The Fourteenth Key (The Chronicles of Terah Book 3) (68 page)

Marcus nodded. “At Cira’s. She told Landis she could have it after it was weaned if she wanted it.”

“Landis said she’d like to have the kitten. She wasn’t planning to come back to get it, but since we need a couple of errands, she’d like for that to be one of them.”

Chris frowned. “A kitten? There?”

Kevin shook his head. “She’ll take it to her foster parents and let it stay there while she’s training.”

“We’ll need a carry case, and I know just who to ask to make it,” Darrell said with a grin.

Marcus looked confused. “Who?”

Darrell hesitated and looked at Kevin.

Kevin shrugged. “He’s the one who got shot. I think if anyone deserves to know who the suspects are, he does.”

Cpt. Lawrence nodded and told Marcus who they were looking at.

When he was done, everyone looked at Marcus to see his reaction, but Marcus just shrugged. “I don’t know any of them well enough to say one way or the other.” After a moment, he added, “I do have one request though.”

Kevin frowned and asked, “What?”

“I know you’re not planning to say anything now, but one day you’ll decide to confront the spy, and when you do, I want to be there.”

Kevin nodded. “As long as you aren’t planning to turn our spy into a pile of ashes.”

Marcus laughed. “I won’t do that, but I’m not going to promise not to slug him.” Then he asked, “What was the second errand Landis suggested?”

“She said an older lady gave all of you something to drink and some muffins after you got the tree off her chimney. Do you know who she’s talking about?”

Again, Marcus nodded. “Bekka.”

“Landis suggested taking her a basket of baked goods or something like that to thank her for her kindness.”

“And I know who to ask to get the basket ready,” Darrell said with a nod. He started to get up. “Is that it?”

“Not quite,” Kevin answered. “Someone needs to talk to Cira and make sure the kitten’s still alive, and that it’s still all right for Landis to have it. We need to let her know it will be picked up this weekend, and then we need to pick it up.”

“I saw Cira the other day,” Marcus said. “She told me to let Landis know the kitten’s ready. I can go by and tell her I’ll be out there Saturday afternoon to get it.”

Kevin shook his head. “I don’t want you anywhere near there Saturday. If you show up out there and there’s an assassin in the area, you may get shot to avenge Saryn.”

“Let him try,” Marcus grumbled. “I’ll be ready this time.”

“Well, I’d rather avoid that altogether. We’ll pick it up after this whole thing’s over and done with. Let her know it’ll be this weekend, but that’s it.”

Marcus nodded.

“What else do we need to do?” Darrell asked.

“Someone needs to talk to Joan and Jana. If we’re going to send them a note saying Landis is going to drop by, they need to be at home to get it.”

“Do you want to do that?” Darrell asked. “Or do you want me to?”

“I thought I’d tell Joan and let her talk to Jana,” Kevin answered. “Both of them are used to keeping things quiet.”

“Has anyone mentioned anything about all of this to Theresa?” Darrell asked.

Kevin nodded. “I did, including the special tea for enhancing Landis’s ability to gather and store energy. She said she’ll have a tea packaged with Landis’s name on it and she’ll send a note up here to tell me she has it ready.”

“Did you come up with some way to avoid sending two messages to the chapel?” Darrell asked.

“Theresa’s taking care of that one,” Kevin said with a grin. “Hayley will be at Wanda’s Saturday morning.”

Marcus laughed, but Darrell and Cpt. Lawrence both frowned.

“Wanda’s?” Darrell asked. “I don’t understand.”

“Once a month one of the sisters goes out to Wanda’s farm and examines her husband and all eight children,” Marcus explained. “It’s a lot simpler for a sister to go there than for Wanda to round them all up and get them to the chapel, but while she’s there, the sister has to examine a couple of cows, a horse or two, the dogs, and a few dolls. It’s a full morning’s work, and Wanda always cooks a big meal and insists the sister stay for lunch.”

“So Marcus can write a note asking Hayley to meet him in Fenway’s garden around 2:00 for a mug of scog,” Kevin explained.

“If I do that, someone needs to meet her. If no one shows up, she’ll sit there and wait all afternoon,” Marcus pointed out.

“I’ll go,” Chris said.

Darrell looked at Marcus. “You’ll have to be here early Saturday morning, and then stay out of sight until evening.”

Marcus nodded. “But I have a question. Who’s going to ask these different people to deliver the messages or whatever. Last time, I handled that.”

“Let me think about it,” Kevin said. “I’ll let you know what you’ll need to handle.” Kevin glanced around. “I think we need to divide this up so one person doesn’t make all the arrangements. Any questions?”

No one said anything, so Kevin nodded. “Guess that’s it. Keep your fingers crossed this works.”

~ ~ ~ ~

While Kevin was at lunch Thursday, Joan asked Ariel to let her know when Kevin had a few minutes. So when Kevin walked in the door, Ariel asked when he’d have time to see her.

“I’ll go see her now,” Kevin answered. “If anyone needs me, tell them I’ll be back in a bit.”

When Kevin got to Joan’s office, she sent Petri on a list of errands and told him to pull the door to behind him as he left. “I haven’t had a chance to tell Karl any of this, so I’ll tell you both at the same time. Let’s go in his office.”

“Before we do that,” Kevin said, “I need to ask you something. Will you be at home Saturday morning?”

“As far as I know. Why?”

“I need to send you a message. When you get it, I want you to open it, read it, and tell whoever brings it that it’s fine.”

“Okay,” Joan said slowly. “And what do I do then?”

“Nothing. That’s it. And you can ignore whatever’s in the message. I just need for it to be delivered and for you to go along with what it says.”

“You’ll explain this to me one day, right?”

Kevin nodded. “I need to send a message to Jana too, same instructions. Can you let her know?”

“She needs to be home, say whatever’s in the message is fine, and then forget the whole thing?”

Again, Kevin nodded.

“She’ll want to know what it’s all about, too,” Joan said as she stood up. “I’ll go out there later this afternoon. Anything else?”

“No, that’s it.”

“Okay. Let’s go see Karl.”

Once they were seated in Karl’s office, Joan said, “I went to see Debra yesterday afternoon. You both know Tonnie has scars that aren’t the result of typical childhood mishaps. Well, they were caused by a hot fire poker.”

When both Kevin and Karl’s jaws dropped, Joan shook her head. “Hang on. Not what you’re thinking. Tonnie was a slave in Malcolm’s castle, but she never laid eyes on him as far as she knows. Before you get angry with him, other than keeping her as a slave, he never did anything to her.” Joan looked hard at Kevin.

When she felt sure he’d heard her, she went on. “She and four other little girls worked from midnight to mid-morning clearing out the fireplaces, scrubbing down the hearths, and getting them ready to be lit again the next day. An older woman, one who was sort of feeble and, from the sound of it, half-blind, went with them to supervise. She’d use the fire poker to break down the fire and scatter it so the girls could put it out and clear out the ashes, which means the poker was hot and covered with ash. Then, while they worked, she’d use the poker to show them where coals were still glowing, to point out spots they’d missed, and so on. Only she wasn’t too good at getting the poker from one point to another without hitting someone. Since Tonnie was the oldest, she tried to keep herself between the poker and the other girls to keep them from getting burned, but in the process she got burned, a lot. Some left scars, some didn’t, but she ended up with fresh burns on a daily basis.”

For a couple of minutes, no one said anything. Then Kevin said, “I hate it happened, but at least she wasn’t tortured.”

Karl nodded and looked at Joan. “But how does that explain her behavior? The way she always tried to take over with the younger children in the playground, telling them what to do and how to do it.”

“Tonnie was the oldest of the four, so she was the lead. When they were off duty, they shared a bedroom and Tonnie was held responsible for seeing to it they went to bed when they were supposed to, got up when they were supposed to, and so on. She was in charge. So when she came here and found herself the oldest in her group, she took charge. It’s what she was used to. She’s been fine since she’s been at Debra’s. She’s relaxed a lot. She’s not nearly as nervous as she was, not as jumpy.”

“That’s good,” Kevin said with a nod. “Is Debra willing to keep her long term? Or do we need to find a permanent home for her?”

Joan shook her head. “I don’t know. I know Debra won’t kick her out, but we didn’t talk about long-term plans. I’ll find out and let you know.”

~ ~ ~ ~

It was 11:00 before Kevin made it to his room Friday night. He’d been swamped with castle business since dinner. Cryslyn wanted to make some personnel changes, Miranda wanted to make some menu changes, and Neiven wanted to change a few of the stable routines.

Kevin had no idea why they felt it necessary to ask him when they wanted to make changes. He didn’t know what they did to start with. The only thing that affected him was the menu change, but he doubted he’d have noticed the changes if she hadn’t said something. Next time he’d suggest she talk the menu over with Chris. At least he’d be interested.

As Kevin dragged himself into his room and over to his couch, he mentally ran through the plans for the next day. He needed to leave before sunrise and he’d be lucky to get back to his room before midnight tomorrow night. It would be one long day, but if he knew the identity of Rolan’s spy by the end of it, it would be worth it.

He hadn’t been seated more than a minute before the door between his room and Chris’s opened and Chris walked in carrying two mugs of scog, one half empty.

“I got these when I came up,” Chris said as he handed Kevin the full mug. “I thought you were right behind me. What happened?”

“Neiven happened.”

Chris frowned as he sat down. “What did he want?”

“I’m not sure. Something about having Marshall come in a little later in the morning, clean out the stable first, and leave exercising the horses until afternoon during the winter months. I wasn’t really listening,” Kevin admitted. “I wouldn’t begin to tell him how to manage the stable, and what’s more, I think he knows it. Same with Cryslyn and Miranda. I don’t meddle in their business any more than I’d meddle in Neiven’s, but technically I’m in charge, so they ask before they do it. And since they ask, I say fine, even though most of the time I have no idea what I’m approving. So, if there’s no coffee tomorrow morning, you know who to blame.”

“Right,” Chris said with a laugh. “Haven’t you noticed? Everything’s your fault.”

Kevin cut his eyes at Chris as he drank some scog.

“Is everything set for tomorrow?”

Kevin nodded. “The spotters need to be in place before dawn, so it’s going to be an early start. You don’t need to get up though.”

“What time are you getting up?”

“I told Rupert to wake me at 3:30.”

“He’s going to wonder why.”

“He may wonder, but he won’t say anything. He never does. But I did tell him I won’t need a bodyguard tomorrow morning, so not to expect either of them to show up.”

Chris nodded. “What’s your first stop?”

“Warren and Torrey’s. I told him I’d be there a little before four to take them to Shadron’s. I thought I’d get everyone there, and then, when it’s closer to daybreak, I’ll take the six spotters to their posts.”

“Torrey will have coffee for you.”

“I told her not to, that Kayla would have plenty.”

“When do you plan to get back here?”

“Hopefully before dawn so I can go out back and run through my routine before I go get Landis.”

“For show?”

Kevin nodded. “But if anyone’s paying attention, I want tomorrow morning to look like the start to any other Saturday.”

“So, I’ll go down while you’re out there and get coffee and something for breakfast, although you’ll probably be ready for lunch.”

Kevin laughed. “Just get me more cheese than anything else. You can have the pastries.”

“Fine with me.” Chris stood up to go. “If you’re getting up at 3:30, you better get to bed.”

Chapter 60

To Catch A Spy

Kevin was sleeping so hard when Rupert knocked on his door at 3:30 Saturday morning, he didn’t hear a thing. Rupert opened the door and called him, but that didn’t work either. After a couple of minutes, Rupert gave up and knocked on Chris’s door.

Chris stumbled to his door and pulled it open, more asleep than awake. He was barefoot, his hair was tousled, his eyes were red, and he was wearing nothing but a pair of sleep pants. As he rubbed his face and squinted against the light in the hall, he asked what was wrong.

“I’m sorry to bother you, but I can’t rouse Myron,” Rupert said. “And I’m a bit leery of shaking him to wake him.”

“Afraid of becoming a pile of ashes?” Chris asked with a yawn.

“You might say that.”

“That’s okay.” Chris stretched. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Thank you, sir,” Rupert said with obvious relief.

“Oh, and Rupert,” Chris added as the guard turned to leave, “He has someplace he needs to be in a few minutes, but he’ll leave from his room. Don’t worry when he doesn’t come downstairs.”

Rupert nodded.

“And he doesn’t want anyone to know he’s gone, so if anyone asks, he’s just not up yet.”

“Very good, sir.”

Chris shut the door and went back into his room. He grabbed a tunic and went into Kevin’s room. “Hey, Kevin,” he called out. “Time to get moving. Come on! You’ve got places to go, people to see, hurry up! You’re running late.”