“I would like a car,” Severine told Mr. Brand in his office. “And to learn how to drive.”
He nodded. “Very sensible. Especially as the big house is so far from anything. Was all as you needed when you reached the mansion here?”
Severine nodded. It had been cleaned and stocked with food. She supposed that a young woman raised in girls’ schools and mansions would have needed help, but if the convent had taught her anything it was how to take care of not just herself but others as well.
They chatted about her journey, her dogs, her grandmother, the house and mansion until Mr. Brand finally said, “I’m concerned about you going to the country house, Severine. The more I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve realized what you were trying to say about my position in your life. Lukas must have known that danger was coming, something that could lead to his death, and he arranged for me to look after you because—”
“Because,” Severine interrupted, “he didn’t trust the people in his life who would have been more natural guardians.”
Mr. Brand leaned back and rubbed his hand over his face as Severine sipped from her wine glass. It was filled with a sort of blended fruit juice. Even the convent had wine, she thought, but she didn’t comment on it.
“That might put you in danger as well,” Mr. Brand said. “We don’t know who killed your parents or their motive. If—”
“If the motive was financial,” she said, “then I’m a possible victim.”
“And the house would be quite dangerous for you given that those who could benefit from your death will be there as well.”
“Who inherits if I die?” she asked.
“I have no idea,” he admitted. “We’ll need to talk to a lawyer for that.”
“Clive wanted money?”
Mr. Brand nodded.
“What were my father’s instructions for everyone else?”
“Those who got anything had funds set aside into a trust. Each of them gets payments quarterly from the trust.”
“Versus a lump sum amount of money?”
Severine wanted to rage. It would have been so much easier for her father to have given them the money and sent them on their way.
“Who is included in that trust?”
“Your half-brother, several of your cousins on the DuNoir side, your grandmother, his sisters.”
“Not his brothers?”
“Your father felt that a man should stand on his own. He told me he only put Andre in the trust at all because your mother caused a war in the family until your father gave in.”
Severine wasn’t sure she agreed with anything her father had set up. “Can we change that trust? And just give them the money? I don’t want anyone having to supplicate to me to get money that they should have just received from the beginning.”
Mr. Brand leaned back. “You can do whatever you want with it when you reach your majority in three years. Full control of it is intended to be yours.”
Severine nodded and then took a deep breath. “Until we find out who killed my parents, I suppose it’s better to keep them on the leashes Father gave them. Once we discover who killed my father and mother, I want them out of my house.”
Mr. Brand’s eyes crinkled with approval. “Lukas DuNoir was lucky to have a daughter such as yourself.”
Severine didn’t think her father would agree, but neither of them had been able to choose their family.
Carefully, Mr. Brand changed the subject. “I believe that your cousin may have designs…”
Severine sipped her juice and then finished for him. “Upon my fortune? Yes, I know.”
“Mr. Clive DuNoir can be quite charming when he wants to be.”
Severine was sure that was true, so she nodded and sipped again, keeping her thoughts to herself.
Slowly, she brought the conversation around to her parents’ hobbies. Mr. Brand paused and said, “I suppose you wouldn’t have known as much.”
“I was at school for most of the time.”
He nodded absently. “I’m, perhaps, not a resource to learn more about your father. I suspect I didn’t know him as well as I thought.”
Severine wasn’t surprised. He’d have barely been an adult himself when he’d agreed to be her guardian, and he’d probably never expected it to happen. She suddenly felt sorry for him. What dreams had been his before her father had overtaken Mr. Brand’s life? Given what Severine had seen earlier that day, she wondered how many times Mr. Brand had to deal with a spoiled heir of Lukas DuNoir.
“What about the Spirit Society?” Severine asked. “Were you aware that Father and Mother were both members?”
“Not while they were alive. I lived in New York City then. I found that I had to relocate to take care of business here. But part of the trust includes donations to the society. Your father was a member of its board.”
Severine’s brows lifted. “Like a business?”
“Very much so,” Mr. Brand agreed. “One of your aunts is involved. And one of your father’s closest business partners. Are you interested in those things as well?”
No, Severine very much wasn’t interested in them. “I’d like to know more,” Severine said rather than answering the question.
Mr. Brand frowned lightly, but he nodded. “I’m sure you can join if you want. They can be a bit difficult about such things, but I think that the continued support from the trust is something they’ll be very much interested in.”
Severine nodded and then changed the subject. “I’ll have to go soon.” They both knew she meant the big house in the countryside. She’d have to drive away from the comparative freedom of New Orleans, the comfort of the French Quarter where she’d spent her early years and the holidays between school visits. It wasn’t going home to return to the big house. She’d lived in that house mere weeks between when her father had finally moved the family in and her parents’ murder.
Still, it had been long enough to dream of a version of her life
