Chapter 9
Rowan groaned and tilted his head back in annoyance as the interrogations started for the second day. His father had interrogated servants until past midnight. He’d made Rowan stay for the whole thing; his father had claimed that he needed him. Rowan gave up on his protests but as the night wore on he just kept getting more irritable. Finally his father conceded and stopped the interrogations. Rowan was gone before his father had even finished telling him he could go.
He’d made his way to his room as quickly as he could. He hadn’t had a chance to be alone since the forest. He had thought that when they returned that he’d be able to go to his room and rest but the King ordered that everyone must be questioned. His sister helped his mother; his brother had helped his uncle, leaving Rowan to help his father.
Near his room Arabella spotted him and started to make her way over but he ignored her. He gave her a curt nod and stepped around her with only one goal in mind, get to his room. He hadn’t even registered her expression after his rude action. He had closed the door behind him and flung open the window. The cool fresh air had revived him and he at last had turned his attention to his bandaged arm.
He had cut the bandages away with one quick swipe of his knife and then drew in a breath. It wasn’t bleeding heavily anymore but Rowan hadn’t known what to think of that at the time. He had stared at the wound for a while before bandaging it again. He was no healer; he didn’t have the slightest clue what to do to help speed along the recovery process. When he had slipped into bed he stayed up for more time still. His over imaginative mind had given him disturbing visions of how his death would play out. Visuals of his family mourning still haunted his thoughts.
“Rowan,” his father said impatiently. Rowan snapped out of his thoughts and looked at his father. “Have you been listening at all to what this man has been saying?” Rowan shook his head and his father sighed.
“Sorry, I’m just tired, didn’t get much sleep yesterday,” Rowan mumbled purposely to make it sound like he was really tired. With any luck his father might give him the day off if he thought Rowan needed it.
The servant his father was questioning gave him a wary look. It was as if he thought Rowan was crazy. The servant tapped his fingers on his legs and slumped in his seat. He didn’t appear to want to be here either. Rowan surveyed the man. His dirty and short trousers along with his shirt with rips and tears along the hem gave Rowan the impression this man was not well off. The man had said he was a blacksmith but he must not be good at his job. The man scratched his unkempt beard as he yawned. His father rolled his eyes and then turned to Rowan.
“Oh you’re tired are you?” He asked. Rowan didn’t reply. He didn’t know where his father was going with this. “I take it you don’t want to be here?” Again Rowan said nothing. “Well then alright, who am I to keep you here against your will. Instead of sitting here, how about you check into the stories of the servants?” Rowan started to protest but halted when he father gave him a warning look. His father picked up a small stack of papers and handed them to Rowan. “Here, these are all the sheets with information on the servants we’ve interviewed so far. Go to the addresses of their family and see if they told the truth during the interrogation. You’re just fact checking. Don’t interrogate the family members. If there is a need to I’ll make the decision.”
Rowan nodded. With one last look at the servant and his father he was gone. He sighed as he looked at the sheets of paper. This would take all day. At least he didn’t have to stay in one room for most of the day. At this moment in the interrogations nothing interesting happens. The good stuff came later on when they caught the werewolves in a lie. The shocked looks on their faces when they realized they had been found out was considered the best part by most of his family.
He got to his room quickly and stopped in the doorway. He glanced down as Arabella looked up at his entrance. She paused in her task of tending to the fire and got up. They stared at each other in silence and then Rowan cleared his throat.
“About yesterday-,” he began.
“I was just-,” Arabella started to say at the same time. They both fell silent once more. Rowan chuckled.
“I was just going to apologize about my behaviour yesterday,” he said slowly. “I wasn’t in a good mood, very tired from the day’s adventure. I treated you poorly, and I apologize. It shouldn’t happen again.” Arabella shook her head.
“It’s alright. I didn’t really think much of it,” she replied. Rowan tilted his head in amusement. He was fairly sure that was a lie but he nodded in response anyways.
“You didn’t need to do that,” he said and gestured to the dim flickering fire. “I was actually going out. I most likely won’t be back until dark so I don’t really need a warm room.” Arabella shrugged.
“It’s best to be prepared,” she said softly so Rowan had to strain to hear her. “The fire is burning now, might as well just leave it,” she said, this time her volume was normal. “Do you need anything for when you leave?” Rowan shook his head. “Alright, just get someone to find me if you need anything.” With that she passed him and left him alone. Rowan grabbed his knife and attached it to his belt then folded up the papers and stuck them his bag.
With everything he needed in his possession he went to the stable. He felt like riding today so he decided to talk to the people who lived outside of the citadel. After he was finished with them he would then talk to those who lived in the lower town inside the citadel. There weren’t many people to talk to that lived far away, only about three. Someone walked up to him and he looked up.
“Rose? What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be interrogation servants with our mother?” Rowan inquired. Rose laughed.
“I could ask you the same thing but I already know your answer,” she answered. Rowan frowned. “Well after father sent you out to fact check he decided it was a good idea for me to do it too. I don’t know about Gavin though. Last I checked he was still alongside our uncle.”
“Maybe he wanted to stay for the interrogations?” Rowan guessed. Rose shrugged as she smiled at Pearl. Rowan looked at his horse and saw that Pearl had stuck her head over the gate, presumably because she had heard them.
“I don’t know and honestly? I don’t care,” Rose replied. “Not after what he did yesterday. You could have been hurt because of him.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t get hurt,” Rowan lied. “Everything’s fine.”
“Is it?” Rose asked. Rowan’s smile fell and he gave her a wary look. “Is everything really fine?”
“Of course, why do you ask that?”
“Well you’ve been acting different recently. “I’m worried.”
“Don’t’ be worried, Rose. I’m fine and there is nothing to be worried about. You should stop worrying about every little thing,” he told her. He forced a smile on his face. “What would you say if I was the one worried about you? If I was the one imagining things were wrong when they’re not. You’ve been acting different too.” He paused and took in Rose’s surprised look. “It’s simply because we’re at a new place. You’re fine, I’m fine, everyone’s fine,” he said gently. Rose nodded.
“Yes, yes of course everything’s fine with me,” she said. “Everything’s fine,” she repeated as if she was trying to make herself believe it. Rowan’s eyes narrowed as he noticed Rose was avoiding his eyes. She wasn’t telling him something. Maybe everything wasn’t fine for her either. “Well anyways I just wanted to talk to you because I really don’t feel like riding today. I was hoping you could take over the people who live out of walking distance?” Rowan sighed.
“I suppose I can, provided that you take over the some people that live within the citadel.” Rose seized the chance quickly and nodded.
“Of course, I’d do about anything to get out of having to ride for hours just to talk to someone. I’ll even talk to everyone inside the citadel that you had to talk to. You do the people farther away while I stay here and question the people that live closer.” Rowan laughed and nodded.
“Deal,” he confirmed. Rowan handed most of his sheets to Rose and added the sheets she gave him to his pile. Over all he only had to go to five houses. He smiled at Rose and she rolled her eyes. “Alright so I’d better get going if I want to be back by nightfall and have visited all the houses. Rose nodded and went her separate way. Rowan didn’t wait to watch her leave. He mounted Pearl and was off.
They flew across the country; the pain from his arm didn’t even hinder him. Rowan just pushed through it. After what seemed like minutes he arrived at the first destination. He glanced at the sheet and then back at the house.
One of the house’s windows was broken and replaced with a piece of wood and the fence around the house wasn’t straight anymore. Planks were missing, tilted, out of place or rotted. Some appeared to have not been affected by the stroke of misfortune that had struck the other planks in the fence and were standing straight. It was house of Theodore Mathews where he and his wife lived. He was an assistant in the castle libraries, she just stayed at home.
Rowan sighed and went up to the house. He took a deep breath and knocked on the door. There was no answer. He rolled his eyes and was about to turn back when the door opened a bit. He peered through the crack and met a pair of hazel eyes. He smiled, hopefully helping to put this woman at ease.
“Hi, I’m here to talk to Theodore Mathews’ wife. Are you her?” Rowan inquired. She nodded and opened the door a bit more. “Has he told you that the King has hired hunters to track down werewolves?” She nodded again. “Well I’m here to talk t you about some of the things he said while being interrogated. Is that alright?”
“Yes, I suppose so,” she said finally. Rowan nodded to himself as he looked down at the paper in his hands.
“Can I come in?” Thelma Mathews went back to nodding. She stepped back allowing Rowan to enter the house. It appear larger from the outside, Rowan noted. The inside of the house was basically one big room and a smaller room to the side. A bed was pushed in the corner and at the opposite corner was an area for cooking and eating. Thelma fidgeted as she sat down on one of the two stools at the table near the center of the room. Rowan took the other seat presuming she wanted him to.
“So what is it you need to talk to me about?” She whispered.
“Your husband goes to the castle every morning and leaves before the gates to the citadel closes. Is that correct?” She nodded. “Does he always come around the same time?” she nodded once more. Rowan barely kept himself from sighing. It was frustrating him that she wasn’t talking. “What time is that?” maybe she would talk if he didn’t give her only yes or no questions. She thought for a moment.
“Around a half hour past nine,” she replied. He smiled, pleased that she answered verbally. He calculated what he learned in his mind. The citadel closed around eight and it had taken Rowan slightly less than an hour to ride here. If Theodore walked here it would take him around an hour and a half to arrive at his house. He couldn’t be a werewolf, Rowan concluded. He wouldn’t have enough time to run about as a wolf and return home by half an hour past nine.
“Does he ever leave?” Rowan asked despite the face that she could answer it with a shake of her head. He was pretty certain Theodore wasn’t a werewolf.
“No,” she murmured, rubbing her arm. She met his eyes and then looked out the window. Rowan glanced in that direction but there was nothing to see.
Rowan’s attention was attracted her wrist. The action of rubbing her arm was causing the sleeve made of a coarse brown material to ride up exposing her wrist. On her wrist was a bruise, fairly recent. Rowan frowned and noticed some other things. Many of the women he’d met always took extra care to make sure they looked okay, but not Thelma. Her wispy blond hair was escaping her bun and there were stains on her dress. There were bags under her sad hazel eyes and she sat stiffly on the stool. Rowan had noticed that when he had first sat down but he dismissed it thinking it meant nothing. She was just uncomfortable with him being here. Now however, he was wondering if there was more to it. She could be sore.
“Are you alright?” he queried. She looked back at him with a startled look in her eyes. She nodded quickly and then squirmed on her stool.
“Is that all you need to ask me? I have things I need to be doing,” she mumbled. Rowan said nothing. He stared at her and then he remembered the broken window.
“What happened to the window?” Rowan asked.
“The window?” she asked slowly. She looked at it and then shrugged. “Nothing it just broke.” Her answer sounded more like a question.
“It just broke? By itself?” said Rowan. “I don’t believe that. Did you husband break it?” Thelma froze. She shook her head. “Does your husband have anger issues?” She said nothing and Rowan took that as a cue to go on with his speculation. “He broke the window didn’t he? He hits you too, am I right?” Thelma flinched.
“No. How dare you make accusations like that about my husband,” she whispered. “Get out of my house.” She stood up and opened the door. Rowan nodded and obeyed.
“Husbands don’t hit their wives. It’s not a normal occurrence and you shouldn’t think that. Trust me. My father never hit my mother. You shouldn’t have to live like that,” he said once he was closer to her. “Think about it. He’s not a good man if he hits his wife. Do you have anyone else you can stay with? If you do decide to leave and you have no one to go to just go to the castle and ask for Rowan. I’ll help you if you want.
“Go, now.” Thelma ordered. Her fingers dug into the door and the rest of her was shaking like a leaf. Rowan looked into her eyes.
“Think about it.” With that he stepped out of the house and the door slammed shut behind him. He shook his head and then went to his horse. Pearl snorted as he got up on her and then started trotting. Rowan laughed as he grabbed the reins and steered her in the opposite way. He didn’t have a clue why Pearl wanted to go in a direction where there was literally nothing but he didn’t have time to indulge her. He had to talk to the other families. Pearl turned her head to look at him. He could just imagine that she didn’t like him steering her in the opposite way that she wanted. He shrugged at her and pushed her into a canter.
The next few families didn’t reveal anything. Rowan was confident that the castle servants that lived there weren’t werewolves either. So far there was no point for him to have gone to their houses. They were innocent. This was turning out to be a waste of time, he thought as he slowed his horse. Pearl shifted restlessly and Rowan’s eyes narrowed. He dismounted and walked alongside Pearl with her reins in his hand.
He was in the town of Ellegoria but there was no one around. It was a ghost town. Or so it appeared. The houses on either side of him were not very fancy or well made but they were okay for a poor town such as this one. It didn’t look as if no one was living in the houses, the garden was tended to and the windows weren’t dusty. He stepped up to one of the houses and peered through the window. There was no one inside. There were signs that someone had recently been there though, a fire was slowly burning out. He went to the next house and got the same result. The glowing embers were dimming. He frowned as he continued through the town.
Ellegoria wasn’t exactly his destination. His destination was a short walk away from the town, Arabella’s mother’s house. It didn’t appear any different than the others. The curtains were drawn preventing him from seeing inside. He knocked on the door and it swung open unlocked. His heart beat sped up and he cautiously looked inside. The inside of the house was minimally decorated, there were barely any possessions. He scowled as he realized there was no one here either. Something was going on here.