005 – Housewarming Part III
Valentin and Cassius debate whether to notify the guard that Adelais has been kidnapped, and find a new clue to her disappearance.
“Should we send for the guard?”
Frowning, Valentin said, “I don’t know.” He was watching Daron, who stood in a small group, chatting. He didn’t look like someone who had just engineered the kidnapping of the heir to the Empire. “Where’s Halermo gone?”
Cassius looked around. The white-haired aura had been standing quite near them. “I can’t see him.”
“Damn,” said Valentin.
“See if you can find him. I’ll watch Lord Daron. If Adelais has been taken, we need to get the guard on her trail as soon as possible. On the other hand, if this is just a prank, then calling the guard will look pretty dreadful. People already mutter that the Empress can’t control her family.”
As Cassius jogged off in the direction he thought Lord Halermo might have gone, Valentin waded into the crowd to stand next to Daron.
Cassius burst out into the garden and looked around. A shadowy figure was standing near one wall. The torchlight picked out a thatch of white hair. Cassius sidled closer, just in time to hear the splatter and splash as Lord Halermo pissed on Lady Isadora’s magnolia.
He watched Halermo as he rearranged his clothes and returned to the party, then went to find Valentin, still standing with Lord Daron. To Valentin’s raised eyebrows, he returned a head shake and jerked his chin to where Halermo now stood with a fresh glass of wine.
Cassius stood and occasionally pretended to pay attention to the conversation, watching Lord Daron for any reaction that seemed suspicious. He seemed to be paying even less attention to the conversation than Cassius was. Eventually, Valentin pulled him away.
“What do you think?” said Cassius.
“I don’t know.” Valentin crossed his arms. “Perhaps we should notify the guard.”
“It does seem like there is somewhere else Daron would prefer to be. He has been glancing at the door more and more frequently.”
Valentin looked at Cassius closely. “You think this may be a Caelus plot?”
Cassius shrugged. Marcellus was standing near his wife, looking bored. He caught Cassius’ eye and raised his eyebrows. Cassius shook his head. Marcellus’ eyebrows drew down over his eyes, and he put his hand on Lady Caia’s shoulder before making his way over to them.
“You haven’t found her,” he said. Did he sound pleased?
“We have a good idea where she is now,” said Valentin. He looked past Marcellus.
“Oh,” said Marcellus, “where?”
“Excuse us.” Grabbing Cassius’ arm, Valentin tugged him away, through the atrium, into the garden.
“What—”
“Daron just left,” said Valentin. “It looked like he didn’t want to be noticed. Do you think we can get out this way?”
“If you’re willing to climb the wall,” said Cassius.
Valentin curled up his nose. “I suppose, if I must.”
They caught up with Lord Daron walking quickly along the side of the road to Falona. He was behaving suspiciously, keeping to the shadows along the verge and checking behind him every second step.
When he reached Falona, he went up the main street a way then turned down a side street, which contained more modest houses. About halfway down, he stepped through a wooden gate, closing it carefully behind him. Valentin tiptoed up to the gate and peered through the keyhole, then he turned to Cassius and shrugged.
“A house like every other on this street. There’s nobody in the garden,” he said. “I say we go in.” He pushed the gate open and slipped inside, ducking into the shadow of a tree by the wall as Cassius followed and shut the gate behind him.
“Who do you think lives here?” said Cassius.
Valentin considered the sandstone house, surrounded by neat but unostentatious gardens. “I don’t know. An argenta branch of gens Caela, perhaps. It doesn’t seem the sort of place an aurum would live. Let’s try and find a back entrance.” He stepped out from behind the tree, but dived back into its shadow when they heard the gate rattle. Cassius pressed himself against the wall and shuffled across to crouch behind a shrub. A woman entered and shut the gate behind her before making her way to the house. Cassius directed a questioning look at Valentin, who shook his head.
When she was gone, Cassius stood and shook out his legs. They snuck around the side of the house. All the windows were dark and Cassius couldn’t see anything inside. “I think they’ve blacked the windows,” he said.
Valentin stood beside him, hands on the sill. “Yes, I think you’re right. Come on.”
They found the cellar door unlocked, and slipped inside. There was a great deal of noise coming through the wooden floorboards of the room above; they were probably underneath the kitchen.
“Where would they have her?” whispered Valentin.
Cassius shrugged. “She could be anywhere.” He led the way up the rough, uneven steps, and listened for a while at the door before carefully levering it open.
The door opened on a white marble hallway. In one direction, he could hear pots and pans clanking and someone swearing, while in the other there was the low murmur of several voices. Choosing the latter direction, he tiptoed down the hallway with Valentin in tow.
They passed a staircase leading up to the second floor, and Cassius considered taking it, but decided they should search the ground floor first.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps coming towards them. Blessed few. There was nowhere to hide. Heart pounding, he pushed Valentin into the shadow between two sconces, and leaned up against the wall, his back facing the direction of the footsteps. Valentin was very still, peering of Cassius’ shoulder.
The footsteps kept coming, until they were level, then passed. It was a man and a women, the woman pressed tight against the man’s side. She looked back without much curiosity, and they vanished up the staircase.
Cassius took a few deep breaths. “That was lucky,” he said.
“Mm,” said Valentin, a thoughtful frown creasing his forehead. “Come on, I think I know who owns this place.”
He strode down the hallway until they reached the atrium at the front of the house, and stopped. Cassius stopped behind him, leaning over his shoulder. The atrium was almost as crowded as Lady Isadora’s mansion, but this was a very different crowd. They lounged on couches and cushions, while young men and women, draped in teasing gauzes, slipped between them with trays of food and drink. The air was thick with poppy sap. In the middle of the room, on a small platform, a couple of men and women were engaged in extremely languid play, fondling each other and showing off the flexibility of their lithe young bodies.
Cassius suddenly found it extremely difficult to breathe.
Every now and then, one of the spectators, who were both men and women, would gesture one of the servers or performers over, and a short negotiation would occur before they left the room, arm in arm, through one of the three exits which presumably led to the bedrooms.
Anyone who left the room with a whore was stopped by the registrar, who collected their fee.
Valentin was searching the room. He pointed. “There.” Following his gaze, Cassius found Lord Daron, reclining on a couch. He was watching one of the female performers very closely, and she was clearly aware of his attention. “Damn.” He turned to Cassius. “This is a dead end. We need to alert the guard.”
Wordlessly, Cassius pointed at the divan behind Lord Daron, where two teenage girls were sitting very straight and giggling behind their hands as their avid eyes took in every detail of the scene around them.
“Oh blessed damned few,” snarled Valentin. “I am going to murder that girl.”
“Which one, Adelais, or Lady—er—Petronia?”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
Valentin stomped over and stood in front of the divan, his hands on his hips.
Looking up at him, Adelais giggled, while Petronia looked daunted.
“Far be it from me to play the disapproving uncle, princess, but I think it’s time you went home.”
“Oh pooh,” said Adelais. “Get out of the way.”
“No, I think not,” said Valentin. “Come along.” He put his hands under Adelais’ arms and lifted her bodily, before pushing her into Cassius’ arms.
Adelais peered around her uncle to waggle her fingers at Petronia. “Get your mother to bring you to court, all right?”
Valentin cleared his throat, and they frogmarched Adelais out of the brothel and all the way back to Isadora’s mansion. Adelais pouted the entire way, complaining at intervals that they were no fun and that she had just been curious, anyway.
“How in the world did you end up there?” said Cassius.
“Petra wanted to see it,” said Adelais. “It’s the only brothel in Falona, and her brothers went there last week and refused to take her.”
“Oh, ‘Petra’ is it now?” said Valentin sourly. “I’m not surprised her brothers refused to take her.”
They returned to the party with Adelais still pressed between them.
“There you are,” said Lady Isadora, waving them over. “I was beginning to wonder where you’d got to.”
“We’ve been admiring your gardens,” said Valentin with a grand wave of his hand. “But now, I’m afraid we need to get Princess Adelais home.”
“Aw,” said Adelais.
“I understand,” said Lady Isadora. “Please remember me to the Empress.”
“Of course,” said Valentin, and Isadora wafted off.
As Valentin went to dump Adelais in the carriage, Marcellus stepped up and tapped Cassius on the shoulder. “I see you found her,” he said. “Thank goodness. Where was she?”
Ashamed of himself for believing his friend could be involved in a treasonous plot, Cassius laughed a little too loudly and said, “Oh Marc. Visit me sometime in at the palace and I will tell you.”
Marcellus gave him a close look. “Who is Llewellyn?” he said eventually. “Lord Valentin said, what would Llewellyn think?”
“Llewellyn? He’s, uh—” Cassius fumbled for a description.
Putting up his hand, Marcellus said, “Never mind. I should get back to my wife. But…” he chewed on one corner of his lip. “I might take you up on that offer for a visit if I’m ever in Monsilys.”
“Please do.” Cassius clasped Marcellus’ forearm, and then strode out of the mansion.
Valentin was just shutting the carriage door and turning to take the reins of his horse. As she peered out the door at him, Adelais said, “Well, Uncle Valentin, you did find me in a crowded, well-lit place, you know,” and smiled cheekily.
Valentin mumbled something very dark. Cassius looked up at the sky and kicked his horse to get it moving. “I hate parties,” he said with a long-suffering sigh.