Chapter 37
When Sapphire returned appropriately gowned and coiffed, she found Sir Matthias freshly scrubbed and in a clean uniform. Mara was with him.
Sapphire led them down to the waiting carriage. “Mary says she’s been slowly filling the positions we opened, but the house is far from being restaffed. And for those that remain, if the staff haven’t learned about Lord Bartley’s demise, I must tell them.”
Sir Matthias squeezed her hand. “What can I do to help?”
“Be you,” Sapphire said. “You’re the new lord of the house, and the staff already likes you. We should have checked in on them as soon as we were home, but I always felt like it was dangerous to go back.”
“Probably was,” Mara said. “Your grandfather knows you’ll head there eventually, and he’s proven he’ll kill.”
“We got rid of most of the house staff that were loyal to Bartley, but I’m not sure we removed them all.”
Sir Matthias slid an arm around her and held her close. “We may need to get you a bodyguard until all of this passes with your grandfather.”
“I’m not sure it’ll ever pass, but at least I know why I felt like I had to keep things locked up around Lord Bartley and the staff he’d brought with him.”
“Did they ever take anything?” Mara asked.
“Not that I know of, and my mother never complained about anything missing, either.” Sapphire paused. “Do you believe Desa?”
“Yes,” Mara said. “The truth benefited her, so she gave it. But I’m surprised Rashalee has given Carsons so long to retrieve what he lost. Must be something She desperately wants back that only he can get Her.”
“Lord Carsons must be running out of time, which is why he’s become so dangerous,” Sir Matthias said. “Any idea what it could be? There were rumors Captain Darrington had a treasure map to a hidden pile of gold, though I always figured he was the one spreading that rumor.”
Sapphire leaned her head on Sir Matthias’s shoulder as a sad smile curved her lips. “Papa didn’t start that rumor, but he found it amusing enough that he went along with it. He privately laughed about it and said anyone stupid enough to bury treasure rather than spend it deserved to lose their whole crew as they rowed to shore to dig it up.”
“But he never disputed the map?” Mara asked.
Sapphire shook her head.
“Anything else he had that was unique?”
Sapphire stared out the window, but she could remember nothing. “He never collected anything. He didn’t drink wine and never saw the difference between expensive whiskey and the decent stuff.”
“Perhaps something else?” Mara said. “A special Dracor beer stein?”
Sapphire chuckled. “We lived luxuriously, but Papa wasn’t much for frivolous stuff. No fancy race horses, jewel-encrusted swords, or Dracor beer steins. He put most of his money into income generating properties, and he’d be a silent partner for various merchants, ship captains, and even farmers of high-yield crops. He liked owning rent generating properties, too.”
“Anything unusual come to light after his death?”
“Nothing I know about, and I took care of all of it. My mother wasn’t capable of handling such things.” Sapphire paused.
“What are you thinking?” Sir Matthias asked.
“When Desa said my grandfather was willing to do anything to find this object, even burn buildings to the ground, made me remember my father used to own several tenement buildings. The ones that burned might have belonged to my father once.”
“Once?” Mara asked.
“He sold them not too long before his death. He said they needed a lot of time and attention to keep them in good order, and he didn’t want me in that part of town looking after them. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but maybe he knew he was sick.”
Matthias’s eyes narrowed. “An awfully big coincidence those are the buildings that burned.”
“I don’t believe in coincidences,” Mara said. “You’re certain your father had nothing of extreme value?”
Sapphire lifted her shoulders. “You’re free to investigate the house. Perhaps you’ll see something I missed, but the most valuable things outside of property we own was the jewelry he bought my mother and me. Always seemed strange that my mother and I dripped diamonds, and he only wore a piece of old glass.”
“Glass?” Mara raised a brow.
“He never went anywhere without it, and he gave it to me when he was dying.”
“Strange that he’d be so attached to a piece of glass,” Mara said.
Sapphire touched a hand to the imperceptible bulge under her dress. “I thought it was something his parents had left him. He was an orphan, so something like that would have meant a lot to him.”
Matthias squeezed her hand. “Of course it would have.”
“You’re wearing it?” Mara asked.
Sapphire withdrew the scratched drop of glass from underneath her dress and traced one of the deep gouges in the black coating. “I’ve no idea how I scratched it so badly in the last few weeks. When my father gave it to me, it looked far better.”
Mara reached for the piece of glass but yanked her hand back. “You need to take that to one of those holy temples. Start with Thalia’s.”
Matthias stared at the glass drop. “I don’t feel anything from it.”
“You’re not supposed to. It’s what the black coating is for. Contains what’s inside.”
Sapphire swallowed as she stared down at the pendant. “This is Rashalee’s?”
“Or it’s something She doesn’t want someone else to get.”
“Like what?”
“Take it to the Holy Trinity.”
Sapphire was about to tell the driver to head for the Temple of Thalia when they pulled up to the gate encircling her home. She dropped the glass teardrop back under her bodice as she stared up at the massive manor.
A mixture of fear and home-coming slid through her. This was her and Matthias’s home. Where they would raise a family. Where they would create a thousand memories together. Where she would love and be loved.
Warmth filled her chest.
This is what her father had been searching for, and what he’d found with her and her mother. Sapphire hadn’t realized how much she’d missed coming home, especially as this was the first time since her father had died that it felt like home.
Because it hadn’t been a home.
Lord Bartley would’ve sent her away if he’d have been able to get to Captain Gregory’s fortune without her.
Sapphire had known that every day, lived with it every day.
If her father hadn’t structured his will as he had, Sapphire was sure she and her mother would both be dead.
Stuffing the thoughts to the back of her brain, Sapphire composed herself as the carriage pulled up to the walkway. The footman came around and opened the door.
Sir Matthias exited first, then handed her down. He turned toward Mara, but the look she shot him had the Knight withdrawing his hand.
Her home, Sapphire reminded herself. Head high, she strode up the entryway.
A new butler opened the door for her and bowed low. “Milady.”