After dinner, he followed me to the French Sentinels’ Hall of Honor. “What are we up to?” Arik asked as we waited in the hall for Bastien.
I walked over to Jacalyn Roux’s statue. “Do you know this woman?”
Arik studied the statue.
I grew impatient. “Well, do you?”
“I don’t believe so, why?”
“She died the year I was born, and before that, she was missing for a year.” I paused to catch my breath.
Arik crossed his arms. “Why does it matter?”
“I had a vision of her. She read a letter from my mother telling Jacalyn her baby was doing well. Jacalyn’s baby. The baby was with my mom. With me.”
“I still am unclear of the importance,” Arik said.
“Really?” Frustration boiled inside me. “Why would someone want to hide a baby? And with my mother who was in hiding herself? What happened to this baby? Who’s the father? Bastien said she never had one, so why does my mother mention she had? And even more important, why am I having visions from people I don’t even know?”
“All right. It does sound suspicious,” Arik said. “But I’m not certain we’ll find any answers to your questions.”
Bastien came up behind us. “What questions?”
“The mysterious baby questions,” Arik answered.
“So, you told him.” I detected annoyance in Bastien’s tone. “Sorry I kept you waiting. I had to get the key to Jacalyn’s room. The room was thoroughly searched when she died, so I doubt there will be any answers there, but I’ll take you anyway.”
Bastien brought us to a room deep within the castle. A gust of dusty air punched our faces when he pushed the door open. Arik and I moved into the middle of the room as Bastien switched on the blush-colored porcelain lamps draped in cobwebs.
The warm light illuminated the dust floating in the air. The room was a young woman’s forgotten sanctuary. There was lots of white painted furniture, a light-pink comforter, pink drapes, and white-lace pillows, all seemingly antiqued under layers of dust.
Arik tugged open drawers of the nightstand. I crossed over to the vanity and picked up a hairbrush. Strands of dark brown hair were caught in the bristles. I placed the brush back, making sure to put it in the same exact spot. It wasn’t hard to do, since there was a clean silhouette of the brush in the dust. I eased the top drawer on the left open and sorted through the miscellaneous items thrown haphazardly into the drawer. The middle drawer held hair ties, makeup brushes, emery boards and the like. I sighed. “Find anything?” I asked the others.
Bastien riffled through the bottom drawer of the bureau by the window. “Nothing here.”
“Nor here,” Arik added as he peeked under the bed. “It might help if we knew what you hoped to find.”
“I don’t even know–a diary or something?”
Bastien pressed his face against the floorboards as he peered under the bureau. “How about letters?”
“You found letters?” I dropped down beside Bastien. He smelled good, like expensive cologne. His arm brushed mine, causing my skin to go goosepimply. I jerked away from him. What the hell was that?
Shaking it off, I strained my neck to see under the bureau. Behind it, a wooden panel in the wall had slipped out of place. Several letters stood in a line within the gap. Bastien and I got up from the floor and pulled the bureau from the wall. I removed the panel and tugged each letter out of the opening, dropping them on the floor.
After plopping on to the area rug, I pulled my legs into a pretzel, picked up the nearest letter, and opened it. Bastien and Arik sat down on either side of me.
“Oh. My. God. This is a love letter from—” I read the sender on the envelope.
“Who’s the letter from?” Arik asked, impatiently.
“It’s from Professor Attwood.”
Bastien picked up a letter and read it. “This one is from Marietta to Jacalyn. She mentions her excitement over Jacalyn’s news and says she and Carrig are hiding out in Ireland. Marietta is twelve weeks along.”
“Does it mention what news?” I asked.
“No, but Marietta finishes the letter—I can’t believe this.” Bastien looked at me. “Friends in motherhood.”
“See,” I said. “I told you so.”
Arik stretched his legs out in front of him. “So they both were pregnant at the same time.”
“Listen to this,” Bastien said. “I cannot imagine how it must feel to give birth alone. I feel it is your beloved’s right