[Goal, Return]

  Lu always amazed me, I had trouble dragging the trunk, Lu just casually held it in one hand. She didn’t even set it down, when I used the giant dragon's head door knocker. It was raining cats and dogs and the gray sky was beginning to darken.

  “Hello Rose, and you must be Lu, welcome to Tregaron. My name is Collins, I’m the butler. Please leave the trunk here, one of the footmen will bring it to your room, momentarily. Please follow me, I’ll show you to your room.”

  “Thank you Collins and thanks for arranging this. You didn’t tell Jaq, we were coming, did you, I really want to surprise her.”

  “I’m sure she’ll be surprised and delighted to see you, Rose. Especially when she learns just how much you paid, I’m sure that will be plenty to fund her first round of writer retreats.”

  Collins led us to the top floor of the tower to a large bedroom, furnished entirely in antiques. It had a huge canopied bed. Windows faced North, South and West, but we’d get no view of the elusive vanishing tower from our room. For that we’d need to walk the eastern hallway by the front door.

  “Dinner is served precisely at seven thirty, Lady Holland is very particular about late guests. Drinks in the library begin at six thirty.”

  “We’ll be on time Collins I promise, could you just give me directions to the library, please.”

  As he was telling me exactly how to get to the library, two footmen struggled in with the trunk. Collins looked at Lu, probably wondering how she had held the trunk in one hand when the footman had trouble using four. The three men left. Lu picked me up and swung me around.

  “Rose, how did you hear about this place, it's straight out of Agatha Christie. I love it.”

  “I set an adventure story here. Sparky’s going to publish it, but I thought you’d like the setting. Tomorrow we can take a long walk through the Welsh countryside. Try the hedge maze. It even has a disappearing tower. The new owner Jaq is going to start having writer retreats, so we are kind of a trial run. We better hurry and bathe, you heard Collins about being late, and I’ll bet the bath doesn’t fill with hot water instantly like ours does in the tower.”

  I went in and started the bath, while Lu opened the trunk. She poked her head into the bathroom.

  “A weekend getaway with the woman I love and new dresses too. What did I do to deserve you?”

  “Deserve me no reverse that, what did I do to deserve you. I’ve been so busy working on this book I feel like I hardly got to see you lately. I hope you like the dresses, they were a last minute thought, Elijah had your measurements but I can always tweak it if need be. Do you like the colors?”

  “I love them, both of them. Thank you.”

  “Your welcome, Elijah is getting married tomorrow, I gave him a wedding present from us, in case he thanks you the next time you see him.”

  “Your magic is amazing Rose, I can’t believe he is the incel that tried to destroy Solene’s historical journals.”

  “To be honest I was really surprised when I saw him for the first time after he opened the tailors shop. He must have had a really horrid life back in America, to have that much hate towards women.”

  We didn’t have time for a long luxurious bath, so we just got ourselves cleaned up and dressed before heading to the library, for a drink and people to follow who knew the way to the dining room. Lady Holland sat in a chair, Arthur Farthing droned on at her about the unfairness of being evicted before he had completed his masterpiece. Downing cocktail after cocktail.

  It was clear that Arthur would get his fill of Holland liquor before he was tossed out. I wondered when he was due to go. I know that Henry sent the eviction notice, personally. Farthing then began complaining about lesbians to Lady Holland, that’s when Lu took notice of him for the first time. After years in taverns as a bard, she has a knack for dealing with drunk customers. Plus they all underestimate her as a woman.

  Lady Holland started to get out of her chair and away from Farthing, when Farthing touched her. I didn’t realize Lu was paying so much attention to him. Before I knew what was happening, Lu had Farthing in an arm lock and the man started wailing. A footman and Collins were soon on the scene. Collins looked sharply at me like we’d caused trouble, when Lady Holland spoke up.

  “Collin’s I want this piece of trash off the property, before supper. If he doesn’t wish to leave, call the police, I’ll wish to press charges as he just assaulted me. I do believe that this charming young lady witnessed it and hurried to my aid.”

  Collins grabbed Farthing by one arm, the footman grabbed him on the other and fairly dragged him from the room.

  “Good riddance that piece of trash has leached off our hospitality for far too long. Thank you young lady for coming to my aid. I’m Lady Holland, won’t you both please escort me to dinner.”

  “It’d be our pleasure Lady Holland, I’m Lu and this is my girlfriend Rose.”

  Lady Holland looked at me keenly. I don’t think it was because we were lesbians, she had shown no animosity towards Jaq for her choice of sexual partners. Maybe she knew about the story I wrote about the tower. I don’t interview all the characters, just the main ones, and Lady Holland, for all her importance, was just a side character in my adventure story.

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  Lu extended an arm for Lady Holland, which she took but then setting down her half finished drink she grabbed my arm with her other hand. We walked into the dining room three abreast. Jaq was already seated, at what I guessed was Colonel Henry’s old seat, we escorted the Lady to her seat and when we were about to look for our seats, she told us to sit on her left. Lu sat next to the Lady I was to Lu’s left, across the table from me was Aya and to her left was the mad scientist himself Maz.

  “I’m sorry we were late, but that drunken braggart Farthing assaulted me, this fine young woman, Lu, came to my rescue, and this is her charming companion Rose.”

  I wondered if Draco was invisible in the corner waiting for Groucho or any of the friends to react in any way. I hoped Lu was enjoying this as much as I was. Course after course was brought out, I was really glad that I hadn’t eaten my sub par lunch at the Jack in the Green, or I never would have been able to eat so much.

  If it wasn’t pouring rain out, I would love to take a walk to work off just a fraction of all that I ate. It was all delicious. I’d heard all the rumors of how bad English cooking was. If it was half as good as Welsh cooking then English cooking is good indeed.

  Lady Holland insisted we go through to the drawing room for an after dinner sherry. Dinner was a real treat, and I would love every month or so to have a meal like this but to eat like this every day, I’d weigh a ton. Besides I liked our romantic dinners just Lu and I whenever we could manage it. But as a treat, this was tremendous.

  Lady Holland was sitting, Lu was speaking to her about being a bard. When Jaq came over and grabbed me by the arm dragging me out of earshot with Lady Holland.

  “What are you playing at Rose?”

  “I’m not playing at anything, Lu is a huge fan of British murder mysteries and I wanted her to have a chance to see Tregaron. It’s gorgeous by the way, we’re in the bedroom at the top of the tower. I hope the weather is better tomorrow, we want to go walking.”

  “You’re not already writing the sequel, or a murder mystery and just going to spring it on us are you.”

  “No, I swear, look I worked long and hard on that novel and I just want some alone time with Lu. Besides I’m a writer, you are going to start having writer retreats, just think of Lu and I as your practice run.”

  “Fine but nothing weird, better start happening, and stay out of the eastern tower.”

  “I told you we’re just…”

  Collins rushed in, saw Jaq and made a beeline for her.

  “The police are here, they said that Arthur Farthing has been murdered, stabbed in the back with a dagger.”

  Jaq looked at me like she wanted to stab me in the back.

  “Show them in, Collins, have any of the staff who had contact with him come in here, the police will want to speak with them.”

  Collins left to do as he was bidded. Jaq rounded on me again.

  “I suppose this is just some big coincidence, they’re going to want to see I D, I hope you realize that.”

  “I’m telling you Jaq, what I told you before is the truth. Neither myself nor Lu had anything to do with this. How could we? You glared at me throughout dinner. None of us left the room, and it’s pouring rain out there, even if someone managed to sneak away, unnoticed, how could they remain dry, in this weather, just look at everyone’s feet. You are being paranoid, if he did get stabbed outside, it was from a person outside. Hopefully the police will quickly arrest them.”

  “What about the ID?”

  “I have a real ID upstairs in our trunk, it is every bit as real as your passport.”

  “How is that possible?”

  “I just write it, I’m a Bibliomancer.”

  “So you could have just written the knife in his back.”

  “Yes I suppose you are right, I could have but I didn’t. I already told you, I came here for some private time with Lu, and to support you. Ask Collins how much I paid him. I didn’t want to land in the middle of a murder mystery. Ask Nyx if she can tell a lie from the truth, it seems like something a demon might be able to do. Or Draco, he’s a world class magician, he probably knows a truth spell.”

  “I’m sorry Rose, I believe…”

  Just then the police arrived. A couple of uniformed officers flanked the door and a man in a suit and tie and a woman in pants and a blouse approached Lady Holland. I couldn’t hear what was said. But Lu was standing right next to them and filled me in later. A man named Arthur Farthing they think was found dead at the bottom of the drive. They wanted to know if he resided at Tregaron.

  Lady Holland told them that Farthing had lived at the mansion for a few months, but that Colonel Henry Holland had sent paperwork evicting him, she sent Collins to get the paperwork. Then she told them what had happened before supper, how Farthing had assaulted her and how Lu came to her aid, before Collins and Tigran had escorted the drunken lout off the property with all his belongings.

  Then Collins was back, with the letter which he handed to the police after scanning a pdf of it to his phone. The police asked Lu to tell her version, which she did. They asked her for ID, she said she’d go get it. Instead they told her not to bother. The detective called over one of the uniformed officers and spoke quietly to him, then he left and took the other uniform officer with him.

  Lu with that super werewolf hearing heard the detective tell the uniform officer to get back out there and search for Farthings luggage, it might have been a robbery gone bad. Then he thanked Lady Holland for her help and he and his partner left.