The Detective's Damsel

iii.

CORINNA STARED AT the metal knob on the wall, eyebrows knitting together as she tried to decipher how the strange machinery worked. Wrapping her fingers around the knob, she twisted it to the right, jumping out of her skin when a torrent of cold water spurted from above her. Corinna yelped and scurried out of the spray, wrapping her arms around her dripping body.

When Knight had suggested she clean up a little, she thought they would be drawing her a bath. Oh, how Corinna would have loved to have a solid hour to soak with her thoughts. But when she was led to the bath chamber, all Knight did was shove a bundle of clothing into her arms and tell her to be wary of the water supply. It didn't change the fact that Corinna had never seen a cleaning method quite like this. She was inside a small stall in the washroom with a thin curtain the only thing separating her from the rest of the room. Knight had a name for it, something that started with an s... A quick look around the inside of the space revealed two bottles and a bar of soap. The label on the bottles had the word "men" in the title, not that Corinna would necessarily let that stop her if she wanted to be clean. Freezing water dripped off the ends of her hair, and Corinna's teeth chattered. Truthfully, she was dirty. She had quite the scuffle with Ivan and Knight in Hungary. Dirt was caked under her fingernails, her hair hung in strings, and she was sure she had cuts on more than just her hand. She nudged a toe into the stream of water, relieved to find that it was warming up. Gradually, she inched her body into the water and tilted her face up to welcome the spray.

As she scrubbed the grime from her skin, she finally allowed her mind to wander. So much had happened in the last few hours that she'd hardly gotten a chance to breathe, and so far the only thing she understood was Knight and Ivan and whoever they worked for intended to kidnap Elizabeth instead of Corinna, as they were somehow under the impression that she killed hundreds of innocent people. But what Corinna didn't understand was what they were planning to do with Elizabeth once they had her. Would they kill her?

Corinna couldn't—wouldn't—assist in the murder of her own sister. Especially since she still believed her sister innocent. But murdering Elizabeth for committing murder was maliciously hypocritical, not to mention that there was no way she could see young men at an educational academy doing such a thing. Well, except for Knight, who seemed to have quite the dark side.

Ivan was easy, but Knight was still a perfect mystery to Corinna. From what she had pieced together so far, his lack of emotion and abrupt change of temper had to originate somewhere, but she wasn't sure whether it came from personal life or competitive tendencies. Something told her he wouldn't hesitate to prove his superiority in a fight, no matter the opponent.

Corinna resisted the urge to roll her eyes even though she knew nobody could see her. He could take his stony gaze and his ego somewhere else. It was his fault he kidnapped the wrong woman.

Even through her disdain for Knight, she still couldn't help but remember what Ivan had said of him. He had said that Knight had more at stake, but what could that possibly mean? What could the Báthory family have that Knight found so essential to his career? He was a junior detective, if Corinna's memory served, not a professional. But how much did she know about being a detective anyway? After all, Corinna didn't really know anything, nor did she know how well Ivan knew Knight. He had mentioned they were partners, but Ivan was so radically different from Knight that the prospect seemed humorous.

And who was this Ryan person that Ivan left to speak with?

The thoughts fought for attention in her brain until Corinna eventually shoved them aside, deeming herself satisfactory. She tilted the knob to the left this time, content when the water shut off with a click. Sliding the curtain aside, she grabbed a linen from a nearby cabinet and began the process of drying off. Water dripped onto the cold floor, and Corinna shivered, already missing the warm solace of the...what was it called? Corinna made a mental note to ask Knight about it later.