The others sat and observed as the two stared at one another. Nicu picked up the cards and began shuffling. Harriet watched him, transfixed by his skill, but said nothing.
Harriet observed the man with his roguish appeal, eyeing her with a blazing fire in his antique golden eyes. She was once again spellbound by how the color reflected him so well. He obtained ancient knowledge that only a few have ever been blessed with.
He was so different than the other two men in the room, one who was a big brawny man and the other who appeared as a fallen angel. But Nicu Rowe was neither of those, he was something else entirely with his sleek catlike frame and exotic boldness.
He dealt and soon it started. "Tell me what happened that night."
Harriet found herself playing the game mechanically, while the rest of her was having an out-of-body experience. The past nights were catching up to her quickly, like the fire's rage.
She swallowed. "I was awoken by a shrill scream. A girl shouting fire." Licking her lips Harriet watched Nicu cut the deck and she earned two points for a Jack being on top. "I immediately woke up. At first, I thought I was in a nightmare, but it soon had become very real when I saw the smoke entering my room from underneath the door. When my senses finally restored, I got out of bed and checked to see if the handle was hot."
Nicu's eyes flicked to her. "Smart girl."
Harriet ignored the compliment. "After conducing that it was safe, I opened it and only saw heavy smoke. That's when I started to hear voices, men's voices, and then in the haze I saw them yanking girls out of their rooms..." Harriet paused, and her breathing grew heavy. "Th-that pushed me into action a-and I stared grabbing as many girls as I could. Rosa, Felicity, Helen, Anne..."
Harriet's hand became unstable, and she put it over her mouth for a brief second to collect herself. "Gracie was down the next hall, trying to get away from the smoke and men, all by herself. She had been the one to scream, she had used up all her remaining strength to warn us, even knowing what it would cost." Harriet's pained face morphed into sorrow as she stared at the cards in play, "Gracie always put others first, despite coming from a home where she was an aggravation and ignored."
Wiping a few tears from her eyes, Harriet laughed a little. "You'd never think she came from such a hostile place. She was so sweet and compassionate."
Harriet gave a bitter smile. "She would use to wait after everyone had gotten their food at every meal before she would get some for herself. It bothered me and when I had asked why she did that... she looked at me with those massive blue eyes and said she would hate it if she grabbed something someone else wanted. She was just that kind of girl with that mindset that's only blessed in few people. It was a good thing she had that mentality that day, as much as I hated it when I saw her slumped form against the wall... she was the reason we survived."
"She sounds like a good girl," Nicu stated with a hint of compassion.
"She was," Harriet answered then took a deep breath and sensed Nicu's unnerving patience. He didn't rush her, push her, or try to interrupt her. He simply listened. "I took them downstairs to where I knew an old passageway went under the school and into the woods. We were in the kitchen when I saw Claire, my lady's maid. She was in a panic trying to hide from the men that would appear out of nowhere, as if they were an extension of the smoke. I managed to calm her, and we turned to the hallway that would take us to the secret corridor... that's when I saw it."
There was heavy silence and still Nicu was patient, letting her progress in her own time and momentum. The game was helping in a way. For the most part, Harriet's hands moved mechanically and zoned in on her memory. But at moments where she felt like she was suffocating in the fire all over again her mind would register the game.
It's like he knew she would need that, and Harriet glanced up at him, eyes clashing. He was still in his lose shirt and fitting cravat that was now buttoned, but his sleeves were rolled up, which was unusual attire for dinner. He was so long and sleek, tenacious like a cat sitting in a dark corner waiting for a small movement in the darkness.
"The fire," she said shakily, "it wasn't like any I've ever seen. The flames were so alive and bright to the point it seared my eyes. It burned everything with such swiftness and hunger that I knew..." Harriet's voice became strained and angry as she recalled how it roared and spoke to her with its pops and sizzles. "There would be nothing left in its wake."
Nicu didn't miss any emotion that passed through the lovely creature's face. From what he could see in the small moments of actual humanness, she was truly upset. "These flames were not like those?" He asked pointing to the fire behind them.
Harriet shook her head. "No, Mr.... I mean, Detective Rowe." The game came to an end with Harriet as the victor, but her focus was only on the flames behind Nicu. "They were like a bright white, as white as the sun's rays during midday."
The room grew silent until St. George gave a quipped remark. "You lost Nicu."
Nicu paid no attention to his friend's try at making the atmosphere lighten. "What happened after the fire, Miss Morgan?"
Her dainty fingernails no longer held dirt in them, not even a speck as she pushed the cards away. The skin underneath was lined in a fierce red and raw looking. She had most likely dug into the crevices of her nails for hours to get rid of the remnants of having to bury that girl, Nicu noted.
She cleared her throat. "I got them out and we watched in the east woods as the school burned. Knowing the men would be after us, I started moving right away. After that, we survived in a cave for a little while. Gracie's fever had gotten so high that she was becoming delusional, and it wasn't safe. I also knew that the men could have easily caught us if we didn't find a place to hide."
"How'd you know about the cave?" Nicu asked.
A slight smile lifted at the corner of Harriet's mouth. "That was how I twisted my ankle."
"Which you seem to be walking on just fine." He noted, eyes flicking down at her skirts, making her flush.
Esma was quick to her defense. "It's heavily swollen, Phal, but she refuses to lie down and rest it."
Nicu's gaze locked with Harriet. "You will retire after this. For now," he stood swiftly grabbing a chest hauling it over to her, "rest it on here. You need to elevate it to reduce the swelling."
Harriet blushed as Nicu all to familiarly gently grabbed her foot and took off her shoe. Everything happened so fast as he pushed her skirts up revealing her swollen ankle. Horrified, she squeaked in protest, pushing them down. He gave her a disapproving expression as he pushed the skirts back up and examined her ankle. It had been in great pain and the blood pounded so harshly she thought it would combust.
"Continue, Miss Morgan."
Harriet swallowed and was now finding it hard to continue her story as the man touched her skin with his hot fingers. She swallowed down the rock lodged in her throat and fought with herself about fanning the heat starting to build up in her. She didn't want to give Detective Rowe any indication of what his touch did to her. She took a deep breath and pushed on.
"I had no idea how much time had passed. It seemed as if the days were a long constant one with no end in sight, just going on endlessly. Finally, we left and continued on our path, Gracie would try walking, but her legs wouldn't be able to hold her up, so I resorted to carrying her. After a while I sensed we were being followed and then..."
Everything stopped and Nicu watched the perfect little woman fall apart as huge tears rolled down her cheeks. "Gracie, she, the fever and her breathing..."
Esma was next to Harriet in a flash, but no comfort seemed to help as the choked sobs fell from her lips. Nicu pulled his chair up to her, his knuckle touching the salty liquid, wiping them away from the softness of her cheek. With the tears, her skin felt like silk instead of velvet as it did earlier.
Esma stepped back at his approach and Lord Rathborne touched his wife's shoulders, bringing her away from them to give the poor girl some space and privacy. "It-it was m-my fault... I-I should've..."
Nicu cupped the little face as it fit perfectly into his palms. He watched as the tears continued to leave tracks along her silky cheeks, indicating they would be rosy and chapped in the morning.
"Shh... Monisha." Never in his life did Nicu allow himself to get emotionally invested in his cases or in people, emotions got in the way. His mind was reeling with the need to close himself off and stay logical and unattached, but something deep inside him controlled his body. His voice held a gentleness that he never knew he had. "She was ill, you did you're best. You don't have to finish. I can fit the rest of the pieces together... just one last thing."
He pulled out the letter opener from the inside of his waistcoat. The very one he showed her in the dead of night only days ago. He watched as Harriet's tear-filled eyes widened. "You recognize it? Now that you see it in the light." Nicu asked.
Her puffy eyes stared at him, and she wiped away the remaining tears. "Yes, it is mine."
The whole room quieted and Nicu dropped his head then stood up cursing. "So, I have been wrong. It wasn't you."
"What?" St. George called out, looking aghast. "Now that you have viable proof that it was her, you are saying it wasn't?"
Nicu was the one now quick to her defense. "Because no guilty person would admit to that. She was genuinely surprised when I showed it to her. Plus, it makes it too obvious, and it seems as if someone is trying to frame her... but who?"
Esma stepped in. "What are you thinking, Phal?"
Nicu turned to his twin sister and then to Lord Rathborne who went over and gave Harriet a handkerchief.
He touched Harriet's shoulder and an instinct deep in Nicu's bones made him want to slice off his good friend's hand. "So, who could it be? Are you sure it wasn't any of the other girls?" The unsuspecting man asked, not comprehending the danger he was in from having his hand chopped off by a possessively angered Roma.
Harriet's cheeks were already red, and her head shot up, snapping to Nicu. "You couldn't possibly think one of those innocent girls would have done what you're claiming. Are you still certain it wasn't one of those men who attacked us?"
"Positive," Nicu exclaimed, pulling at his hair until it fell over his eyes.
"But... maybe they took it from my room?" she hypothesized.
Leaning against a bookshelf, St. George gave a more explained answer. "When we were out, Nicu determined that the cuts to the trees were made before the highway men's tracks."
"Highway men?" Harriet questioned. "And how are you able to decipher that?"
The fire crackled as Nicu glared at it, as if they were the very flames that started the whole mess. "It was easy. Your tracks were dry and fading more than the men's. Theirs were fresher than yours by an hour or so and the cuts on the trees matched every step you all took, not the men."
Esma's low voice echoed in the room. "Why would robbers be hired to burn down a finishing school and abduct young girls?"
Nicu waved her off. "That is a question that we can't answer until we know who the traitor is. I have interviewed every..."
His words died in his mouth when realization struck. Esma saw the epiphany immediately. "What is it, Phal?"
Nicu stood and shook his head, but the identity of the traitor made sense and the gears were shifting. He walked to the door and looked back at Harriet. Something clawed at him, some knowledge that she was involved somehow in all this, but now as an innocent and not a conspirator. He turned the knob his gaze still only on Harriet.
"Excuse me." He stepped out, but glanced back at her one last time, proclaiming. "And congratulations. You are the only person to ever beat me in a game."
Harriet gave a small smile in return. "You barely paid attention. I doubt I can beat you when you are serious."
"On the contrary, Monisha. There is never a time or thing I don't pay attention to."
"Detective Rowe! Before you leave." Harriet inquired, licking her lips as her heart fluttered frrom his steady gaze. "Monisha... what does that mean?" Harriet questioned.
Nicu only grinned. "Stay off the ankle, Miss Morgan."
Who's curious about what Nicu is about to investigate? Leave me your favorite emoji if you are 😁