wolf is to come of the union.”
My aunt was ignorant of the curse then, as I’d surmised. She’d just been a convenience to Montoni. Like me.
I sat forward. “Do you know why there’s a man covered in leeches in the dungeon?”
“Leeches?” Blanche wrinkled her nose and sank back in her chair. “What are you talking about?”
I watched her for a moment, seeking a tell in her reaction, but she seemed genuinely ignorant of the prisoner. “I had a notebook,” I said slowly. “I lost it when Montoni chased me at the bridge, but there are more of them. I think they could provide insight into the antidote you take. Annette can show you where they are.”
“Thank you,” Blanche said, eyes wide with surprise. “That could be very helpful.”
I nodded, watching her for a moment as I absorbed everything she’d relayed to me thus far. Of course my plan to expose Montoni was out of the question. Even if I could escape the castle with another notebook, I couldn’t very well hand over such evidence to the authorities, since it would also implicate Henri and Blanche. If they even took it seriously. “Would you have told me what you are before you forced me into marriage?”
Blanche looked away as if I’d struck her. “I … I don’t know. Would there have been any need? We likely won’t produce an heir. Not together, anyway. And I never plan on changing into a wolf. Ever. I take the antidote every full moon. I want nothing to do with the beast inside me.”
“Would Henri have told me?”
She hesitated. “I’m not sure, Emile. I think … I think he wants to share all of who he is with you. I think he’s just too scared.”
I closed my eyes. “And where is he now?”
“I … I think he’s been put in the dungeon in the west wing. It’s under our apartments, down a hidden passage. We’ve had to be chained up there before, on nights with the full moon before the antidote became readily available to us.”
“Will you take me to him?”
