Page 107 of His Wicked Charm

* * *

ALEX’S REACTION WHEN he and Sabrina returned from Carmoor was predictably much the same as Con’s. He clenched his fists, glaring at his brother. “Sabrina is not going to die.”

“Stop glowering, Alex. It’s not Con’s fault,” Sabrina said pacifically. “As Con said, Lilah and I haven’t lived here for almost half our lives. It must take some kind of proximity, don’t you think? If worse comes to worst, we just won’t live at Carmoor.”

“You’re right of course. Sorry.” Alex sighed and took a seat. “Does it strike anyone else as rather convenient that this thing dropped down like manna from heaven? After all the searches, suddenly it’s just there, waiting for you.”

“Yes, it looks suspicious. But Lilah says this is her father’s handwriting.”

“It is. And the wording and style are just like him. I think the letter must be real,” Lilah added.

“But why would your cousin leave something this incriminating lying about his room? That’s what puzzles me.”

“Carelessness has tripped up many a criminal,” Con said. “And the man did leave in a bit of a rush after Lilah turned him down. This might have fallen out of a pocket and gone unnoticed.” Con shrugged. “Granted, it’s surprising, and we’re lucky. But it’s even stranger that he would have left this here deliberately. As you said, it incriminates him.”

“Perhaps it was supposed to,” Lilah suggested.

“You mean, the real thief is trying to throw us off his trail?” Sabrina asked. “Make us suspect Sir Jasper?”

“Yes. It sounds like Dearborn.” Alex set his jaw.

“I wouldn’t think Dearborn would give us the very thing we’re looking for just to implicate Jasper,” Sabrina said.

“But it’s not really what we’re looking for, is it?” Alex pointed out. “This letter has told us things about the Brotherhood and about the thing we’re searching for, but it isn’t the least bit helpful for finding the key. He left it in the house? What help is that?”

“Maybe it’s a code,” Con suggested.

“And maybe my father believed I could read his thoughts,” Lilah said tartly. “It’s the sort of thing he would do. The point is, whether Sir Jasper accidentally left this or Dearborn put it there to implicate him, we still are no closer to our goal. All we learned, really, is this warning Father gave us about the ill effects of the ‘blessing.’”

“Perhaps there’s some sort of clue in that. What did he mean, ‘the excess of their gifts caused the manner of their deaths’? Could that be a hint?”

“Unfortunately, that’s the way my father wrote—everything was formal, philosophical. I think he meant that all the men died from some disease that’s in their realm—my father was the spirit or heart, and he died of a heart attack.”

“And mine had apoplexy,” Sabrina added. “My grandfather died of a brain tumor. They were the head.”

“I don’t know how Niles’s father died.”

“I do,” Sabrina said. “I heard Mrs. Dearborn once say that gambling was the death of him. And Mr. Dearborn said, ‘Just because Father died at the tables doesn’t mean I will.’”

“They were killed by their gifts, basically,” Lilah said. “That’s why I think we must close the Sanctuary, shut it down, not just ignore it.”

“We will. Perhaps if we did the opposite of their ceremony—do the same things except tell it to leave or go back or we return its gifts,” Sabrina offered.

“First, we have to find the key,” Alex said.

“And the other two,” Lilah added.

“We’ll get the other two,” Con said grimly. “One way or another.”

“Right now, all we can do is continue to search for the key,” Alex said.

“At least now we know we’re looking for a small hiding place rather than a secret door or staircase,” Con pointed out.

Lilah groaned. “Unfortunately that only makes the task bigger.”

Con smiled. “I’ve always liked a challenge.”

* * *