Dietrich laughed and leaned down to scratch under the old cat’s chin.
“Should have known you would be here,” he said to the cat. “You never could turn down attention.”
The cat let out a meow, and Dietrich continued to pet him.
“What do you think, bud?” Jay had been around when the duchess had gone missing. He had been a very young kitten, but he had been there. “Do you think it’s her?”
He was showing signs of his age. His dark black fur had faded and was becoming mottled with brown, and his whiskers were beginning to lose their luster. But he was still the best barn cat around.
Dietrich took a deep breath as Jay continued to purr.
“I think so too,” he said. “The question is, what are we going to do about it? And how do we convince her?”
Someone strode into the barn, and Dietrich turned to see the groom that he’d sent to his mother’s.
“That was fast,” he said.
“Your mother had a message for you,” the groom said.
Dietrich’s eyes widened as he took the note his mother had written. She’s staying with me, it read.
So she had decided to leave her stepmother. Did that mean she had confronted her and knew something now? Dietrich’s jaw tightened.
“I must go to my mother,” he said. “If a groom comes from Eldenwilde, please send him there with the response.”
Dietrich hurried out of the estate toward his mother’s home, and it did not surprise him when an Eldenwilde groom caught up to him only a few moments later.
“Dietrich,” the man called, holding out a note.
Dietrich took it, his eyes quickly skimming Beatrice’s flourishy handwriting. I would love to meet your friend, the note said. Can you bring her here?
Dietrich sighed. Going to Eldenwilde had not been his plan, but perhaps it was for the best. They would be able to teach Ella there without prying eyes.
Dietrich sent the groom back with a message for Beatrice and made his way to his mother’s home.
She was waiting outside, with no sign of Ella.
“Where is she?” he asked as he opened the gate.
“Hello, Mother, nice to see you too,” his mother said pointedly.
Dietrich sighed. “Hello, Mother, nice to see you again.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Where is she?”
His mother laughed. “Thank you. She went to town to see Thea.”
“She did what?” he asked, his eyes widening.
“You can’t keep her in a box because you’ve realized who she is. She deserves her freedom for however long she has left.”
“She needs to be careful,” Dietrich said sharply. “I’m taking her to Beatrice. She’s going to help us, and I think I’ll see if she can stay there. She’ll be safer.”
“If that’s what you think best,” his mother said.
“What do you think about all of this?”
His mother looked out into the distance. “I think that she is very blessed to have found you, because I know that you will do everything in your power to take care of her and ensure that she is provided for.”
Dietrich’s jaw clenched for the hundredth time that day.
