It wasn’t exactly unexpected when Drusilla whipped her pistol from her pocket while Seraphina drew out a rapier, holding it in one hand while grasping the blunderbuss in the other.
“You should go first,” Drusilla said, sending him a nod. “That way, if we encounter any trouble, whoever is behind thattrouble will be expecting you, as the man, to protect us, but then when you’re engaged in battle, Seraphina and I will swoop in to assist you, taking the miscreants by surprise.”
The sound of jingling reached his ears before he could respond, the jingling explained when Billy the Goat came charging around the side of the castle, Mother Goose squawking by his side, the rest of the goat herd galloping behind them.
“That’s definitely not a good sign,” Drusilla said.
“Nor is it that we’ve yet to get a glimpse of Rhenick’s coachman or his two groomsmen, which suggests that something has, indeed, happened,” Seraphina added.
Waiting until the goats and Mother Goose hurried past them, Rhenick stayed to the shadows as he made his way to the front steps, then crept up them with his back to the wall, apprehension sliding over him when he realized the castle door was wide open, something Mr. Grimsby would have never allowed to occur.
He stepped into the entranceway, where he was promptly met with the sight of Fidget scrambling down the hallway, emitting sounds that Annaliese had told him were calleddonks, something she’d also told him ferrets used to communicate with one another.
Unfortunately, Wiggles and Pippin were nowhere to be found, but that didn’t stop Fidget from continuing to chatter about as she scurried up to Drusilla, stood on her hind legs, and gave Drusilla a bat with a front paw. She then dropped to all fours and began gamboling down the hallway, releasing little yips as she went.
“I think she wants us to follow her,” Drusilla said, lifting up the hem of her gown before charging after the ferret.
Striding after her, Rhenick soon found himself winding his way down curving stone steps that led to the dungeons, Drusilla coming to a stop once she stepped off the last stair, her eyes narrowed as she glanced around the room. “There’s no one here.”
“In here” came a voice from behind the door where they’d stashed Sneaky Pete a few hours before.
“Annaliese?” Drusilla called.
“Yes. It’s me. We’re locked in here,” Annaliese called back.
“Hold on. Let me find a key.”
Five minutes later, and after Drusilla had dashed up to her room to retrieve her key ring, she was swinging the dungeon door open, Annaliese stumbling out a second later. She was followed by Mr. Grimsby, who was sporting a cut on his forehead; Mrs. O’Sullivan, who was nursing a bloody lip; Miss Tremblay, the lady’s maid, who was sniffling into a handkerchief; and Riley, who looked as if he wanted to punch somebody.
“Where’s my coachman and groomsmen?” Rhenick asked after sticking his head into the dungeon and discovering it empty.
“I think they’re tied up in the carriage house,” Riley said. “I’ll go check now.”
As Riley hurried away, Drusilla peered into the dungeon, then backed out and arched a brow Annaliese’s way. “Where’s Mother?”
Annaliese released a shaky breath. “I’m not sure where she is, but I know who she’s with ... Sanford.”
“What?”
“He showed up about an hour ago after he took the coachman and groomsmen by surprise. He then relieved them of the set of keys they’d been given so they could open the gate, which Sanford had bypassed because he was able to breach the grounds by coming here by way of the lake. Then, if I’m piecing events together properly, after securing Rhenick’s men, he walked through the front door as bold as you please and kept right on going until he found me and Mother in the parlor.”
Drusilla frowned. “What did he say when he walked into the parlor?”
“He wished us a good evening, told Mother that she was looking as beautiful as ever, then told her that he was certain she’d had enough time to come to her senses and should be all too willing to marry him now. He then went on to say that after they were wed, he’d be happy to return all the Merriweather money he stole, plus hand over the yacht to her.”
“What did Mother say to all that?”
Annaliese’s eyes crinkled at the corners. “She told him that she would rather face life as a complete pauper than ever consider marrying a scoundrel like him. Clearly, that didn’t go over well with Sanford, who then told Mother that they were going to go off on a little trip together to give her time to consider the matter more thoroughly. I had a feeling he was going to turn nasty when Mother told him she wasn’t going anywhere, so I whistled for my darlings, but before Pippin and Wiggles could do more than run into the room, fangs bared, events took a turn for the curious.”
“More curious than Sanford showing up?”
“Indeed, because right as Pippin set her sights on Sanford, the ghostly figure that Mother saw when we first moved here came waltzing into the room, sporting a pistol in one hand and a rifle in the other.” Annaliese shook her head. “Before I knew it, the ghost was threatening to shoot Pippin and Wiggles, which meant I had no choice but to scoop them up. While I was doing that, the ghost began brokering a deal with Sanford.”
Drusilla blinked. “Brokering a deal?”
“Indeed, and in a feminine voice that sounded, as Mother had mentioned after she’d seen the ghost the first time, as if she had a cold, or was trying to disguise who she really was.”
“But what kind of deal did the ghost want to broker?”
