Free The Seer's Choice: A Novella of the Golden City by J. Kathleen Cheney Page B

hadn’t had many details to add to Miss Jardim’s description. He would place the man’s age to just over fifty, which made his white hair seem premature. Nose that had been broken before, pointed chin, teeth yellowed from smoking cigarettes, and eyes that bulged a bit. It was a better description than they’d had before. So his officers would, among other things, be looking for this man. That was about all they could do.
    Even so, once he got his officers sorted out, each out working on their individual cases, Rafael had some time on his hands, so he went down to the Carvalho house to speak with the butler. The man would surely know if anyone had threatened Miss Jardim when she’d lived there.
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    Genoveva had spent a leisurely morning at the Ferreira house. It seemed strange and wrong to do so, to sit about when she’d become accustomed to doing . She didn’t have a place in this world any longer. Despite the cook’s insistence that she sleep as late as she wished, she awoke with the dawn.
    The captain had left a message for her that she was probably safe for the day, but he preferred she not leave the house, not even for Mass. So she ate breakfast and read a newspaper, a strange luxury she’d forgotten. In the house’s library, she found an interesting selection of books and settled on the couch to read. Time seemed to crawl, though, rather than flying.
    When the butler went to answer the door sometime after lunch, Genoveva went to the library door and peered out, hoping that Captain Pinheiro had arrived with some news. Instead, a familiar woman stepped inside.
    Genoveva ran down the hallway to embrace her mother, whose eyes were red with tears. Lady Carvalho had a plump form and pale skin that tended to blotch when she cried, two traits that Genoveva hadn’t inherited. “How did you know I was here?”
    Her mother kissed her cheeks and embraced her. “A police officer was questioning the butler, and sent me word that you were staying here in Lady Ferreira’s absence.”
    Ah, Genoveva detected Captain Pinheiro’s hand in that. “Does he know you’re here?”
    Her mother nodded, not questioning whom Genoveva meant. “He does allow me to visit a few of my friends. If he knew you were here, though, he would forbid me to come again.”
    Her mother’s husband—who was not Genoveva’s father—kept his wife on a short leash following the scandals of one daughter running away with a commoner and another proving to be a bastard. If she could take her mother away from that situation, she would, but Genoveva had no idea how . Her mother had no money of her own since her dowry had unwisely been handed over to her husband’s control. “Then we’ll make certain he doesn’t find out,” Genoveva said firmly. “Now, come tell me everything that’s happened.”
    And so she spent an afternoon pleasantly chatting with her mother, which was the kindest thing that Captain Pinheiro could have done for her.
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    Rafael hadn’t had much luck at the Carvalho household. He’d spoken with the butler, the cook, Lady Carvalho’s maid, and one of the footmen. None of them could imagine anyone having a grudge against Genoveva. No one had come to the house seeking her, not since her precipitous departure six months before.
    They did, however, reassure him that Miss Constancia’s husband—the former footman, now farmer—was a clever and hard-working young man, which provoked him to send a telegram to the countryside. He hoped he might have an answer to his proposal in a few days.
    He returned to the station and spent the end of his day meeting with officers to close out their current batch of cases. Medeiros had found the missing father, Forsythe had located the witch selling faulty love charms in the narrow streets of the Ribeira district, and the businessman harassing the sereia had been brought in to the station and reminded of the new law of the land, which should keep him from further misbehavior, although word