“I want to know if you are telling the truth.” I spun to face him. “Though an enchantment prevents me from lying while at Rose Castle, I know you can. You did it last night.”
“Indeed. I have an exceptionally strong affinity to the node, and I am immune to even its spells—unless I sign a contract or someone curses me. However, I am not lying to you about Cecily. I don’t understand the point of your questions, but I will not ruin whatever slim chance there is that my answers help you break the curse.”
“Truth isn’t black and white, Your Grace.” I paced back up the room, the duke staying by my side as he walked over the table. “I’m used to hearing more than simply if a person is lying to me. I can tell when a statement is one truth meant to distract from another, or when an uncomfortable truth is hidden behind a sarcastic comment. My power is far more subtle than your node’s interpretation of the truth. Nor am I naïve enough to believe that you couldn’t manage to twist words around in such a way as to lie to me even if you were subjected to the truth-telling enchantment.”
“How cynical you are, Miss Cardh.”
“Realistic.”
“Realistically, then, it is in my best interest to be honest with you. I’ll admit, habit might prevent me from speaking the whole truth, but all you need to do is prompt me. Or ask if you think I am shading the truth somehow.”
“And the sarcasm?”
The duke lifted a paw, grooming his whiskers. “That, you’ll have to deal with. However, since I doubt you’ll have any hesitation in simply asking me the same thing over and over, I’m sure you’ll manage.”
“Fine.” I pulled out the nearest chair and sat down. “Tell me exactly how Lady Cecily reacted when she discovered you wouldn’t marry her.”
“She called me a heartless monster, told me she never wanted to see me again, then hid in her rooms until she departed for Finley the next morning.”
“No threats?”
“None. She sounded more upset that I had ‘led her on,’ as she put it, than that I didn’t want to marry her. She felt she had wasted a month.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Did you lead her on?”
“Depends on your perspective.”
My fingers curled into my palm, my nails pressing against the skin hard enough to leave marks. “Now would be one of those times I want the whole truth, Your Grace.”
He sank down on the table, stretched out in front of me. His black fur contrasted starkly with the pale wood. “I did not intentionally lead her on. There was an understanding when I invited her to Rose Castle that I might be evaluating her as a prospective bride, but I tried to make it clear early on that I had reconsidered that idea.”
“But you still slept with her.”
The duke sighed. “I thought I had made my position clear by the time she sought out my bed. I thought we both understood it was a physical relationship and nothing more.”
“Well, now I at least understand her motive.” I still wished I could hear the truth of the duke’s statements with my magic so I could judge how much of what he said was fact and how much wishful thinking. In this case, though, it didn’t truly matter, for it was obvious Cecily hadn’t shared his opinion. Now it was time to focus on the next aspect of my investigation. “How did she power the curse?”
“If I knew the answer to that, you wouldn’t be here.”
“Why don’t we pretend for a minute that I know nothing about Lady Cecily or what happened? Anything you tell me, therefore, will be a surprise, even if it is obvious to you. Oh wait, we don’t have to pretend; it’s the truth!”
“Sarcasm, Miss Cardh? Isn’t that beneath you?”
“If you get to be sarcastic, then so do I. Deal with it. Now, walk me through exactly what happened when she cursed you.”
To my surprise, he did. Duke Felix recounted the entire event without the need for prompting. He even included a wealth of details, such as exact locations and tones of voice. Not that I believed his interpretations to be fact, but it was much better than nothing.
“What were the exact words of the curse?” I asked when he finished.
“I’m not positive. Something about being a beast and showing my true nature. She also said that I would stay cursed until someone fell in love with me while I’m a beast, I think.” His tail swished back and forth over the polished table. “I did my best to remember the exact wording after I recovered from the transformation. The secretary who stayed to help me wrote it down. I’ll have Marc copy it over for you, along with the contract your father signed, but I doubt it will be exact.”
I didn’t have the faintest idea how I would—or even could—go about breaking the curse, but at least I knew my immediate next step. “Where do I find Marc?”
“At this hour? Probably still in bed.” He rose to all fours. “Why don’t you take the morning to get settled? I’ll introduce you to Marc at the midday meal. We eat at noon in this room.”
Five
Isabel
