Elizabeth: Part XV

(Story begins here.)

Anton heaved a sigh of relief when he heard the reassuring click sounds of the catches in the doors interlocking in place. He was fairly certain that the housekeeper had already figured out what he was doing, especially since it was clear that the latter had already known enough about the books that were in the library, considering how quickly he could discover that Anton was ``reading'' the Holy Bible from a mere glance. Once that realisation hit in, Anton could feel himself sinking deeper into his shoes, as though there were incontrovertible evidence that he was indeed ignoring the permonitionary nature of the ivory card and was doing exactly against what was advised. But in the back of his mind, he felt as though there was still some level of hope left. While Mr Higgins had, with high probability, figured out just what Anton was doing, he did not actually make any attempt to demonstrate his knowledge on the matter, and more importantly, did not seem to give way any of the usual reactions from someone to clean up one's reputation. Of course that could just be false hope, and that Mr Higgins' indifference was indeed one of the many aspects that he was lying.

Anton groaned softly to himself. There was little to be done then except to make his way down for lunch---his presence had been confirmed and he would be playing into the housekeeper's trap if he had done anything other than turning up, if there was a trap to begin with. There was that little bit of doubt at the other back of Anton's mind as he tried to weigh the evidence for and against the veracity of the note. From Reginald Archibald's account, it discounted him being the author of the card. It was wholly possible that his immediate predecessor was the author, but that was not easy to tell other than to follow the paper trail back through the journals, a handy piece of work that Anton was certain to take a profoundly long time to complete, time that he did not know if he had. Pushing the thoughts aside, Anton started to glance about the room to see if there was any easy way of hiding the journal. The best place he could think of was to return the journal to where he had found it---it had the advantage of not leaving anything immediately incriminating within ease of reach thus strengthening his story of studying the biblical verses, and the added benefit of hiding it in plain sight to facilitate ease of retrieval. He stood up from behind the desk and slipped ou the book from beneath the Holy Bible and walked to the shelf that he had gotten it from, and gingerly pushed it back into its original position among the other journals.

Satisfied with the provisional safety, Anton dusted himself down and straightened out his attire before exiting the study.

(Story continues here.)