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She smiles mischievously, looking at him with adoring eyes, but we are torn away — by a man’s screams as he falls overboard. We all rush to the rail.
Behind us, Zenji explains, “No one has gone over. That was Gawa.”
“What do you mean, Gawa?” Lady Bentwood demands.
“Our family is famous for Yoke thé,” Zenji tells her, “what you call puppets. Gawa’s talent is throwing her voice, so you hear the sound where she wants you to, from a puppet, a tree, or falling over the side of a ship. I taught her, when she was a child.”
“You’ve always been with her?” I ask.
“Yes. I am not just her servant, I am her uncle. We both come from this family, but I was given to service of the King’s harem. Gawa came to visit, and the King saw her. From then, he claimed her, trusting me to oversee her safety.”
“The poison?” Montague asks. “I saw that man thrashing on the floor. It was disgusting.”
“That would be me.” Mr. Goddard steps out of the crowd. “Man of theatre myself. This Zenji fellow promised to pay me good money to come on board and create mayhem. Didn’t know what that meant but rather enjoyed it. Fooled the lot of you.”
“Actually,” I admit, “that was when I started to suspect that something wasn’t quite right with the threats to Lord Bentwood’s life.”
“Never!” Mr. Goddard argued.
“I’m afraid so,” I told him, “there was no physical debris. At the worst, a person would foam at the mouth with cyanide. Your death scene was too clean.”
“And I saw you, belowdecks,” Lady Bentwood claims, “after you died.”
“You did,” he agreed. “Tubs, here, had to keep you away. We were certain you were going to barge in and find me.”
The man with the scratched face stepped forward.
“Didn’t mean you any harm,” Tubs says, “just wanted to scare you above board.”
“What of my Jenny.” This part I hadn’t expected.
Tubs raised his hands in defence. “We were trying to get her on our side of the story, to help create upset, but she was too full of morphine to understand.” He touches his cheek.
“I dare say,” I exclaim. “Very difficult to understand without morphine. It has certainly taken me too long to ascertain that this was all one big hoax.”
“But why?” Lady Bentwood asks. “Why go to this trouble?”
Gawa took Lady Bentwood’s hands.
“Lady Fortescue’s great sorrow was that you and Lord Bentwood would never come together without aid. When she sent us to her brother, to keep us safe, I promised I would help. She said, ‘Put him in danger’, so you could reveal yourself.”
“What about my husband?” the lady in question asks.
“He is why we purchased a ticket for this Montague man. To prove the man is no threat,” Gawa explains.
“I never!” Montague grumbles as everyone else laughs.
“In all my plentiful years,” I admit, heart warmed by the outcome, “I have never before witnessed mischief as the culprit. If only that were always true.”
“Come with us.” Zenji leans toward me. “Travel with us, let life reveal her mysteries, coming from sorrow. Happiness from tragedy.”
Lady Bentwood looks to her husband. “And the revelation of the greatest wealth in all the world.”
“Love,” her husband finishes, “that would be love.” And he kissed her, right there in front of all of us.
Love, the gemstone inside of us all.
The End
