Chapter 1
“…Adam Tessis and Mary Tessis shall find rest at the side of God. Let us bow our heads for a moment in memory of the deceased.”
When the priest officiating the funeral spoke in a low, calm voice, those standing around quietly lowered their heads.
“That’s the woman. The one with red hair.”
Ash McCallen followed the direction of Sergeant Louis Fidelo’s fingertip, who had come to hand over the case.
A thick fog had settled over the temple cemetery where the funeral was being held, but it wasn’t hard to find the young woman he was pointing at among the few mourners.
Her neatly pinned-up red hair beneath a black hat, along with her fair skin and reddish lips not fully hidden by the veil, drew quite a bit of attention.
“As you already know, but to say it again — her name is Rosalyn Tessis. She is the only child, an only daughter, of the deceased Baron and Baroness Tessis, and the sole survivor of the fire at the Brough family townhouse.”
“I heard the fire broke out while she was out for a walk alone.”
“She was lucky. Makes you wonder if there’s such a thing as fate, seeing something like this.”
“Lucky, is it…”
At Ash’s muttering, Louis made an awkward expression and shrugged.
“Well, I suppose calling it ‘lucky’ is a bit much when she lost both her parents.”
But that answer missed the point of what he’d meant.
What Ash meant was whether it wasn’t ‘too’ lucky — whether something like that could really be a coincidence.
“You did question her, I assume?”
“Of course. Though we got nothing much out of it.”
“Any possibility she started the fire herself?”
“There’s no reason for that. The Tessis family came up here specifically for Miss Rosalyn’s marriage prospects — what would she gain from killing her own parents?”
Thanks to her parents’ deaths, she’d come into the barony, but since Rosalyn was an only child anyway, her circumstances hadn’t changed much. If anything, having no parents could become an obstacle to marriage.
If what appeared on the surface was all there was to it, Ash would have agreed with Sergeant Fidelo.
But in the course of investigating cases, there were plenty of times when a completely unexpected reason turned out to be the cause of a crime.
So he had to look carefully, in case he’d missed something. All the more so because a few odd points had turned up during the site investigation.
“I heard Count Will Brough became her guardian.”
“Not legally — that’s just a figure of speech. A distant relative died while staying in his own townhouse. He couldn’t very well turn out the daughter left all alone.”
Will Brough, Rosalyn Tessis’s second cousin once removed, had no reason to set the fire either.
If anything, he’d lost one of his own buildings and ended up saddled with a young relative who had nowhere else to go — making him, along with Rosalyn Tessis, one of the biggest victims of this accident.
Ash flipped back through his notebook, where he’d organized his notes on the fire, and examined it carefully.
Watching him do so, Louis spoke up cautiously.
“To be honest, sir, there’s really nothing suspicious about this case. The building burned down completely, so it’s hard to pin down the cause of the fire, but there’s no one who held a grudge against Baron and Baroness Tessis or stood to gain from their deaths — they’d only come up to the capital twenty days ago.”
In other words, this was simply an unfortunate accident, and there was no need to needlessly complicate things.
“I suppose that’s exactly why such an easy case landed on me.”
At Ash’s reply, Louis bit his lip, blaming himself for his slip of the tongue.
Rumor already had it that the far more high-profile case had gone to Jacob, the superintendent’s nephew who was desperate for a promotion to inspector, while a case of little consequence had been handed to his rival, Ash.
In truth, if not for his background, Ash was a man who wouldn’t have been out of place even as a superintendent, let alone an inspector.
“I’m sorry, sir.”
“What do you have to be sorry for? You’re practically a victim yourself, having to hand off a case you were already working on.”
Ash consoled him with an indifferent expression.
“Anyway, you must be busy with your new duties — thanks for taking the time, Louis.”
“Ah, not at all! If you ever need anything else, please call on me anytime, Inspector McCallen!”
Louis gave a brief salute and quietly left.
But Ash remained standing there, staring at Rosalyn. Almost obsessively.
She seemed to be struggling not to be overcome by the grief weighing on her shoulders. She occasionally pressed a tightly clutched handkerchief to the corners of her eyes and her shoulders trembled now and then, but she was getting through her parents’ funeral with relative composure.
‘A country young lady who just lost both her parents in an instant, being unexpectedly… hm?’
Just as he was about to form a fairly generous assessment of Rosalyn Tessis, a strange scene caught his eye through a gap in the thinning fog.
Count Brough, standing beside her, gently wrapped an arm around her shoulder and patted it — and Rosalyn glanced down at where his hand touched her, then lifted just one corner of her mouth slightly.
‘Did she just smile?’
He furrowed his brow to look more closely, but she buried her face in her handkerchief as if the comforting touch had, instead, stirred her emotions all the more.
‘Did I see wrong?’
He might have misread it. It might have been a failed attempt at a smile for the count trying to comfort her.
Still, he noted her behavior in the notebook in his hand. Sometimes even the smallest clue could become a very important link.
Just then, the priest declared the funeral concluded.
“This concludes the joint funeral of Baron and Baroness Tessis. They shall find peace at the side of God. Before you leave, please offer Miss Tessis your words of comfort.”
Ash took one last look at Rosalyn and turned away.
Wondering, with some suspicion of himself, whether it was too sensitive of him to feel that their eyes had met through the veil.
* * *
Does God exist?
If He exists, is He good?
If He is good, does good always triumph over evil?
I don’t know the answer, but it seems that, just this once, God has taken my side.
Emma Hampton.
The personal maid who had endured two whole years at the side of the foul-tempered Rosalyn Tessis.
That was me.
“Rosalyn. This social season, we’re going up to the capital to find you a husband. Keep that in mind and get ready.”
How my heart raced when I learned that I was included in what Baron Tessis meant by “get ready.” Not knowing that was the beginning of my despair.
On the third day after arriving in the capital, Herona, Rosalyn had her first outing. It was even an itinerary that included me.
“I hear it’s going to be a fairly large party, so pay attention.”
“Of course! You’ll be the prettiest one there today too, Miss.”
I recreated her face as I always did, and Rosalyn, pleased with my work, tossed me a silver coin. Up until then, everything seemed to be going smoothly.
But—
“She actually brought a maid along!”
“Not even a chaperone, but a maid?”
Heather Dartmouth”These days any old dog or cow is desperate to get into Herona society. Standards have really fallen.”
“Her makeup is so tacky, too. Does she actually think that looks pretty?”
Even amid the flood of mockery, Rosalyn couldn’t manage a single retort. Because this wasn’t Tessis. In this glamorous city, she was nothing more than a country bumpkin from a family no one had ever heard of.
The moment she got home, Rosalyn threw a fit. And it was me who had to quietly bear and endure it.
“I was humiliated because of you!”
There was a smack, sparks flashed before my eyes, and my jaw throbbed with pain, but all I could do was beg for forgiveness. And even after that, I had to listen to a long string of curses.
Yet the very next day, she was perfectly fine, as if none of it had happened. Honestly, she seemed to be in an even better mood than before, and that state lasted for several days.
So I thought she had forgotten all about that day’s humiliation.
But let me say it again — Rosalyn Tessis’s temper was no ordinary thing.
“Emma. If you do my makeup wrong again today, I swear I won’t let it slide.”
A week after that dreadful first party, Rosalyn was getting ready for a new one. Somehow, I had a bad feeling about it from the start.
To avoid getting scolded, I did her makeup with even more care than before. Perhaps thanks to the makeup techniques of the capital’s young ladies that I’d studied closely at the last party, Rosalyn looked quite pretty that day. Pretty enough that I was impressed by my own skill.
But makeup wasn’t the important thing here.
“Oh my, I didn’t expect to see you again.”
Because the young lady who had led the ostracizing at the last party approached Rosalyn the moment she saw her, wearing a sneer.
Her name was Heather Dartmouth, I believe? In Rosalyn’s words, she was “an unpleasant, not-even-pretty girl who thinks she’s something.”
And yet Rosalyn, who I expected to bristle, answered with an unexpectedly bright smile instead.
“Hello. We met last time, didn’t we? I’m Rosalyn Tessis.”
Even though there was a hint of defiance in her tone, this was tremendous progress by her standards.
‘Goodness! They say a person only grows when they go to a big city, and this bad little colt is finally growing up!’
While I was busy being impressed, the other side seemed to lose interest in teasing her too, snorting and walking off.
I’d hoped it would end peacefully like that, but perhaps that was too much to ask.
Rosalyn began slowly making her way toward Heather.
‘Something about this feels ominous.’
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