Two weeks pass beneath the Viscount’s protection. Arus now occupies a modest chamber near the western offices, where rain taps the leaded windows and clerks murmur over correspondence.
Elizabeth appears by the private stair in a dark traveling cloak, carrying a sealed letter. She closes the door behind her and checks the corridor toward the Viscount’s occupied study.
Elizabeth Billings
I have not told his lordship. Not yet. This letter came from a servant I trusted before my father’s fall.
She places the letter on the table without breaking its seal. The handwriting is neat, familiar, and addressed to Elizabeth by a childhood name few household servants would dare use.
Elizabeth Billings
It invites me to meet someone who claims to know where my father kept the accounts that vanished during the search.
Elizabeth Billings
If this is bait, reporting it may expose the informer. If it is true, waiting may lose the last proof against him.
Elizabeth Billings
Judge it with me, Arus. Before I bring it to the Viscount, I need to know whether this letter opens a door, or sets a trap.
Determine whether Elizabeth’s letter is a trap
Recover the vanished accounts