“She wrote that she wanted to get to know us better,” Mrs. Gordon said. “I am her late father’s sister, after all, so I suppose she hoped I could tell her more about him.”
Mrs. Buchanan rolled her eyes. “Juliette thought Edinburgh would be more interesting than Aberdeen. I don’t know how she got that into her head, but she suddenly thought life with me rather ordinary and hoped a change of scene would offer something more.”
“Suddenly?” Miss Wheeler prompted. “Did something happen to plant the idea in her head to come to Edinburgh?”
“What do you mean?”
“Did she meet someone who urged her to come, or did someone write to her?”
All three frowned at Miss Wheeler. “Write to her,” Mrs. Gordon echoed. “Are you suggesting my niece wanted to come to Edinburgh to meet someone? That she was carrying on a secret affair after her arrival, right under our noses?”
“Of course she’s not implying that,” her husband said. “Are you, Miss Wheeler?”
“Juliette snuck out of the house at dawn,” Miss Wheeler told him firmly.
“She didn’t sneak out. She went for a walk.”
“Without telling anyone? At dawn?”
He sank back into the sofa, rubbing his bearded jaw in thought.
Miss Wheeler turned to Mrs. Buchanan. “Did Juliette have a paramour in Aberdeen?”
Mrs. Buchanan teased the damp handkerchief between her fingers. “No.” She blinked rapidly and suddenly looked down at her lap. “She did receive more correspondence than usual of late. It was all from a particular friend but…I had my doubts. The writing on the envelope was masculine, and this friend had never written before. After the first letter, Juliette would pounce on the post when it arrived and immediately retreat to her room if she received anything.”
Mrs. Gordon twisted in her seat to regard her sister-in-law better. “What did the letters say?”
“I didn’t read them. They were private.”
“But if you suspected they were from a man and not her friend, why wouldn’t you read them? You could have stopped Juliette coming to Edinburgh.”
Mrs. Buchanan burst into tears. “Don’t you think I’ve realized that?”
Mrs. Gordon patted her sister-in-law’s shoulder, only for Mrs. Buchanan to jerk away. Mrs. Gordon snatched her hand back as if it had been slapped. “Are you suggesting someone wrote to Juliette in Aberdeen, lured her to Edinburgh, then lured her outside to the garden to kidnap her?”
“It’s a possibility,” Oscar said.
“There’s no evidence those letters are linked to her disappearance,” Mr. Gordon pointed out. “Indeed, there’s no evidence they even led her to come here.”
“Are the letters still in Aberdeen?” I asked Mrs. Buchanan.
She nodded as she dabbed at her eyes with her handkerchief. “I left in such a hurry yesterday after receiving the telegram about Juliette’s disappearance that I didn’t make the connection with the letters until I arrived.”
“Juliette may have brought them,” Miss Wheeler said. “That’s what I’d do if the letter writer was dear to me.”
“The police have searched her room,” Mr. Gordon said. “As have we. No letters were found.”
“May we look?” Oscar asked. “Another search can’t hurt.”
“Of course,” both Mrs. Buchanan and Mrs. Gordon said. They studiously avoided looking at one another before Mrs. Gordon rose. “I’ll show you the way.”
We were joined by Mr. Gordon and Mrs. Buchanan, too. Fortunately, Juliette’s bedroom was a sizeable one and we comfortably fit. While Oscar and I searched under watchful gazes, Miss Wheeler continued to question them.
“We understand that Juliette had just discovered her magical powers.”
Mrs. Buchanan nodded. “She inherited it from my side, although I’m artless.”
Mrs. Gordon touched her brooch. “We didn’t know my sister-in-law’s family were magicians.”
