discovered the sacrificial love of our Heavenly Father.”
“Scholar Ahn wore it. Do you know whether he was Catholic, mistress?”
“I saw him several times at Catholic gatherings. Sometimes I wondered if he had joined simply to be closer to Lady O, for he seemed disinterested in the teachings and was always stealing glances her way. But one day I noticed him treating Lady O with such coldness, and after that, he stopped attending the gatherings. So I was much surprised when I heard, quite recently, that he was Lady O’s lover. This I did not know.”
My brows furrowed as I tried to piece things together. If Scholar Ahn had used Catholicism to remain close to Lady O, and perhaps to even regain her trust after abandoning her for over a year, then Lady O might have confided in him about the priest—what he looked like, where he was hiding. Then, when Scholar Ahn had learned of her decision to join the Heretical Virgin Troupe, to end their affair, he must have exposed her secret Catholic belief and her ties with Priest Zhou Wenmo. A thought seized my mind. It is the priest. The priest is the killer’s main target.
“Have you ever caught a glimpse of Priest Zhou Wenmo before?” I asked.
Her gaze flinched away from me as she slipped the necklace back into her robe. “I have not. Why do you ask?”
“The priest can roam our kingdom and no one would know, for I hear he looks like a Joseon person, speaks our language, and the police do not know what he looks like. But if the police caught him—say, someone like Inspector Han—the priest would surely be executed for spreading Catholicism, would he not?”
“Priest Zhou Wenmo is a subject of China, and so to kill him would be a terrible violation of our vassal relationship. Once he is caught, the police will deport him.”
A sinking pit opened in my stomach. I had imagined a motive for all the suspects except for Inspector Han. But now I wondered, was Inspector Han searching for the priest in secret because he refused to deport the heretic and wanted to kill him instead? But why?
“This inspector of yours,” Lady Kang said, raising an eyebrow. “I see you are concerned about him.”
My breath quickened. “Neh?”
“It is odd. Why are you so involved in the case of Lady O’s death?”
My lips opened and closed as I tried to figure out how to answer. I rubbed my hands down my skirt. At last, staring at the floor, I whispered, “I fear him, and I fear what he is capable of.”
She slowly nodded her head, giving me a silent look, as though she had decided on something. “You, most of all, should fear what he would be willing to do to you.”
I frowned up at her, and I remembered her warning, about the darkness that would fall upon me. Perhaps she had indeed seen into my future, or perhaps she had seen the sparks of trouble in my character. Overly curious. Cunning. Disobedient.
“How much shall I tell you about Inspector Han Dohyun?” she asked.
“Everything,” I answered quickly. “Everything you know, mistress.”
Silence filled the space. I had to remind myself to keep breathing.
“Inspector Han’s father was executed for being a Catholic.”
I blinked. This was my first time hearing this.
“After the execution, his entire family was banished to an island, guilty by association. They were stripped of their status and left to be slaves. But the late king shortened the banishment from ten years to three, and according to what Inspector Han shared with everyone, when the banishment was lifted, only he returned alive from the island. From which island, I do not know. Later, the inspector’s distant uncle adopted him with much reluctance. Inspector Han’s status as an aristocrat was also reinstated. Of course, this was only possible because the uncle was from his mother’s side.”
“You mean Lord Han, his uncle.”
“Precisely. Your inspector severed his legal relationship with his father and took on Lord Han’s surname.”
“How do you know of all this?” I asked.
“I heard about the execution all the way in T?ksan, my hometown. And when I came to the capital, I asked what had happened to the martyr’s family. That is when I learned about Inspector Han’s history.”
Inspector Han had a Catholic past … This made his connection to the killing even stronger.
Now I knew why Officer Ky?n seemed to think he could prove the inspector’s guilt, and why Commander Yi had not rebuked Ky?n’s suspicion. Inspector