Page 9 of Unbroken
“Penelope?” Tubbs asked tentatively. “These are the people I told you about.”
Her lone eye opened, revealing a blue iris set amidst bloodshot sclera. “Hello.” Her voice rasped horribly, and the breath rattled in her seared lungs.
Sebastian struggled not to let his horror show on his face. “Please, Mrs. Tubbs, there’s no need for niceties.” His voice trembled, and he cursed himself. The last thing he wanted to do was upset a dying woman. “Save your strength.”
“Yes.” Irene seemed to recover herself. “We just want to know what happened.”
“Dinner party.” Penelope’s eye squeezed shut, as if speaking hurt, then opened again. “Mr. Siewert died…honored him.”
“The dinner party was to honor a friend who had died?” Sebastian guessed. If he focused on the reason they were here, maybe he could manage this.
She managed a small nod. “Auto hit…by train.”
“I think I read something about that in the paper recently,” Irene said. “He owned a leather factory, I believe?”
“Yes.” Penelope swallowed convulsively, and Tubbs hastened to take a glass of water from the bedside table and hold the straw to her lips. She took a sip, then sagged back against her pillow. “Dinner almost ready. Thought I would light the candles…don’t know why. Then…I couldn’t stop myself. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t…”
The Binding scars seemed to vibrate in sympathy. Tears gathered in her sole eye, dripping down her cheek. Tubbs took out a handkerchief and tenderly wiped them away.
God, this was awful. “You felt as though an outside force controlled you?” Sebastian asked.
“Yes.” Her tears continued to flow. “Why? Who?”
“I think she’s had enough,” Tubbs said. “She needs her morphine.”
“Of course.” Sebastian started to rise, then stopped. “Is there a list of your guests somewhere, Mrs. Tubbs?”
“Reynolds…will have it…” Her eye drooped closed. “Please. Hurts.”
“I’ll fetch the nurse right away,” Tubbs assured her.
The sitting room seemed even brighter when they emerged from the gloom. Tubbs ushered them out, spoke briefly to the nurse, and then indicated they should follow him. Soon enough, they were in another small drawing room overlooking the riotous garden. Sebastian took a deep breath of the clean air, but the smells of the sickroom still clung to the inside of his nose.
“So we get the list from Reynolds—he’s the butler.” Tubbs paced to the window and stared out. “Then we talk to the other guests? Do you think one of them did this?”
“It’s possible. We’ll talk to them and let you know if we find something,” Sebastian said. “The list?—”
“Excuse me?” Tubbs spun around and fixed him with a narrow gaze. “I didn’t bring you here so you could leave me out of things! I allowed you inside so you could tell me if Penelope was manipulated by this artifact you claim to be seeking.”
“I assure you, it’s more than a claim,” Irene said, affronted. “Why on earth would we lie about such a thing?”
“Then tell me what it is, stop trying to shut me out, and I’ll let you see the guest list.” Tubbs folded his arms over his chest.
This was exactly what Sebastian had been afraid of. “Mr. Tubbs, I understand you’re upset. But this is a very dangerous business, and?—”
“So all the more reason to let me help.”
Irene shook her head. “Out of the question.”
Tubbs’s face reddened. “I should have expected as much from someone who works in that damned museum. You hoard your secrets, fence knowledge off where no one else can access it?—”
“That isn’t true,” Sebastian protested.
“I should have known better than to set foot in that accursed place,” Tubbs continued over him. “Leave. At once.”
“But the list?—”
“Out!”
