I pulled my gaze away. “Never!”
“That’s my girl,” he said softly, pulling my eyes back to his again. But the emotion in his face sent mine running again, focusing on the ground beneath my feet instead.
“Here we are, this is the one,” he said in a bracing voice that gave me the courage to look back up again.
Thankfully this was one of the mansions without a wall, so we were able to step straight off the road and into the grounds. Unlike most of the other houses there were no fancy bushes, shaped into animals or spirals, and no intricate arrangements of flowers and trees. A rather sad gazebo stood in the center of a lawn, and a few flowerbeds grew in a riot of mixed color. Otherwise it was all gravel paths and tall, box hedges.
“The viscount wasn’t much for throwing parties,” Philip said.
“And I’m guessing he didn’t believe in wasting time shaping bushes into mythical creatures like elephants,” I said. “From what I hear, he didn’t seem the type.”
Philip chuckled. “You’ve clearly got a sense for him. I believe the flowers were planted by his daughter-in-law in the few years she spent here, and he only kept them for the sake of his grandson.”
“It must have been a lonely life for him here.” I looked around sadly, trying to imagine a young boy in this place with only an elderly grandfather who didn’t believe in flowers.
“I believe he spent a large part of his time living with various more distant relations,” Philip said, but he didn’t sound like he wanted to talk about it.
“Which door does the key fit?” I asked.
“The front one, of course.” He led me around the house and approached the front door, set well back from the distant Palace Way.
He approached as if it were his own home, his confidence not faltering for a moment. Without knocking, he inserted the key, opened the creaking door, and ushered me inside.
Chapter 18
We entered into a grand hall, all echoing marble and decorative vases on plinths. I blinked at them, wondering if they predated the recently deceased occupant. They looked old enough.
Slow footsteps sounded, and I clutched at Philip’s arm. He didn’t flinch, however, merely turning to meet the approaching servant. The old woman frowned at us both.
“Sorry to disturb you so late,” Philip said. “But we just need to do a final sweep.”
“At this time of night?” The woman—who must be the housekeeper—sighed. “And the house barely quiet from the last lot. I suppose you can find your own way, then?”
“Yes, indeed,” Philip said. “We don’t want to disturb you in the least. We shan’t need to come near the kitchen.”
“Well, that’s a mercy at least,” she muttered. “Make sure you lock the door again on the way out. And make sure you tell that pushy captain that I want my key back when you’ve all finished. I can’t present the house to the new viscount with one of the keys missing.”
Philip gave her a half-bow. “Of course not. No one would dream of such a thing.”
“Hmmm, we’ll see about that.” She turned and started back toward the depths of the house, muttering inaudibly to herself.
“You took that key from a guard captain?” I hissed. “Please, please tell me it wasn’t Captain Markus!”
“Fine, I won’t then.” Philip gave me the same carefree grin.
I groaned. “He’s the captain of the king’s guard! You’re going to get us both arrested.”
“But would it be fun if there wasn’t any risk?” He collected a burning lantern from beside the door and headed through a large arch.
I threw up my hands. “Men!”
Following behind I wondered how long it would be before I became the old woman shuffling along and muttering to myself about pesky youths. The image made me chuckle, and I had to clamp a hand over my mouth before it turned into full laughter.
Philip smiled over his shoulder at me. “See. I told you this was fun.”
Shaking my head, I caught up and peered around us. “This place doesn’t have much of a lived-in feel. Surely the viscount’s servants all reside here still?”
“He lived here year-round, but apparently he only kept a skeleton staff. I have it on good authority he used the formal dining room as his study, though.”
We turned to the left through another arch and both came to a standstill. My mouth dropped open.
“How many nights did you say we were going to be here?” I asked, my voice weak.
The vast room had clearly been designed for hosting meals for fifty or more. I had only ever seen a table that large in the formal dining room of my family’s palace back in Eldon. But this one looked nothing like ours.
The entire length of the table was blanketed with haphazard piles of paper, most of them covered in tight, cramped handwriting. Gazing around the space, I saw that the sideboard carried a similar load, and that many pieces of paper had fluttered down to rest on the floor in strange locations.
“I can suddenly see what Alyssa was talking about,” I whispered. “This is madness. Why haven’t they boxed it up and taken it to the palace?”
“My guess is they think there’s some system to it, even if it’s not immediately obvious. They’re hoping to crack it. Displacing it all would likely make that impossible. And there are so many papers here it would take months to read through them—even for a team.”
I wandered over and looked at the top page on one of the stacks. It contained a list of delivery dates for orders that were labeled using a series of letters and numbers that meant nothing to me.
“This page is full of deliveries from eight years ago.” I glanced at the sheet beneath it. “And this one is deliveries from twelve years ago. Are you sure he had a system?”
“He must have,” Philip said. “Or how else would he find anything? He was famous for always being able to deliver any detail the king requested, no matter how obscure. It was why he kept such an important post for so long and despite his age.”
We moved up the table, being careful not to displace anything as we skimmed the top pages of many of the piles. I didn’t see anything more interesting than the first page I had read.
“I must admit, after all the buildup, this is strangely flat,” I said. “We’re not going to find anything here.”
“Not in this room, no. But we should look at his personal rooms.”
“Do you know where they are?”
“No, but I can guess.”
He confidently led us back into the entrance hall and up the grand staircase to the gallery above. Turning right, he stopped at the first door and pushed it open. When we both leaned inside and saw a large sitting room with enough personal items scattered around to show it had been in recent use, he gave a flourishing bow.
“Impressive!” I led the way inside.
But looking around the abandoned room, my mood dropped. I had pitied his grandson, but now I pitied the viscount himself. For all his unpleasant manner, he had spent his life serving his kingdom, and he had deserved a better end.
Philip moved efficiently around the space, disturbing as little as possible, as if he too had been touched by a certain reverence. I glanced through into the connected bedroom, but there was nothing inside beyond a large four poster bed with a small table beside it, holding a half-burned candle and an empty glass.