AllFreeNovel
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Halting in front of a door, the director knocks.
I hear a rusty female voice. “Yes, come in!”
I follow the director and Louis into a tidy room. It’s smaller than my trailer and it lacks a kitchenette. But it has a medical bed and some cool equipment attached to the ceiling over it.
Linda smiles at us from her wheelchair. The bottom half of her face is covered by a transparent mask connected to an oxygen tank.
She yanks it down. “Please, have a seat. It’s an honor to receive our future duke and duchess!”
I’m sorry she’s physically diminished but relieved that she shows no signs of dementia.
After some small talk and watching her fawn over Louis, I cut to the chase. “I’m Jeannette Mussey’s sister.”
“I gathered that much.”
“She told me about you,” I say. “You were friends.”
Refreshingly, Linda doesn’t deny it. “I took her under my wing when she arrived. She was utterly unprepared for being a maid in the royal palace.”
“She’d worked at one of Pombrio’s best hotels before,” I rush to Jeannette’s defense. “The palace would’ve never hired her otherwise.”
“She hadn’t worked there very long,” Linda points out, well informed. “Besides, being a maid in a good hotel is nothing compared to the demands of the palace.”
“I believe Jeannette was framed,” I announce without a transition.
“She was your sister. It’s understandable you’d think that.”
I search Linda’s wrinkled face. “You were her friend. Don’t you believe she was innocent?”
She inhales some air from her mask. “Frankly, I don’t know what to believe.”
“The evidence—”
“Don’t bother, I know all about the evidence,” she cuts in. “It’s largely circumstantial.”
“See!”
“But still…” She takes a few more breaths through her mask. “Jeannette had changed over her three years in the palace.”
“Changed how?”
“All that wealth, the opulence… She’d decided she wanted it for herself.”
I frown. “This is the first time I’m hearing that.”
“Her plan was to seduce an older courtier or nobleman and become his kept mistress.”
I stare at her, incredulous. “Jeannette had no such plans. She would’ve told me if she did.”
“Perhaps she felt you wouldn’t understand.”
“And yet she told you…”
Linda gives me a feeble smile. “She didn’t. But I’m no idiot. I saw her using her charms to seduce a married count. When that failed, she set her cap at another gentleman, lower ranking but wealthier.”
Louis tilts his head to one side. “Madame Driessen, are you saying Jeannette had become unduly acquisitive?”
“If that’s what you want to call it.”
