Obviously taking that as a sign Annaliese wasn’t opposed to setting aside proprieties as well and setting her ferret on him, Sneaky Pete stared at the ceiling for a long moment before he returned his attention to Drusilla.
“Fine, since all of you seem prone to violence—and violence by ferret, at that—I suppose I have no choice but to tell you thatI first donned the armor a year and a half ago after Umberto Zambarello offered me a large fee if I was able to convince Ottilie’s staff they wanted to work for him.”
Of anything Drusilla had been expecting him to say, that hadn’t been remotely close. “You scared off the staff because Umberto wanted them to work for him?”
“His missus was tired of having to hire domestic servants that weren’t what anyone would consider good at their jobs. Everyone knew Ottilie Merriweather had the best staff west of the Mississippi since she’d brought most of her staff back with her after living in London for a few years. That’s what prompted Umberto, who adores his wife and calls her his angel, to tell me he’d make it worth my while if I could arrange matters to his satisfaction.”
“Did he offer to make it worth your while again if you scared me straight on back to New York?”
For a moment, Sneaky Pete didn’t answer, until Annaliese took to smoothing a finger over Fidget’s head, which immediately drew the man’s attention. He blanched. “I’d think you’d be able to figure that out on your own, what with how all those developers haven’t been shy with lettin’ you know they want to buy you out. Word around the city has it that you’re gonna open that academy soon. That’s got some developers real nervous-like because it’s one thing to threaten you when you’re here all alone and quite another to come after you when the castle is filled with young ladies from some of the wealthiest families in Chicago. That would be bad for business.”
Seraphina cleared her throat. “Perhaps we should considernotdelaying the opening, as that might put an end to our developer problem once and for all.”
“And while I have to agree with you there, we’re still facing the Sanford problem, the Norbert problem, and lest we forget, the Aunt Ottilie problem,” Drusilla muttered before she returned her attention to Sneaky Pete. “I find myself curiousas to how you accessed the castle tonight. I know for a fact all the windows and doors were locked.”
Sneaky Pete had the audacity to smile. “I sure would like to oblige you and your curiosity, Miss Merriweather, but Captain Harvey made me swear on a Bible that I would never divulge the castle’s secrets.”
“You no longer work for Captain Harvey.”
“Doesn’t matter. A swear’s a swear, ain’t it?”
Before Drusilla could argue with that, someone started pounding on the front door, and after telling Seraphina and Annaliese to guard Pete, Drusilla strode through the great hall and into the hallway, Mr. Grimsby by her side, who snatched an umbrella out of the umbrella stand before he moved closer to the door.
“Who is it?” he yelled through the door.
“It’s Rhenick, Mr. Grimsby.”
“Thank goodness,” Mr. Grimsby breathed before he unlocked the door and swung it open. “I’m quite relieved to see you, Mr. Whittenbecker, as we’ve got a bit of a situation here.”
“I know. I spotted the ghost fluttering from the turret on the ride up the drive.”
Drusilla blinked. “The ghost is back?”
Rhenick blinked right back at her. “That’s not the situation Mr. Grimsby was referring to?”
“He’s referring to the strolling suit of armor that we took the liberty of capturing, although it turned out that underneath the armor was a man who goes by the name of Sneaky Pete.”
After raking a hand through his hair, Rhenick stepped closer to her. “Do I want to know how you managed to capture this Sneaky Pete?”
“I clubbed him with a mace and then the ferrets went after him.”
His lips curved straight into a grin. “An unexpected method to subdue a marauding suit of armor, but since you managedthe very impressive feat of capturing him, we should make certain he’s acting alone and that he set the ghost in play over the turret before he donned his armor.”
“He hasn’t given me any indication that he has a partner, but I haven’t questioned him about that since I didn’t know someone had brought the ghost out.” She smiled. “I’m relatively sure he’ll tell us the truth about that since he seems rather leery of Fidget, who’s champing at the bit to get a piece of Pete since that man kicked her earlier.”
Rhenick’s eyes began to twinkle. “Ah, you’re continuing to keep the guard ferrets on active duty?”
“Indeed, and we’ve already used the threat of Fidget to get some answers—the most important ones thus far being that Sneaky Pete has been working with Norbert and was also hired by none other than Umberto Zambarello. Umberto evidently hired him last year to frighten everyone from the castle, save Norbert. Turns out Umberto wanted to present his wife with a household staff that held the reputation of being competent.”
Rhenick frowned. “And here I was expecting you to tell me that Sneaky Pete was hired by the Caggianni family, as I’m sure they’re still rather annoyed with you for shooting one of their men.”
“They have no reason to be annoyed with me because that was an accident on my part, and besides, they’re the ones who had the audacity to try to force a meeting with me when they saw the gate was open,” Drusilla returned. “With that said, I’m actually relieved it was Umberto who sent Sneaky Pete instead of some of the more frightening developers because after I get Sneaky Pete safely secured in the dungeon, I intend to head to Umberto’s residence to have a bit of a chat with that man.”
“Given the current time, I doubt Umberto’s going to be receiving callers, as he’s probably retired for the night.”
“Agreed, but since this isn’t a social call, I have no problem rousing him from his bed. Besides that, it’ll be to our advantageto take him by surprise, as he’ll be more unguarded with the answers I’m going to demand from him.”
“Or we could have the authorities take him by surprise since we’re going to have to contact them anyway.”
