Virtue and Vice

Chapter Eleven - End of Part One

I tried asking him where we were headed but all he told me was downtown.

I assumed we were going to Sebastian's penthouse but we were on the wrong side of the city center.

We pulled over in front of a large, brownstone Victorian mansion in Sidley Yard, Cobalt Bay's oldest neighborhood that had slowly converted into a popular hotel, restaurant and specialty store area after the city's economy boom decades ago. Its location was right in the heart of downtown and its architectural interests made it sought-after by the elite and the artistic crowd. Real estate had risen all around it, boxing it in between two large, old-fashioned office buildings.

"This is Sainthill," I said to Jennison, recognizing the house from my childhood memories. 

It was built by British immigrants who moved to Cobalt Bay. They were thoroughly criticized for the ostentatious grandeur of the residence that included the mansion, the courtyard gardens and the apple orchard behind it. Their only explanation was that they were gentry, minor, but gentry, nonetheless, and they had become ridiculously wealthy after setting up a successful shipping trade in the west coast.

The first few generations had lived like aristocracy for some time before some of their business collapsed due to bad investments. Maintenance on it had been gradually slackening over the years but the government couldn't do anything about it due to strong urging from the residents to retain it as a historical landmark and the fact that it was still privately owned by whoever had bought it off the Sainthill family.

"Go on inside, Cassie," Jennison said as he helped me up the front steps.

The grand entrance was still in excellent shape although the tall trees badly needed trimming. Vines had crept along the front wall of the house but I found that it added to its old-world charm. The wall scones were lit, brightening the front of the house and accentuating the stone benches and fountain that filled the small front yard.

Why I was here, I had no idea, but my curiosity got the better of me so I went on to knock at the heavy, arched double doors.

It ceremoniously opened, a man dressed in an impeccable butler uniform sweeping an arm sideways to invite me in.

The interior was everything one could imagine in an old Victorian mansion—gilded, ornate and despite its wearied state, fabulously resplendent with its accents of gold and silver from furniture hardware to the light fixtures to the intricate mirror sets on the walls.

The butler stayed behind as I walked forward to look around the hall and peek at the rooms on either side of it. Even with most of the furnishings gone, they both looked like very large and airy sitting rooms.

There was notecard pressed up against the wall beside the door on one of them.

These could be merged as the restaurant/cafe.

My brows arched, a funny feeling starting in my gut as I recognized Sebastian's handwriting.

In the center of the hallway was a U-shaped wooden staircase that led up to a mezzanine of some sort. All around it was a vast, empty room with high ceilings and large arched windows. It looked like a ballroom.

There was another notecard sitting at the bottom step of the staircase.

This was the living room/dining room area that often converted into one large entertaining space. This could be the main bookstore. Imagine it with dozens of high shelves stacked with books.

My heart pounded.

Sebastian couldn't possibly be serious.

I went up the stairs, taking one careful step at a time, watching out for any creaks that would ward me off but the staircase was solidly built, not even springing a little with each of my step.