Sanford frowned. “I assure you, the last place I deserve to be is in an asylum.”
Irma returned the frown. “And to that I say it’s debatable. You’ve taken at least a slight leave of your senses since you seem to believe we’re some star-crossed lovers who are finally being given an opportunity to be together.”
“We’ve been waiting to be together since we were eight years old and vowed we’d marry someday.”
“Children often claim to their best friends they’ll marry someday, but no one ever actually expects those children to honor those types of vows once they get older.”
“Ah, so you do admit we were best friends,” Sanford said.
“We were the only children of a like age to live on the same street.”
“But we remained friends even as we matured, and to remind you, I made a point of attending your debut even though I had to cut short my grand tour.”
Irma sat forward. “I never asked you to do that, Sanford, and, if you’ll recall, I even wrote to you that Father had his eye on Morton Merriweather as a potential suitor for me.”
“And I wrote you back and told you to tell your father that you didn’t need any potential suitors, as you were going to marry me.”
Irma crossed her arms over her chest. “If you’ll recall, you and I often spoke about the fact that my father placed great emphasis on his Knickerbocker status and had married mymother simply because she was a Knickerbocker as well. It then stands to reason that my father would only want me to marry a Knickerbocker, and while your family was very well-connected, you weren’t Knickerbockers. Morton was, though, which is why I thought you were jesting about the two of us marrying because you knew all of that.”
“I suppose I can understand why you’d think I was jesting, but I certainly can’t see why, after Morton died, you wouldn’t agree to marry me, as your father was long dead and could no longer exert any influence on any decisions you might want to make.”
Irma released a sigh. “Did you ever consider that me telling you I couldn’t marry you when you suggested we begin planning a double wedding was actually me making my own decision?”
“But decisions can be changed,” Sanford argued, quite as if he wasn’t going to even contemplate that her decision had been to not marry him. “Why, look at me, even though I decided to render you penniless, I’ve now decided I’m perfectly happy to return every penny to you. Well, as long as you agree to marry me, that is.”
Drusilla leaned closer to Irma. “I’m afraid there’s no point trying to reason with him further, Mother. His delusions when it comes to you are obviously deeply rooted, no matter that you’re certainly due this opportunity to speak your mind to him.”
“I fear you may be right, my dear, which means we shall now simply turn him over to the Pinkertons, where I’m sure they’ll see him delivered to the nearest jail, or perhaps they’ll take him to be seen by a doctor to explore the extent of his delusions. Hopefully, at some point, someone will manage to get Sanford to divulge where he’s stashed our money, but until that day happens, we’ll simply concentrate on opening the academy and pray that venture will see us firmly on the road to financial stability once again.”
Agent Pearson stepped forward. “You won’t need to wait to learn where Sanford stashed your money because the man who reached out to us after he spotted Sanford in the Gulf of Mexico also spotted him an hour later leaving a bank. We Pinkertons, being rather motivated by that lovely fee Drusilla promised us, tracked that bank down and then recovered an account that was under the name of M. Weather, a take on Merriweather, if I’m not mistaken.”
He settled a smile on Irma. “I’m pleased to inform you that you’ll soon be reunited with a good chunk of your fortune, although know that we won’t close the case until we’ve discerned exactly where Sanford stashed the rest of your funds. Given that there’s quite the hefty sum in the bank account we recovered, know that there is absolutely no reason for you to ever have to concern yourself with financial problems again.”
Thirty-Nine
It had not escaped Drusilla’s notice that there seemed to be something bothering Rhenick, since he’d taken to raking his hand through his hair, something he was prone to doing whenever he was troubled.
Before she could question him about the matter, though, Agent Pearson nodded to some fellow Pinkertons, who set about getting Sanford to his feet, who didn’t struggle the slightest bit until he realized, as the agents led him to a dinghy, that Irma wasn’t going with him.
“I shall be counting the seconds until we find ourselves together again, my love,” he called in Irma’s direction after the agents had to resort to muscling him into the dinghy, where two of them immediately sat on either side of him to prevent him from jumping overboard.
Irma turned her gaze away from a man who’d caused her no end of difficulties. “Perhaps a stay in an asylum truly is needed because we may very well be mistaken in that he’s not merely slightly delusional but borderline insane.” She gave Sanford one last glance before she squared her shoulders and turned her attention to Sneaky Pete and Fenna. “But Sanford’s questionable mental state is something we can revisit later, as we still need to decide what’s to be done with those two.”
Before Drusilla could do more than consider people who’d obviously been responsible for the haunting of Merriweather Castle, Fenna Larkin took to settling a bright smile on Irma.
“I don’t think there’s anything to be done with us except let us go. As has already been noted, I’m great friends with Ottilie, a friendship that, unfortunately, Loughlin MacSherry became aware of. That friendship is exactly why he began demanding I take on a project for him, and as I’m sure you’ve been made aware, MacSherry isn’t a man one can refuse, not if one wants to continue breathing.”
“And while I’m sure you would love nothing more than for us to turn you free,” Drusilla said before her mother could do more than take to looking rather confused over Fenna’s unlikely explanation, “I’m afraid I’m unwilling to do that since I’m relatively certain you’re not being truthful with us. In all honesty, I’m not convinced you were ever good friends with my aunt. And since my aunt actually seems to be missing, and you just admitted you’ve been doing some work for Loughlin MacSherry, I now find myself wondering if you, along with Sneaky Pete, had something to do with my aunt’s disappearance.”
Fenna’s eyes widened. “I would never do anything to dear Ottilie.”
“You were never friends with Miss Ottilie, something she was very much aware of, and is exactly why she turned ownership of the castle over to her nieces before she left on her trip.”
Fenna sucked in a sharp breath right as Norbert, surprisingly enough, in the company of an older gentleman, stepped around Agent Pearson and marched through the sand to join them.
The groundskeeper’s gaze traveled to Fenna, then to Sneaky Pete, before it settled on Drusilla. “Miss Drusilla,” he began with an inclination of his head. “It’s ever so wonderful to see that you’ve managed to survive the machinations of these two criminals relatively unscathed, and know that I’m truly sorry I was forced to disappear without a word.”
He shot another glance to Fenna before he returned his attention to Drusilla. “I didn’t believe I had a choice in the matter, though, since I was certain Fenna was going to tell you some fairly large lies about me.” He directed a nod to the man standing beside him. “As luck would have it, I’d already made plans to meet Mr. William Baumgartner at an inn directly outside of Chicago. He sent me a telegram asking to speak with me about the situation in the castle, that being you and your family having moved into it, something he found out about after Rhenick had the bank send him a message.”
