 XXII. Aglo 10:00 PM After the scare, everyone decided to go to bed and wait out the snowstorm. Palwick reminded everyone that the power was probably going to be fixed the next day unless something delayed the repair crews or that the snowstorm had still not abated in the morning. The mannequin in the library was finally tossed into a bag to keep for evidence despite protestations that the real culprit might come back to destroy it. Reine had caught a glimpse of this one—this time the mannequin had been dressed up in a modern sleeveless black dress that had been torn from the waist down. Vicker had suggested that Larrington be confined to his rooms until the authorities arrived. The other men immediately seconded this idea and Larrington was stripped of his key and locked inside his room by Palwick. The couples, the Friesners and the Baron and his wife, quickly went back to their rooms. The butler and the housekeeper momentarily remained on the ground floor to douse the fires and to clean up the glasses of port that had been left in their haste for excitement. Reine followed Hadrian and Marcus who helped Xanthia carry her cousin up to the third floor. The astrologer opened Diana’s bedroom door for them and gently the men placed the middle-aged woman onto the bed. Xanthia smiled, but it was a tired smile that showed all of her years despite her unlined face. “Thank you,” she said. “Diana, though, would be furious that she missed all of this.” “Missed what?” said Hadrian, “The ruckus downstairs?” “No. Being carried by two attractive young men. It’s probably a fantasy of hers considering she reads ten times as many romance novels as she reads detective stories.” Hadrian smiled. “Too bad, I guess. The mystery genre is always looking for avid readers.” The astrologer looked down at her battered cousin. An unsightly black and yellow bruise was already starting to form on Diana’s right cheek. “First me and then Diana. You would think that both of us were jinxed.” “Do you remember what you did the night on the island?” Reine asked. “This might be related.” The astrologer shook her head. “I don’t remember anything of what I did. All I remember was coming back from the outhouse and then I was back here in bed.” Xanthia blinked her odd eyes. “All I know is what Diana had told me, that I had been found on the island pier nearly frozen.” Reine frowned in reply and said nothing else. The astrologer might not remember what she did on the island but she had a suspicion that the astrologer knew something else about it that she refused to tell them. “Do you need anything else?” inquired Marcus. “If you need help, Reine and I are just next door.” Xanthia waved a hand. “That’s all right, really. You’ve done enough. I’ll stay with Diana to make sure she doesn’t get worse. She was on the floor when we found her, remember. She might have hit her head and sustained a concussion.” The astrologer shook her head. “Isn’t it strange that the phone is also out? I would like to call for a doctor to check on her.” “The Baron has a cell phone,” said Hadrian. “No, that won’t work,” said Marcus. “I think it takes a lot of energy to call from out in the middle of nowhere where there isn’t good reception. Besides, with the electricity out, there’s no way to recharge the phone.” “And in the case if the Baron’s phone is fully charged already,” Xanthia added, “a doctor would take quite a while to get here because of the snowstorm.” “Pessimists,” Hadrian muttered. “Well, I’ll have to tell you one thing,” Xanthia continued, “Larrington was right on one account. Diana did steal all of the jewelry.” “And how did you know this?” Reine asked suspiciously. “It’s a bad obsessive habit of hers,” the astrologer confided. “She likes pretty things. By the end of our stay I was hoping to come up with a solution to returning all those trinkets, but apparently this incident did pretty nicely in doing that.” “Yes, but now we have her injured in the process.” Xanthia shrugged. “Knowing Diana, it’s a small price to pay for not losing her reputation.” The three editors nodded sympathetically to her plight, but as they exited the room, the astrologer grasped onto Reine’s arm, fixing her with a steely stare. “Diana told me what I said to you during my delirium.” “Don’t worry Xanthia,” Reine said gently. “You didn’t mean it. You were in a fever.” “But sometimes the subconscious is right,” said Xanthia deliberately. “I may be many things that society doesn’t approve of, but when I think I’m right I usually am. This isn’t conceit, I swear.” “Xanthia…” “Listen. The stones. They will tell you what is happening. Pay attention to them. Ignoring them might be costly.” Reine finally left Xanthia with Diana, but she was rattled by Xanthia’s advice. She wasn’t one to put stock in occult divination devices but even if she did, she could hardly interpret the meanings of the seeing stones. As she softly closed the door to Diana’s bedroom behind her, she saw that Hadrian and Marcus were still standing out in the hallway, talking in low tones. Marcus looked up at her and said, “You should also go to sleep to wait this snowstorm out.” Reine crossed her arms. “You’re not telling me what to do.” She thought of being in a dark room by herself, particularly a room in Ira’s mansion and mentally shivered. Even if she was cracking up, she didn’t want to be alone. “I can tell that the both of you are up to something.” Marcus shook his head. “You should go back to your room. What we’re going to do doesn’t concern you.” “Of course it concerns me. I’m coming with you whether you like it or not.” “Just fabulous,” Hadrian told Marcus. “I knew you would blotch it up. I told you she had a mind of her own.” “I already figured that out a long time ago,” he replied testily. “I was just hoping that this time it would be different.” “As I see it,” said Hadrian, “it’s like a little sister tagging along with her older brothers because she wants a cut of the action.” “I certainly want a cut of the action,” Reine briefly agreed, “But I am definitely no one’s little sister.” “Obviously,” Marcus muttered. “all right, since you insist, let’s get a move on with it. The faster I get this done, the better.” “So what is he attempting?’ Reine whispered to Hadrian as Marcus stalked ahead of them. “He wants to get Ira’s manuscript,” he whispered back. “We don’t think Palwick would allow us back into Ira’s bedroom in fear of ‘disturbing the evidence’ even though we think that Ira is safe.” “Think? Don’t we know? We got an e-mail from her.” “An e-mail can be faked, Reine.” “Then what about the photograph?” “It could have been something from a previous vacation that she had never showed us. It could have also been digitally altered.” “I didn’t think of that,” she admitted. © 2002, S. Y. Affolee |