Free The Golden City by J. Kathleen Cheney Page A

I think she
escaped
from it.”
    Joaquim went st ill as he worked out the ramifications of that. They’d assumed the vi ct ims were sacrificed to keep the houses floating, but such a use of necromancy would have to be ena ct ed before the houses were placed in the river. The possibility that the vi ct ims had been put into those houses
while
st
ill alive
had never occurred to them. “If that’s true, we need to find her. How did
you
find out?”
    “Aga saw her and told me.”
    Joaquim rubbed a hand over his face, a sign of fru st ration. “Aga?”
    Starting at the beginning would take too long. “One of Erdano’s girls. The thing is . . . I think I know the woman she described to me. It’s Miss Paredes, who’s companion to Lady Isabel Amaral.” Duilio slid the folded newspaper off the bookshelf and pointed to the que st ionable item on the social page. “Rumor says Lady Isabel eloped la st night, in that same companion’s company, with Marianus Efisio.”
    Joaquim perused the notice, a doubtful expression crossing his features. He set the paper back on the shelf. “If she eloped, how would the gossips already know?”
    Duilio shook his head. That wasn’t the point. “Lady Amaral mu st have spread the rumor la st night herself. To st ave off her creditors, I’d expe ct .”
    Joaquim rolled his dark eyes. “Oh yes. I recall the woman now.”
    Duilio resi st ed repeating anything he’d heard of the impecunious noblewoman.
    “So, what makes you think this companion was in one of the houses,” Joaquim asked, “if she’s supposedly off eloping with two other people?”
    Duilio dropped into the uphol st ered chair, the one he usually took when visiting, and continued flipping through the book. “She wasn’t eloping with them. He went ahead. The companion was probably going along as a chaperone until the wedding.”
    Joaquim settled in the other chair. “Get to the point, Duilio.”
    “If I’m corre ct ,” Duilio said, “the Amaral house was added to the artwork sometime la st night, and we’ll find out that Miss Paredes wasn’t the only one who didn’t get on that train.”
    “You’re sugge st ing that Isabel Amaral was in that house as well.” Joaquim’s fingers tapped loudly on the leather arm of his chair. “We knew we were about due for a new house to show up.”
    New houses had been appearing in the artwork at roughly two-week intervals. Duilio found the passage he was looking for, st uck a finger in the book to mark the place, and closed it so he could focus on Joaquim. “My gift tells me that Isabel Amaral is dead, no matter what the newspapers claim.”
    Joaquim closed his eyes and made the sign of the cross. Duilio’s gift had been passed to all males of the Ferreira line. A cousin on the
di
st
aff
side of the Ferreira family, Joaquim didn’t have the gift, but having grown up around Duilio and Alessio, he knew very well how it worked.
    Duilio went on. “The only thing that makes sense of her companion’s appearance in the water at midnight is that neither of them reached the train st ation. To find out exa ct ly what happened, I have to find Miss Paredes.”
    “Won’t she return to the Amaral household?”
    As soon as Joaquim asked, Duilio shook his head. “No. I don’t think Lady Amaral would take Miss Paredes back once she told her what happened. That woman needs people to believe her daughter alive to keep her creditors at bay. She would be more likely to hide the truth.”
    Joaquim nodded slowly. Apparently, he too believed the woman would put concern about her creditors over concern for her daughter’s fate, a sad commentary on the woman’s priorities. “Then the police,” Joaquim said. “Surely your Miss Paredes would have taken her st ory to the police if her employer was killed.”
    No, that was one place she wouldn’t go. They would ask how she could have survived if Isabel hadn’t, and Miss Paredes couldn’t reveal that. “She will not go to the police,”