Isabel, who had remained dull and expressionless all along, finally revealed the faintest smile where Hancock could not see it.
She remembered what had happened after the banquet the night before.
After being sent back to her bedroom, Isabel stood by the window and watched the garden. She saw her brother Henry run into the clock tower, and she had just learned from the butler, who had approved of her studying painting, that there had once been an art studio in the clock tower.
Mr. Proshi had been a moderately famous painter in his youth. He had escaped the disaster in which the Proshi Family burned themselves to death only because he had gone out to paint from life. His skills were superb, and when he had first come to the Nihrelet Family, before people began treating him as a madman, he had set up a small studio in the clock tower.
But later, Owen fell gravely ill. Isabel was suspected of being possessed by a demon, while the youngest daughter, Sherlock, had congenital heart disease. Mrs. Nihrelet had been driven half-mad by the shock, and Mr. Proshi, trying to investigate the culprit, often behaved outrageously around the manor. His reputation worsened by the day, and he gradually lost all interest in painting.
The Nihrelet Family's old butler seemed delighted that she wanted to paint, so he told Isabel these old secrets. Perhaps he thought Isabel was too young to understand or remember any of it, which was why he held nothing back.
But Isabel was not the only listener present. Henry was there too, trailing after Isabel like a festering parasite, circling around her and taking everything from her.
Except this time, Isabel had deliberately allowed it. She knew Henry would rush in. Whatever Isabel had, or was about