Page 14 of The Unseen Hour

I almost lost my riding privileges that day. I still bore a scar on my leg, and it was to my benefit that no suitors could see it. Scars were frowned upon. My parents had only relented on the riding when they heard how Pellix had protected me, but it was months before I was allowed to venture any farther than the gardens.

What a suitor might think of my legs had been far down my list of concerns at that time, but now the possibility of an engagement crept into my mind. My plan was both a distraction and my best chance to change things.

I pulled the journal, my father’s notes tucked inside, out of my pocket.

“I will follow you, and find you, and bring you home,” I swore, making my way through the garden and to a favorite bench.

Now that we were in Fox Haven, I could check one item off my list.

I’d find a ruse to go to the physician’s and cause a distraction. Then, I’d take the Thipp’s, as well as the ingredients for an antidote. Once the hour was here, I’d find Father and give us both the antidote. I lacked my father’s investigative prowess, but it was the best solution I could come up with. If the Thipp’s had kept him in a state unable to return, perhaps the antidote would remedy that.

I sat outside on the bench, leaning back and spinning a pink flower between my fingers. There was no Thipp’s root here. I propped Holmes’s diary on my knee, holding it open with my other hand.

R. had grown suspicious of those around him, wondering if his sleeplessness, and the cure that was causing him horrid side effects, were intentional. He thought he was being poisoned by someone. On the night of his disappearance, in his last entry, his jumbled writing described his symptoms. He’d grown worried for his life, and not without reason. He’d mentioned going after the culprit. Had he found the individual? Was that why he and his brothers had been out in the middle of the night?

Whether Holmes had made it to his destination or not before being Taken, I wasn’t sure. My father’s theory in his writings, however, was that he’d been just close enough to death to be Taken body and soul.

My father had intended to use the Thipp’s to get Taken, but surely he’d intended to return. That part still troubled me. Had someone trapped him wherever he’d ended up? Was he merely lost? Had he not considered bringing a Thipp’s antidote along with him? Had he miscalculated the dose, or the timing? Herbs and cures were tricky things, and I had no more experience than he had.

Information on exact dosage and measurements would be kept under lock and key at the physician’s apothecary in town. Not that sneaking bothered me, but the physician’s office didn’t have hours where I could trust it to be empty. There were a few physicians in Fox Haven, and at least one of them stayed at the apothecary at all hours, so they could be available to sick individuals around the clock.

My brothers had told me, after going to fetch medicine for one of my mother’s headaches, about the sleeping quarters in the back to ensure someone could always be on the premises.

The key to the antidote might be within our own garden, if I could find it.

To give my mind a break, I turned from my plans to the other portions of R.’s diary. He was beginning to feel like a treasured companion, just as close to me as Charlotte or Thomas.

The way he wrote, up until his last frenzied entries, was lyrical. I pictured R. as a poetic soul but adventurous as well. He’d written in earlier entries of his travels, and I lived vicariously through the descriptions of the rugged and icy terrain of Tang, the lush jungles of Sez’s islands.

In some of my daydreams, I thought of going with him. It was ridiculous, but I couldn’t always stop my mind from picturing a life next to someone both bold and eloquent.

“My Lady, your mother has requested you meet her inside.”

I jumped, looking up from the journal to see Tilly.

Flustered, I hastily tucked the diary between two other books I’d brought out with me.

“Thank you, Tilly. I’ll be up momentarily.”

Tilly was fidgeting, twisting her hands.

“You’ll want to be prepared, Miss.”

She rushed off before I could ask anything further.

“By both gods, what could that have meant?”

I raked my fingers through my brown waves and followed her.

CHAPTER 9

When I entered and saw Mother standing in the great hall with Bellamy, I froze. I told myself the shot of anxiety that went through me was merely instinctual. I’d done so much snooping and sneaking lately that I was bound to feel on edge even when walking through a doorway in broad daylight, wearing a pink dress of which my mother could do nothing but approve.

Bellamy probably had business with my brothers and was stopping in to be polite, nothing more.

Telling myself that did little to stop the steady increase of my heartbeat.

Bellamy shot me a victorious smile that made me want to turn around and bolt to the stables, his perfectly white teeth managing to look predatory instead of handsome. I wanted to sprint for Pellix’s stall, then ride all the way to the capital so I could disappear. There was no way my mother could know about my plans, but I clutched the books closer.