A Cold Legacy. Megan Shepherd

of long-lost family showing up. She’ll be disappointed, but there will always be a place for her here, don’t fear.”

      Valentina was the least of my worries. Heir to Ballentyne? It was enough to make my head spin. “But what about Hensley? He’s your own son; surely he should inherit it.”

      A strange look crossed her face. “Hensley—yes. I should have realized you’d meet him. Unfortunately Hensley will never be suited to manage an estate of this size. He has a defect of the brain.”

      “Oh, how awful. Is that why you didn’t tell us about him? Who …” I paused. “Who is the father?” It was hardly a polite question, but women like Elizabeth and me had never danced around propriety.

      “An American novelist. I went overseas to visit family in eighty-nine and met him. The father doesn’t know, which is just as well.” She let out a sigh, running her fingers along the towel. “He wasn’t a very good novelist.”

      It felt good to smile, after everything that had happened.

      “Well,” she said. “It’s not every day one narrowly escapes death. Dry off, and give me a moment to speak with Valentina. Then we shall have a proper talk.”

      WHEN I’D FINALLY SCRUBBED every inch of the bog from under my fingernails and between my toes, I found Elizabeth, Montgomery, and Lucy in the second floor library, seated around the fireplace, chatting in low voices. There was no sign of Valentina—I imagined she was in her room, trying to get over the sting of losing the inheritance. Hensley sat by Elizabeth’s feet. I was surprised he was still awake since it had to be past midnight, but he hadn’t seen his mother in months and must miss her terribly. It made me even more curious about his brain defect, and if it had to do with his miscolored eye. Elizabeth stroked his hair absently. In turn, he stroked the fur of his pet rat.

      My robe rustled as I entered, and Elizabeth gave her crooked smile. “Feeling better?”

      “Yes—well, I think so.” I glanced toward Hensley, not sure such young ears should overhear talk of near death and police chases and murder, but he played with his rat silently, ignoring us. “I’m much more worried about what’s on that paper you’re trying to keep hidden in your coat.”

      Lucy and Montgomery sat straighter. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow and took out the paper. “You’re nothing if not observant, Juliet. I suppose you’d have found out sooner or later.” The paper was crumpled and worn, too thick for a letter and the wrong shape. As she unfolded it with her elegant hands, my heart shot to my throat. I knew that lettering across the top.

      “A special memorandum poster,” she said regretfully. “The kind advertising rewards for escaped criminals and fugitives. In this case, I am dearly sorry to say, it’s for you. The police haven’t given up the search.”

      She handed me the paper, which I scanned in one glance. Lucy jumped up to read over my shoulder. My own face looked back at me, an inky portrait done by a police artist who had never seen me. They’d captured my eyes but the jaw was too wide, the brow too heavy, making me look like a degenerate.

      I started to feel light-headed. Montgomery took the poster from me. “One thousand pound reward,” he read, “for information leading to the capture of Juliet Moreau of London, wanted for murder. Age: Seventeen. Last known residence: Dumbarton Oaks …”

      The rest of his words faded as my head started throbbing. Lucy put her hands on my shoulders, shaking me back into reason, but it was all I could do to keep breathing.

      “This is impossible,” Montgomery said, his voice on edge. “They’ve no way to prove Juliet was responsible for those deaths.”

       Even though I was.

      Lucy had gone white. “It was my father, wasn’t it? He told the police.”

      “No, it wasn’t him.” I answered in a rush, relieved at least to put her worries to rest. I took out the article and handed it to her. “I found this newspaper article in Quick. He denounces his role in the King’s Club and talks about how sad he is you disappeared. He doesn’t blame us for what happened, at least not publicly.”

      Lucy clutched at the newspaper. “He’s worried about me?” She sank into the chair, poring over every word of the article.

      Elizabeth sighed. “Inspector Newcastle was the one who told the police, I’m afraid. He was taken to the hospital with fatal burns. He died within hours, but not before he recounted what had happened. You killed some very important men, Juliet. Someone associated with them is scouring the country for you, but it doesn’t matter. They won’t find you as long as you stay hidden here. The police don’t know the location of this manor, and don’t even know it’s in my family. It’s under the name of a distant cousin in Germany. It would take them years to go through the paperwork, and they wouldn’t even know to look for it.”

      Elizabeth reached for a bottle of gin on the side table, pouring each of us a glass, but Lucy waved it away, and so did Montgomery. He stood, tucking the poster into his pocket. “I’m going to show this to Balthazar, but I’d prefer to keep it hidden from the rest of the staff. It’s best they don’t know our pasts.”

      He strode out of the room.

      Elizabeth drank the gin he’d left behind, and then Lucy’s, too. “I know it’s a terrible shock,” she said, “but I assure you that you’re quite safe here. It seems our more pressing concern is Mr. Prince’s health. McKenna told me he’s still alive, in and out of consciousness, which is a miracle itself. With the amount of arsenic he took, a normal man would be dead in days.”

      “Yes, about Edward.” I exchanged a glance with Lucy and then dropped my voice. “There’s something rather pressing we must discuss. He had a moment of lucidity a few nights ago. He told Lucy and me that the Beast was caused by a disease in the brain and was curable if we could drain or transplant the diseased organ.” I knit my fingers as I explained the rest of what Edward had said and why we’d kept the information to ourselves.

      “We thought with your advanced medical knowledge,” Lucy added, “there might be something you can do.” The light from the fire illuminated her desperation.

      “I see.” Elizabeth was quiet, thinking, as the fire crackled and popped. Hensley crawled along the floor by Elizabeth’s feet, laying out bits of dried cheese for his rat. The rat tried to scurry away and Hensley grabbed it hard, hugging it to his chest, stroking it fiercely.

      “Don’t run away,” he whispered. “It isn’t safe.”

      Elizabeth murmured something in his ear about giving his pet some bread to calm it down, and Hensley relented and handed her the rat. She quickly slipped it into her pocket, which she buttoned closed, but I couldn’t help but notice the rat wasn’t moving. I dared not ask her about it now, though, with so much hanging in the balance for Edward.

      Elizabeth let out a deep sigh.

      “I can tell how hopeful you both are about this new development, but I’m afraid I shall have to be the bearer of bad news. Organ transplantations are possible, in some cases. I transplanted a liver, and I’ve heard of it done with lungs and kidneys, even a heart once—they kept the blood flowing during the procedure with artificial pumps. However, the brain is central to life. If the spinal column or cranial complex is severed or even badly damaged, death is immediate. There would be no way to perform a brain transplant on a living person. It’s a paradoxical situation, you see. The procedure might cure him, but he would have to be dead for us to perform it.”

      The fire crackled more, as the hope slowly drained out of Lucy’s face. Her bottom lip started to tremble.

      “I can make his days as pleasant and comfortable as possible,” Elizabeth said softly. “That’s all, I’m afraid. If he is to defeat the Beast, he will have to do it on his own.”

      “But he isn’t strong enough on his own!” Lucy cried. She pushed off from the sofa, tears streaking down her face, and ran out of the room. I stood to go after her