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“What happened to them?”
She got a hunted look on her face, “I-I don’t know. They had dinner here one evening a couple of weeks ago and told me they’d come back to talk to me the next morning, but Dargan said they suddenly decided to go back home, and I haven’t seen them since.”
“They never made it home. My Alpha, Wyatt, came to look for them.”
She shook her head. “I never saw this Wyatt, or the other two again after that evening at dinner. I’m sorry, but I have no idea what happened to them.”
“Do you want to leave this place?”
Her face crumpled for a moment, and she shook her head like she felt hopeless. “He’ll never let me go. He despises me, but he would never hear of me leaving. He’d kill me first.”
“Was it the baron who put those marks on you?”
She shrugged.
“Ma’am, please tell me if he’s been hurting you. I only want to help.”
She glanced up in surprise and then nodded as fat tears seeped out of her eyes and ran down her cheeks. “He calls it ‘correcting’ me. He does it when he thinks I’m disobedient or willful. He says he has to teach me to be a good wife to him.” She dropped the half-eaten sandwich back down on her lap. “I brought a maid with me when I came here. She helped me dress for dinner and did up my hair. She told me once that the other servants told her there was a wife here before me—a young woman from Crillia. But she left suddenly one day and never returned.”
“Where is this maid? Can you arrange for me to talk to her?”
The princess shook her head. “No. I never saw her again after she told me that. She left suddenly too.”
If the baron had somehow discovered she’d been carrying tales to his new wife, then I had no doubt she’d made a “sudden” departure.
“Is there someplace in this house that the baron might have imprisoned the Alphas who came here?”
She frowned and looked puzzled. “Imprisoned them?”
“Yes,” I answered impatiently. “They would never have simply left you here without even speaking to you again, and I think the baron might be too afraid to have murdered them, even if he could. At least not right away. There may still be a chance to save them. They’re nobility, too, and too closely related to kings for the baron to kill them outright.”
“I-I don’t know. He has a big keyring with keys to every door in this castle, but he keeps it on his belt at all times and guards it jealously. That’s all I know.”
“And you don’t know of any secret places he could be hiding them?”
“He has a secret room in the attic that he goes to from time to time.”
“What about the cellars? Do you know if he goes there too?”
“I don’t know about the cellars. Only the attic.”
“I saw the maids with a key a few nights ago. They used it to go through a door in the scullery that I think must lead to the cellars. I need to get in that door. Do you know where that key is now? Or any keys?”
She shook her head and looked annoyed. “He has a key ring he guards jealously, but it’s always at his side. He may have given a key from it to the maids for something he wanted them to do and then taken it right back again. Like I said, he hardly lets those keys out of his sight.”
Frustrated, I blew out a long breath and turned away. This poor lady knew nothing that would help me find the Alphas, so I should leave and get back to my room before the baron made an appearance. I shuddered to think what he’d do if he found me on this floor again after telling me not to leave my room at night. I turned around to head for the door, but Lady Camilla jumped to her feet and grabbed my arm.
“Wait. If you need to get in that door so badly, then why not just pick the lock?”
“What?’
“Pick the lock. All these locks are like the ones in the old home in Sudfarma. A hairpin is what I used as a girl. when my parents used to hide my Christmas gifts from me.” She reached up to her hair and pulled a long pin from it. “Here. Use this. It’s easy to do. It always worked for me.”
I looked down at it and then back up at her. Could it possibly be that easy or would it even work? I found it hard to believe. She gave me a little smile, and I wondered if this could possibly work.
“Thank you, Lady Camilla. If this helps me find them, then maybe we can all go back home.”
She clutched my arm and looked at me, the smile wiped off her face and her eyes haunted and filled with dread. “You have to hurry. We need to leave this place before that monster kills us all.”
