I slit the next note in her stack with a cutting spell, not answering.
“You were always so fun. Comporting yourself like royalty. Full of knowledge garnered from your mother and with all the secrets of your father. Running around the estate with all of your friends, from low to high, and every female enraptured by you. A ravishing prince. I’ve seen no one like you since.”
I continued to read. The thing Melissande hated more than anything was being ignored. Her husband had never cared, and therefore never learned why his luck changed whenever he slighted her.
“How is dear John? I haven’t seen him in nearly a year. Still thick as thieves, you two? A miracle you were able to separate.”
I could see that she was reaching the end of her tether, and decided to throw her a crumb. It was never wise to bait a dangerous animal. They had the tendency to find a way to bite you through the cage. “John is well. Ask him yourself.”
“Away at school while you were stuck here under my thumb. Must have been hard.” She continued writing. “Steelcrest’s ward. As untouchable as your father.”
John had been the lucky one. “With so many servants and village boys to choose from, I’m sure you didn’t suffer.”
“Mmm. So which one of these hungry souls murdered our dear friends?” Her face had regained the smug ice she was best known for, now that I was responding to her again.
“Why would I know?”
“Because you know everything, Gabriel.”
Not everything. I had obviously not even known myself. “If I knew, why would I ask you for a list?”
“Morbid curiosity? A way to help my poor victims? All those pathetic souls you help—it’s wonderfully amusing to think about. Does it calm your guilt? Do you find peace? I hope not. All my hard work gone to waste.” Her eyes glittered. “My favorite creation destroyed. It would break my heart.”
“You give yourself too much credit. Octavia was far more terrifying.”
I watched the spark go through her eyes. “You are a terrible liar, Gabriel. But I will forgive you.”
“I feel indisposed to do the same.”
“Pity.” She pushed the paper across the desk. “There is your list of the aggrieved. Woefully short. Most of my victims, as you deem them, quite enjoyed themselves. Eventually.”
“Especially the ones with rope burns across their necks.” I grabbed the list. “Apleasure, as always.”
She straightened. “You are leaving? You aren’t staying here to protect me?”
I lifted a brow. “I told you I wasn’t here foryou, High Lady Steelcrest. Perhaps you should inform your husband of your needs.”
Her lips squished together.
“No? Be mindful of the increased timeline in their deaths, then. I bid you adieu.”
I found my father in the kitchen, chatting with the servants. He hadn’t wanted to stay out of the confrontation, but it would have been an unacceptable show of weakness to have been accompanied.
He didn’t ask how it went, but rested a hand briefly on my back as we walked, dropping it just as quickly. Still, the gesture brought warmth and shame. That I had blamed my father at all…
“What did you find, Gabriel?”
Names, familiar and unfamiliar, engraved themselves in my mind as I passed him the list. There were many things to do and people to contact, and not much time in which to do so.
“Two of these men—both who served under me—were in Gildon last I knew,” he said. “Steelcrest will be back tomorrow. Let me talk to him.”
He still retained a relationship with the man.
I hesitated. Bringing in Steelcrest would complicate matters. Still... “Very well.”
The long trip back to Gildon was mostly silent, but comfortable for the first time in years. Long periods alternating between cordiality and strife had taken a toll I hadn’t realized.
He separated from me as we reached the drive. “I will make inquiries into those two and return in the morning.”
