He paused. “Yes.”
“You thought your involvement wasn’t an important detail?”
“Ithoughtyou would go get the damn box instead of sitting around asking questions about it all day. They can hardly hang me, since I’m already dead. If you’re so concerned about crimes against the Sovereign, here’s your chance to make a difference to the living.”
“Fine. Lead the way.” Susan wrenched open the door and stalked into the corridor behind the ghost. At least the jewelry box was in a common area. If she got caught inside the dining room, she could say she was looking for biscuits and tea. If the giant didn’t kill her on sight.
She glared through the back of the ghost’s semitransparent head as they made their way down the darkened hallways. He hadn’t been honest with her. But then, would she have helped him if he’d introduced himself as a smuggler? She had to admit, he was nothing if not eager to correct his wrongs. Which meant not all pirates were irredeemable. This one, at least, had turned rogue and gonegood.If only his brother had made a similar transformation.
“Evan would like to speak with you,” she blurted.
Dead Mr. Bothwick halted, then rematerialized facing her direction. “Regarding?”
“I know you said not to let him know we’d been speaking, but he deduced the truth on his own,” she said quickly, then hesitated. “He said he wished you had come to him... before. And that he wished you could come to him now.”
“If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride.” He gave a casual shrug, but something in the ghost’s eyes hinted he was not as indifferent as he strove to appear.
“We could, you know,” she said slowly. “All three of us. It would be awkward, but possible. If you wanted to try.”
Well, presuming she got both men together in the same room fairly soon. Once she helped the ghost complete his mission, he’d disappear forever, and the chance would be lost.
Dead Mr. Bothwick turned and continued through the maze of corridors without responding.
At least he hadn’t said no.
She hurried to catch up. “How did your proof get into the strongbox if you’re not the one who put it there?”
Dead Mr. Bothwick closed his semitransparent eyelids. “I was getting ready to secretly set sail. I knew if I were caught, I would be killed, and every inch of my property searched. I needed to entrust the evidence to someone who knew what was going on, yet could be depended upon not to breathe a word.”
She cast him a doubtful glance. “It could just be me, but a fellow pirate doesn’t seem—”
“NotOllie.His wife.”
Susan stumbled. Lady Emeline had been helping?
“I knew about the jewelry box,” the ghost continued as he floated from one corridor to the next. “Everyone who’d ever been in the dining room had seen it on the mantle, open and empty. But since there was no key, it served no higher purpose than decoration. To me, it was my contingency plan. If I didn’t return by midnight, she was to shut the papers inside and hide the box until someone trustworthy came looking for answers.”
“And she did,” Susan marveled. “Cousin Emeline escaped the cellar, and—”
“No. To my shame, her assistance is why she’s now trappedinthe cellar. She was the only one who could’ve taken the box and the cellar is her punishment for having done so. Ollie was furious.”
“He knows what’s inside?”
“He has a fair idea. Compounded by the fact that Lady Emeline isn’t stupid. She would never have crossed him without strong motivation.”
Such as seeing her evil husband drawn and quartered. Susan couldn’t blame her. She, too, would have done whatever it took to protect the proof from the pirates. Lady Emeline, like her mother, was willing to risk both life and freedom. Susan could not remain passive.
“Let’s get that box.” Squaring her shoulders, she marched past the ghost.
“Wait,” he murmured, hovering so close to an unassuming door that one of his arms was no longer visible. “I hear Ollie talking.”
“Good. That means he’s not in the dining room.” She waved him to follow. “This is our chance.”
“Shhh. I want to listen.” With that, he disappeared inside.
Spectacular. What was she to do now? Wait for him? Or fetch the box alone?
Sighing, Susan pressed her ear to the wall and decided to give the ghost thirty seconds before she left in search of the dining room.
