Star's Crossing

52: Only a Mystery

"Did you know?" Mare gave her askance no preamble. She had just returned to the house as day turned into evening, following a somewhat frantic afternoon spent wandering the very woods that had played host to Mare's love story these last months.

Now she approached Matilde, who sat in the yard with the sea breeze playing through her loose curls and a cup of coffee in hand. She was penning a letter, presumably to Antony. Presumably in reference to a certain business play that had left an entire family destitute.

"Did I know?" Matilde spared Mare a cursory and inscrutable glance before turning back to her pen and parchment. "You will have to be more specific, dear."

Mare was in no mood for her sister's clever or curt antics. She slipped the paper from Matilde's grasp and narrowed her eyes. "The Bridges. The Watts. The Doores. Their families' fortunes, lost nearly to the penny in a rail transaction I was told you orchestrated."

Matilde's expression became very schooled. She reclined, her clever gaze inscrutable. "I was not aware how much they would be left with," she said at last. "Though I was under the impression it would be a sum larger than it was. They should not have invested—"

Mare flung down the letter into Matilde's lap, turning her back on her sister and pressing her fingertips to her temples. "My God. The ruin you have wrought upon them. The ruin that might fall upon us when word becomes public—"

"I had little choice, Mare."

"You have always loathed them!" Mare shouted, turning and looking her sister in the eye. "What's more, you knew my affiliation!"

Matilde furrowed her brow. "As I was aware, your affiliation had been discontinued."

"Very recently! When was the trigger pulled, I wonder?" Mare snapped. "Who loaded the gun?"

Matilde stood sharply, eyes bright. "They loaded the gun themselves and placed my finger on that trigger. Until you denounced them, it was not a question in my mind the bullet would be diverted."

Mare stopped short, shaking her head, failing to understand. "Had I married one of them," she said softly, "would their fortunes have been spared?"

Matilde seemed to gather herself, smoothing her skirts, drawing back a more decorous step. "By Antony and I, yes. Though another man with a loaded gun would have had no reason to hesitate. They are vile men, Mare. Do you take me at my word?"

Mare studied her sister's face, recalling all that had transpired between them these last months. She hesitated only a moment before nodding.

"Good." Matilde tipped Mare's chin with one finger. "I uncovered a plot as they moved against us. With little redirection, the money lost became theirs."

"Little redirection," Mare repeated, regarding Matilde with some suspicion. "This is why you have been in town. Have you been studying them?"

"Perhaps. And I have been in hiding, somewhat, to dispel rumor of my involvement. But I have also come for you, Mare. I am only so jaded. Indeed I came to assist you in your courtship, and when I discovered you were in considering those boys, I..."

Matilde released a soft sigh and sat again, and Mare joined her on the bench in the twilight. "You spared them."

"I intended to." Matilde looked at Mare sideways. "It is just business, Mare. It was fair that we redirect their own intentions. They meant to lead Antony into the ground, to leave him destitute. We simply decided to intervene. It is unfortunate, of course."