Royal Blood - By Rhys Bowen Page 0,95
the glass. His face was grave. “So it was intended for Nicholas. Have you mentioned this to anyone else?”
“To Nicholas himself. I thought he had a right to know and to be extra vigilant. I don’t know if he’s told anyone else. He might have told Matty for all I know.”
“That would have been a mistake. It may be all around the castle by now.”
“At least the poisoner is warned that we know the truth. He’ll hardly dare try it twice.”
“But he may try something else instead. It’s all too easy to dispose of a person in a place like this.”
“I know,” I said. “My maid has disappeared too. I’m so worried about her. I can’t think where she’s gone.”
“And you said the secret police attempted to plant evidence on you?”
“What appeared to be the vial of cyanide showed up in my trunk.”
“That idiot Patrascue, I suppose.” Darcy scowled again.
“You know about him?”
“Oh, yes. We’ve met before.”
“He was so angry that you’d managed to escape with the body. He was rather horrible, Darcy. He threatened me with prison.”
“What on earth would have made him suspect you? I know he’s not very bright, but—”
“I think he was just trying to frighten me into implicating Dragomir,” I said.
“That makes sense. It sounds like his modus operandi.”
“But I didn’t allow him to intimidate me. I think he was rather miffed.”
Darcy was staring into the firelight. “I wonder if he has anything to do with the disappearance of your maid, then. He’s taken her as a bargaining chip, maybe?”
“How horrible. I shall be furious if he’s done that. She’s a simple girl, Darcy. She’ll be scared out of her wits.”
Darcy’s arm tightened around my waist. “Don’t worry, I’m back now. We’ll sort everything out tomorrow.”
I nestled my head back against his chest and closed my eyes. “I hope so,” I said. “I just wish someone would find the murderer and make everything right again.”
“So you’re no nearer to finding out the truth?” Darcy asked.
“If the poison was intended for Nicholas, then I suppose it’s possible that we’re dealing with a trained assassin, or even an anarchist who climbed in, using that rope you found, planted the poison and climbed down again. The only thing against that theory is that there don’t appear to be any tracks leading away from the castle.”
“You’re overlooking something else,” Darcy said. “Someone in the castle must have let down the rope for him. That means that he had inside help. More than one person is involved.”
“We know that only Dragomir and the servants were anywhere near the table,” I said, “but there is a mysterious Mr. X we have to factor in. Remember I told you a strange man came into my room and bent over my bed, and I thought he was a vampire?”
Darcy nodded. “And I told you it was a case of the wrong room.”
“Well, I’ve looked all over the castle and I haven’t seen him anywhere again. Except that his portrait, or the portrait of someone very like him, was hanging on the wall when I first arrived and then someone changed it for the one you see now. Why would anyone do that?”
Darcy shook his head. “It doesn’t make sense to me.”
“If he wasn’t a vampire, if he was a real person, then it is someone who knows the castle well. Perhaps the portrait was of one of his ancestors and he realized that it resembled him closely so he sneaked in and removed it.” I sat up, suddenly realizing something. “Dragomir,” I said. “He told me his family used to own this castle, and there is a portrait downstairs that looks just like him. What if this is another family member? Apparently they were driven from their castle by the Turks after a failed uprising. They expected their neighbors to help them, but nobody did. So what if this is a revenge killing?”
“Hardly,” Darcy said. “That family was driven from the castle more than two hundred years ago. I know that vengeance is a strong force in this part of the world, but the current royal families of both Romania and Bulgaria only came to their thrones in the eighteen hundreds. They really have no ties to the Balkans. They were set in place by the European powers, and, as you know, Nicholas is from the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha line, like yourself. A Transylvanian dynasty could have no feud with them.”
“Count Dragomir is bitter that he is now a glorified servant in a castle his