Masterful Trickery

III. A Bandit, a Footman and a Guard

Three years ago...

Alex stared at straight through the viewing mirror. She looked over her shoulder to make certain that she was alone.

When the silence confirmed the absence of Ned and Barto, Alex finally allowed herself to smile, staring at herself, awed by the beautiful woman staring right back at her with an ecstatic glimmer in her grey eyes.

Never had she ever seen herself in a beautiful gown such as this one procured for her by the groom.

Ned and Barto's laughing voices erupted from outside the bedchamber and she immediately cleared her throat and hid her smile. But the glimmer in her eyes remained.

She was invited to a wedding in Wickhurst. And it would be bloody magical!

*****

Ralph thought he had seen the worst of Nicholas Everard a fortnight ago.

He was utterly wrong.

Today was the worst he had ever seen his older brother. Yesterday, he thought the same. So did he a day prior to yesterday.

In short, Nicholas Everard was getting worse with each passing day.

Ralph watched while Nicholas stared at the complex wall before him. Even for a Town Guard like Ralph, his brother's work was almost indecipherable. The once simple map of the Town had grown multiple colors of lines, branching from everywhere to nowhere. Notes and marks were scattered everywhere.

All of it due to one person: Sophia.

It had been months since the day of her wedding with Nicholas. After a year of tragedy between the two, after the secrets and lies, Sophia and Nicholas had finally agreed that they deserved each other, societal norms and conflicts aside.

Yet a common enemy had been lurking in the dark and waited until Sophia was on her way to the wedding. Sophia never reached the church where Nicholas was eagerly waiting.

The carriage she was taking was attacked, leaving behind the Everards' mother, Lady Alice, crying after having witnessed how her soon-to-be-daughter-in-law was snatched before her eyes.

Lady Alice did arrive outside the church. The bride was gone, replaced with a single note for all Everards:

The sweetest vengeance is given to the patient one. You take mine, I take yours. Felicitations to a wedding that never was, dear Everards.

The same note was plastered on top of Nicholas' wall, reminding his brother of that day he was supposed to be the happiest man in Wickhurst.

"There must be a way to interrogate the bastard," Nicholas muttered, his hands on his hips. He looked unkempt, his hair a mess and his shirt seemed to be the same since Ralph had last seen him which was three days ago.

Nicholas had been trying to be involved in the investigation but he was not a Town Guard, nor was he a member of the League of Founders. He was amongst the citizens that the two groups vowed to protect and it was not his task to catch whoever was responsible for Sophia's disappearance.

Ralph allowed himself to provide Nicholas with harmless information to ease his brother's mind, but he kept the most sensitive ones to himself to protect the man.

Ralph snapped out of his mental musing when Nicholas finally whirled around to face him. He drew a breath, seeing his brother's complete look of damnation.

Who would have thought that the once revered rakehell of Wickhurst would end up looking like he had been banished to hell? His hair had always been donned in perfect fashion, his clothes always within the fad, properly pressed and perfectly befitting to a rich, young, unmarried lord.