The Blood Spell (Ravenspire, #4)(46)
“How dare you come to this house of grief with your mundane complaints.” Dinah spoke quietly, her words coated with ice.
The man’s laugh sent a chill over Blue’s skin. “I’d hardly call the list of debts in your name a mundane complaint, Lady Chauveau.”
“Not my debts.” The ice in her voice hardened. “My late husband’s. And there are a number of legal questions regarding signatures—”
“There are no legal questions. I’ve had everything verified by your husband’s solicitor. In three days, the royal magistrate will review the estate and verify that every single piece of property you own was signed over to me as collateral against his debt.”
Dinah’s voice trembled. “I happen to be coming into a large sum shortly. I just need a few more weeks.”
“And I need a palatial estate in the gorgeous kingdom of Súndraille, but it looks like we’re both out of luck.” Papers rustled, and the man’s boots edged closer to Dinah’s. “Once the magistrate reviews the estate and authorizes me to seize all of your property, there will still be the matter of the additional debt your late husband accrued. If you do not have the coin to pay it at that time, as per my contract with your late husband, I will then exercise my right to claim one of your daughters in marriage.”
Blue shot a look at Halette, who was trembling beside her. The girl’s eyes were full of tears, and she’d chewed her lower lip until it began to bleed. Blue quietly shifted her basket and wrapped an arm around Halette’s shoulders.
No wonder Dinah had moved here with her daughters. No wonder she’d been so angry to learn that the shop only made enough coin to support itself and the farmhouse. Her mansion and extensive businesses had been signed over to this odious man. Blue didn’t know what that meant for the running of the Chauveau quarter, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was that a man who sounded nearly old enough to be Halette’s father might have the legal right to force her into marriage unless Dinah found a way to pay off the debt.
Blue knew a way to pay off the debt. She just hadn’t quite accomplished it yet. For the first time since Papa’s death, Blue began thinking about ways to perfect her attempts to turn lead into gold. As Halette leaned against her and Dinah sent the man on his way, Blue resolved to try the experiment once more. Maybe it would lead to nothing.
Or maybe it would save Halette and Jacinthe, restore Dinah’s property, and finally rid Blue of living with the Chauveaus.
NINETEEN
“I’M GOING TO try to help you.”
Blue stood across from Dinah in the farmhouse kitchen, the faint clamor of the wraith’s bells drifting in through the window and sending a chill across her skin. The bells had been ringing for hours, now. Far longer than they usually did. Maybe the recent spells used in the city had somehow set it off, though Blue had no idea how it could sense magic from that far away. Or maybe the wraith was just restless for reasons that made no sense to anyone but it.
Either way, Blue wanted it to stop. She was already exhausted and on edge. She was behind in refilling the shop’s stock because she had to divide her time between the floor and the storeroom. She was behind on filling orders for deliveries too, and Ana still hadn’t returned. And Blue had spent the better part of the previous night jumping between memories of Halette’s tears, the hardness of the man’s voice as he’d said Dinah had three days left, the strangeness of the dancing fern leaf that had bonded with the walla berry juice without the usual alchemy, and the warm, fizzy feeling that danced through her stomach when she thought of Kellan.
Which was ridiculous. He was Kellan. Not only would he probably break his neck doing something reckless before she ever saw him again, but he was about to choose a bride from one of the head families.
Not that she wanted to be Kellan’s bride.
In fact, stars save the girl who did.
When Blue realized she couldn’t actually dredge up any charitable feelings toward whichever girl Kellan eventually chose for his betrothal, she ordered herself to stop thinking about him entirely and focus on Dinah, who stood across from her with pinched lips and fingers that worried with the lace edges of her dress sleeves.
“Help me how?” Dinah asked, scorn filling her voice.
Blue drew in a deep breath as her heart thudded against her chest.
The shop had been robbed for this. Papa had died because Blue hadn’t told him about the almost-gold experiment being taken. The thought of going back to work on it made her chest ache, but the thought of Halette or Jacinthe being taken by the man in the black boots was worse.
“I . . . overheard the man who came to the house last night.”
Dinah’s gaze sharpened. “I should have known you’d eavesdrop.”
A tiny thread of anger slid through Blue, and she straightened her shoulders. “You should’ve kept your voices down if you didn’t want me to overhear. Are you going to listen to my plan?”
“Plan for what? Finally going to show me where your father kept his extra coin?” Dinah snorted in derision, but her eyes locked on Blue with an unsettling fervor.
“There is no extra coin.” Honestly, could the woman be any more difficult to talk to? “But I don’t want Halette or Jacinthe to be forced into marriage with that awful man, and there may be a way I can help. I can’t promise it will work, but I can try.”