“Pippin, no!” Annaliese yelled, which snapped him out of all thoughts of bottled-up sunshine when he realized that Pippin had woken up from her snooze on his lap and was now launching herself through the air and toward the monkey, landing on Moe’s back a heartbeat later.
The monkey took one look at the ferret, who was baring its teeth and hissing, released an ear-splitting shriek, then leapt from Moe’s back and scampered off toward a grove of trees. Pippin didn’t hesitate to launch herself off Moe’s back, whereshe promptly took off in hot pursuit of the monkey before Annaliese could get the no she clearly wanted to voice again out of her mouth.
Moe, evidently taking umbrage over the idea that his back had been used as a springboard, came to an abrupt halt—their immediate lack of forward mobility sending Annaliese careening forward. Before she could catapult off the wagon seat, though, Seth managed to snag hold of the back of her dress, tugging her back on the seat and earning one of her symmetrical smiles in return before she straightened a hat that had gone askew.
“Thank you,” she muttered right as Seraphina jogged up to join them.
“I believe I can say with all certainty that watching your ferret chase a monkey on academy grounds was not something I was expecting to see today,” Seraphina said, stopping when she reached Annaliese’s side of the wagon. “The question of the hour now is what you’re even doing with a monkey and ...” Her gaze drifted over Annaliese, lingering on some soot that was marring Annaliese’s cheek. “Don’t tell me you got into another tussle with a fur trader, did you?”
“Perhaps it would be best if I just start at the beginning,” Annaliese said before she drew in a breath and proceeded to do exactly that, ending with “Seth and I then hand delivered each girl to their respective homes, where I then had to admit to all the mothers how delinquent I was with their care, followed by my assurances that I would resign from my position at the academy with all due haste.”
Seraphina’s overly bushy eyebrows, and ones Seth was relatively convinced she’d enhanced with extra hair, gave a bit of a wiggle. “And you assured them that you’d resign because they asked for your resignation?”
“Not at all,” Annaliese countered. “They were all very gracious and encouraged me to stay on at the academy, and not asingle mother broached the idea of pulling their daughter from classes, something I’m sure Drusilla will be relieved to hear.”
“I’m afraid I’m confused then,” Seraphina admitted. “If the mothers don’t want you to resign, why does it seem as if you’re determined to do so?”
“I misplaced two students, which then resulted with all the girls being placed in mortal danger. That right there proves I’m a dismal excuse for an instructor.”
“You’re not dismal,” Seraphina argued.
“Of course I am,” Annaliese argued back. “And before you disagree with that, allow me to remind you that you took the Zambarello sisters on an outing today, and even though they hold the reputation of being the most questionably behaved students we’ve enrolled to date, you didn’t misplace a single one of them. Given that I know for a fact that Caterina has her eye on a young man who works in a tavern off State Street, and you mentioned you took them to tea off State Street, I think your ability to not misplace a single sister speaks volumes regarding what skills a competent instructor should possess, and skills I clearly don’t.”
“You’ve been showing remarkable success with improving students’ table manners, and within a very short period of time.”
“You wouldn’t be saying that if you’d seen the disaster that happened today regarding the gnawing of turkey legs.”
Seraphina shot a glance to Seth. “This is where you should jump in and state that the turkey legs incident wasn’t worthy of a resignation.”
“I’m afraid I missed any turkey-leg debacle, but know that I had trouble as well when I was eating that tasty treat today and ended up with grease splattered all over my jacket.”
“Hardly helpful,” Seraphina muttered. “With that said, though, I’m sure Drusilla will be a voice of reason for you, Annaliese, so what say we go run her down and get her take on the matter?”
“And while I’m certainly feeling all sorts of anticipation to disclose to my sister what a disaster I made of the outing today, I have to find Pippin and the monkey first,” Annaliese said. “Hopefully, Pippin hasn’t chased that monkey up a tree because while my ferrets are perfectly capable of climbing, they aren’t exactly proficient with getting down. That’s why I often have to climb up after them.”
One look at Annaliese’s somewhat forlorn expression left Seth reaching over to give her knee a pat, something that left Seraphina’s eyes widening ever so slightly. “Given the day you’ve had, if Pippin gets stuck, I’ll get her down for you.”
The forlornness disappeared in a flash as Annaliese sent him a brilliant smile. “That’s the most chivalrous offer any gentleman has ever extended to me, Seth. Thank you.”
The brilliance of her smile left Seth feeling completely off-kilter again, which exactly explained why he almost fell off the wagon seat when she gave a flick of the reins and Moe and Dolly plowed forward again, Dolly breaking into a near gallop, undoubtedly because she’d had enough of being harnessed to Moe for one day and wanted to get back to the barn as quickly as possible.
Given their rate of speed, the Merriweather castle came into view a moment later, and to say it was a spectacular view was an understatement, even with the castle resembling something straight out of a gothic novel.
It had been purchased some years before by Annaliese’s aunt Ottilie, a woman who’d then signed the deed over to Annaliese and Drusilla before she’d gone off on one of her grand adventures.
Interestingly enough, it had recently come to light that Ottilie had only gifted her nieces the castle as a way to keep it safe from nefarious developers. And unfortunately, it had also come to light that, while Ottilie was notorious for not keeping to any type of set schedule when she was pursuing her true passion inlife—that being tracking down treasures—the fact that she’d been gone for over two years wasn’t intentional. Foul play was suspected, a direct result of a criminal underworld boss having paid two small-time criminals to get rid of Ottilie so he could convince her heirs to sell him the castle and surrounding land.
Fortunately, it turned out that paying small-time criminals hadn’t been the brightest move for the underworld boss as the two criminals in question had bungled the job after deciding the best way for them to assure that Ottilie’s heirs sold the castle as soon as the ink was dry on a death certificate was to make it appear as if the castle was haunted.
If that wasn’t bad enough, they’d then decided to search for a copy of the treasure map Ottilie was supposedly pursuing on her latest adventure, the two bungling criminals having decided that Ottilie was onto a legitimate treasure.
All the haunting episodes were what eventually led to the criminals being caught, and after realizing that the Pinkertons were considering charging them as accomplices to murder if Ottilie turned up dead, they’d disclosed everything they’d done to make Ottilie disappear, as well as disclosed their belief that there was a chance the crew of motley sailors they’d engaged to do away with Ottilie might not have done away with her after all.
The possibility that Annaliese’s aunt could still be alive was why the Pinkertons were now working to uncover where Ottilie had traveled to search for her treasure, something that might be exactly why Agent Pearson, as Norbert had mentioned at the gate, had come to call at the academy today.
“What are the odds that it’s another bad sign that my mother seems to be running down the front steps of the castle?” Annaliese asked right as a shriek rent the air—one emitted by Irma, Annaliese’s mother, who was, not merely running down the front steps, but barreling down them, the reason for the barreling appearing a second later in the form of the monkey.
A sliver of apprehension stole through Seth when he realized that the monkey was chasing Irma, who was now shrieking louder than ever as she bolted down the drive, clutching the necklace she was wearing.
