Villainess [5]: Janet’s Family Reunion

Red Pill [0]: Families, Secrets

Janet and her clones lingered by the table after they had all cried themselves out of their collective grief, their faces clammy and their eyes red, when their ex-suicide clone raised her head from the cradle of her arms on the table, revealing the scar on her left cheek. Her clone raised her hand to her face and touched the scar there, then stood up from her chair and faced away from Janet and her fellow clones as if she was trying to hide it, saying nothing for a time.

Janet wanted to say something, yet she hadn’t a clue how to approach the situation and instead just waited it out, waiting for her clone to speak first.

And when she finally did, her clone fisted her hands and said, “All this time, I’d never have thought the hell I went through in my last moments were really those of his Highness after being rejected by that bitch.” Then she turned and faced Janet and the other clones, her eyes flashing like a demon’s eyes, and added, “Janet, I want you to promise me.”

“Promise what?”

“Promise me you’ll keep his Highness from killing himself,” her clone said. “I know I’m asking a lot, and I know I’m being selfish, but promise me this.”

“He won’t die like that,” Janet said.

“So you’ll keep him from doing it?” her clone said.

Janet nodded and said, “I don’t know if he’ll let me save him, but I’ll try my best.”

“But he’s way up the woozle hole,” one clone said, the one in the linen dress. “He won’t listen.”

“I know what you mean,” Janet said, “but maybe he’ll listen to someone else.”

“Who?” her ex-suicide clone said.

“The real Rosalie Edgeworth,” Janet said. “If anyone can make his Highness listen, it’s her.”

“I sure hope so,” her clone said, then bowed her head to her fellow clones before wiping the last traces of her tears with the sleeve of her bolero. “I never thought I’d say this, but knowing what I know now, I pity his Highness.”

“I know,” Janet said. “I do, too.”

Her other clones said likewise, but the clone in the soiled linen dress spoke up again and said that the Prince still needs to get punished for his actions against the current Janet, which made the other clones agree.

“Geez, have you all forgotten DeeDee’s warning yesterday?” the ex-suicide clone said. “We can’t interfere with the living in this life, especially with the Prince. We’ll just have Janet do that for us,” and she locked eyes with the current Janet. “If and when you save him, punish him. Make him realize his mistake when he left you and us for that bitch.”

“Oh, I will,” Janet said.

Silence reigned for several moments after that.

Her clone smiled, saying, “Good. Let’s not keep them waiting,” and she headed for the double-door entrance.

And as a group, Janet and her clones passed through the doors and appeared in the light of everyone’s lamps in the hallway, and all of her clones went over and picked up their lamps they had left on the floor by the wall.

When DeeDee pointed towards Janet’s own lamp, she went and picked it up and said, “I’m sleepy. Let’s go.”

“There’s one more thing before you go,” DeeDee said.

“What is it now?” Janet said.

“It’s your father, Marquess Fleming,” DeeDee said with a sigh. “He’s inside your dorm room right now turning the maids there into his spies.”

“Wait, what?” she said.

“Marquess Fleming has a silver tongue, that one,” DeeDee said. “He’s already sweet-talked Susan and Marin and Diana and Niana and Ellen into confessing our activities tonight, and it seems like he’s found out about your clones, too.”

“Are you kidding me?” Janet said.

“I wish I was, dear,” DeeDee said. “You’ll have to explain everything we did tonight to your father.”

“Oh, man, this sucks!” Janet said.

“Just endure it a bit longer, dear,” she said.

“Easy for you to say! It’s been a long day, and I just wanna sleep already!” Janet said, who had been up for the past seventeen hours: In that time frame, she had transferred to a new homeroom class, got set up by Lady Dorian that morning, got set up by the Prince later during lunch, experienced two separate confrontations with the Prince during both times, perjured and implicated herself in front of everyone at lunch just to save herself from another confrontation with the Prince later on, suffered an injury at the Prince’s hands, spent another stay at the infirmary as a result, and joined an afternoon club that doubled as a false front for DeeDee’s clandestine investigation, and all of that was on top of the usual lectures and discussions in class and reading assignments and studying for exams.

Furthermore, outside of school hours, Janet had found out her mother was a former saintess candidate, met another former saintess candidate, found out from said former saintess candidate that her mother died soon after giving birth to her in prison of all places, found out from her clones about the Prince’s insolent bias against her during the summons, found out that Baron Simeon Underwood putting his students to sleep was due to a sleep spell placed on him, found out her dorm room won’t open for anyone except for herself and whomever she let in, gathered with her friends and her clones in said dorm room, went to a cemetery, got tested by DeeDee on the way there, went to the Spirit World with said former saintess candidate to meet her mother, found out from her mother about her parents’ involvement in finding another person she had plum forgotten about since she was a kid, helped both former saintess candidates haul up her gigantic affinity pool to the surface, fainted along the way, woke up, got back her darkness affinity in the most painful way possible that resulted in her going back to sleep, drank copious amounts of her affinity pool in the meantime, woke up in the most embarrassing getup in front of her peers, fainted as a result, woke up again, found out about a conspiracy connecting Lady Dorian with a secret cabal within the Church of the Holy Light under orders of a possible saintess, found out that Lady Dorian has employed the assistance of sleeper agents who use enchanted artifacts to hide their presence while they did her bidding, participated in a contract signing with her friends at midnight, had a bruising three-round sparring session, got knocked out as a result, woke up yet again, found out that the Prince had not only killed her ex-suicide clone but had offed himself after Lady Dorian rejected him, and then cried her eyes out with her clones over his suicide.

As a result, after enduring all of this in seventeen hours, Janet more than deserved a vacation, let alone a break, but it seemed that such was not forthcoming for the designated villainess of Lassen Academy.

“Trust me: you’re not alone,” DeeDee said. “It’s been a long day for all of us, too.”

“I need a break,” Janet deadpanned.

“And you’ll get it soon enough,” DeeDee said, “after you talk things over with Marquess Fleming, okay?”

“Oh, my God,” she said.

“Okayyy?”

“Okay, okay! I get it!” Janet said.

But then DeeDee added, “As for three meddlesome clones, and you know who you are, you’re in big trouble,” and she eyed three clones hiding themselves behind Janet’s back.

Janet blinked and said, “What are you talking about?”

DeeDee pointed behind her.

So Janet turned around and saw three of her clones (one in a soiled linen dress and one in a bloodstained commoner’s dress and one in a bloodstained ball gown) looking guilty as hell and said, “What did you do?”

The one in the bloodstained ball gown said, blinking the light of the lamp in her hand, “We only wanted to punish the Prince, that’s all.”

“WHAT?” Janet said.

“But we took it too far,” added the one in the bloodstained commoner’s dress, blinking her own lamplight.

“What did you do to him?” Janet said.

“Yes, tell us,” DeeDee added. “What did you do?”

At their questions, the clone in the bloodstained ball gown and the clone in the bloodstained commoner’s dress both pointed out the now-silent one in the soiled linen dress and said, blinking their lamplights, “It was her idea!”

“I didn’t mean to make his Highness act like that, I swear!” said the clone in the soiled linen gown, blinking the light of her lamp. “I just wanted to get back at him for what he did to us in our past lives!”

So Janet said, “DeeDee, what happened?”

“It was during his Highness’s summons this afternoon,” DeeDee said, crossing her arms over her chest. “The Prince accused you of haunting his dreams, because your clones messed with him during his nap. I think that’s why your father’s waiting for you at your dorm. Also, he had you wearing that voice-capture amulet for two days without telling you, so you must have revealed your clones at certain points in both days.”

Janet grimaced, wondering just how much her father found out, and resigned herself to being outed and said, “What about my saintesss candidacy and title?”

“Play it by ear,” DeeDee said, then stalked over to the three ‘meddlesome’ clones cowering before her. “After this is over, you three are to spend the night with me inside my lamp, where you’ll help me with the things I have in there. I’m still not finished organizing the rest of the inventory of my shop, so you’ll help with that, okay?”

The trio of clones groaned in unison.

“Okayyy?” DeeDee said.

“Okay, okay!” they all said.

“Good,” DeeDee said, then nodded at Lady Graves.

So Lady Graves crouched and placed her hand on the ground, summoning a pair of double doors in the hallway, then stood back up and grabbed the handles and pulled the doors open into the unlighted foyer of Mariana House.

Then the whole group entered, single file: first Janet and her clones, all carrying lamps; then Kevin and Ridley and Lord Underwood with their own lamps; then Mindy Kessler and Jean and Saraya Drevis with their own lamps; then the unusual quintet of DeeDee and RuRu and Rowena and Maxine and Lady Graves bringing up the rear with only DeeDee carrying her own lamp; and then Lady Graves turning around and pushing the double doors shut behind her with the thud of a casket shutting over the face of the dead before they disappeared altogether, leaving behind more rumors of a ghost parade that would be on the lips of the students and faculty the next day and the days to come, for rumors (like the dead) travel fast.

 

It was now almost an hour past midnight, and an antsy Marquess Fleming was getting sore from sitting in an uncomfortable chair for the past five hours. After an afternoon that consisted of attending a summons at the Royal Palace, then a repast with their Majesties the King and Queen, and then a discussion with his peers about what was to be done with his Highness Prince Blaise and that commoner girl Miss Edgeworth, the Marquess began to wonder about Janet’s inexplicable behavior during her moments alone with persons unknown, as evidenced in the recordings of the voice-capture amulet. After the Marquess let Margrave Sydney and Father Robinson and Count Cosgrove and Viscountess Durham and Baron Palmer listen to the contents of the voice-capture amulet for today, confirming the Prince’s atrocious behavior, the King had brought up a telling question: Since the Prince’s behavior was so unusual, did the amulet capture anything unusual about Janet’s own behavior?

The King’s question stung him, yet the Marquess swallowed his qualms and said there was indeed something unusual about her behavior. So the Marquess had them listen to the inexplicable moments in which Janet was talking to herself, which made his peers bring up more questions concerning whether or not Janet was speaking with persons unknown, perhaps even those connected with the missing Lady Childeron and Lady Felton. So he let his audience listen to a telling whispered exchange between Lady Kessler and Janet about seeing and communicating with ghosts, which made his peers bring up questions about Prince Blaise’s now-not-so-delusional observations during the summons, namely, that Janet had been giving the Prince nightmares for some reason before the summons.

Whether or not the Prince’s observation was even trustworthy, their Majesties wanted the Marquess to dig deeper into this matter, so here he was in Janet’s dorm room. After asking Susan and Marin and Diana and Niana and Ellen about today’s events and about the Prince’s actions against Janet in particular, Marquess Fleming started asking about ghosts. Their blanching faces and averting eyes told him he had hit the nail on the head, so he asked more questions, and they answered him with bowed heads. What kind of ghosts did they see? Ones that looked like Lady Fleming. How many ghosts did they see? About thirty of them. Were they the only ones who saw them? No. Who else saw them? Lady Kessler and the Ladies Drevis and Sir Sydney and Lord Woodberry and Baron Underwood and a bossy maid named DeeDee Marionette. Why were they all gathered here? It was for a test of courage. When will they be back? DeeDee said that they’ll be back some time after midnight.

After a long line of questioning, Marquess Fleming had spent the rest of his time entertaining the maids with exaggerated tales of his exploits catching bandits in his territory and criminals in the service of his Majesty the King on behalf of the people with the help of Margrave Sydney. As such, for the next several hours, the Marquess had his sparkly-eyed audience hanging on his every word—

Till the double doors opened, revealing Janet and many copies of her, as well as her friends he had met back in the courtyard and DeeDee and a woman he did not recognize. All of them, except for the unknown woman, were carrying lamps in their hands, and all of them halted at the threshold looking at him sitting at the table with the maids.

He stood up from his chair and approached this lugubrious group in the doorway, wondering if he was hallucinating all of those copies of Janet after an exhausting afternoon, yet there they stood as clear as day. At first, he opened his mouth to say something, yet words escaped him. Even after listening to the contents of the voice-capture amulet and discussing the subject of ghosts with his peers during dinner, what could he say about this development?

“I can explain,” Janet said.

“I hope so,” the Marquess said, then sat back down without realizing there was no chair behind him—

And fainted.

 

“Father!” Janet said, rushing over and crouching and dropping her lamp on the floor and then shaking her father by the shoulders without rousing him. “Sue, get the smelling salts! Someone, help me carry him!”

While Susan ran out of the room to get the smelling salts in the servants’ quarters next door, Janet hooked her arms under her father’s armpits and lifted him up to a sitting position, then let Kevin and Ridley do the heavy lifting. They discarded their lamps atop the tea table and then grabbed the Marquess by the arms and dragged him over to the bed, and then Janet grabbed a hold of her father’s legs and helped the two boys lift him up and onto the bedsheets.

All the while, the rest gathered around the bed, yet DeeDee and RuRu asked the clones and the others to give them space. Just then, Susan came back moments later with the required items, parting the group before her and giving them to Janet, who placed the smelling salts under her father’s nose and waited for them to take effect.

The Marquess then jolted awake, his eyes snapping open and his mouth taking in a huge gulp of air. Then he started sitting up and saying, “Where are they? Where did they—”

“Don’t get up yet!” Janet said.

The Marquess seemed to calm down at Janet’s presence, till he turned his head towards the others in the room, specifically towards Janet’s clones, then opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out like before.

“Father, calm down! Please, calm down!”

So Arnold Fleming looked at Janet, then at Janet’s clones, then back at Janet again and said, “Is this really happening? I’m not hallucinating?”

“No, they’re all real, Father,” Janet said. “We’re all here, and it’s not just my clones, either.”

“Wait,” Arnold said. “What do you mean?”

Janet looked over her shoulder, saying, “Mom, get my lamp.”

“Are you sure?” the unseen Rowena said amidst the other unseen members of this gathering, Maxine and Lady Graves, while the clones all told her not to worry.

“It’s okay,” Janet said. “You’re here, too.”

“Janet, is your mother really here with us?” Arnold said.

Janet turned back to her father and nodded with a smile, then said, “Mom, it’s okay.”

So Rowena separated herself from the rest and headed towards the lamp on the floor, picked it up off the ground and appeared bodily before her husband’s eyes. She smiled at Arnold gaping back at her as she approached her husband on the bed like a walking vision out of a fairy tale.

“It’s been quite a long time, Arnold,” Rowena said, her voice blinking the light of the lamp in her hand. “I hope you’ve been doing well in my absence.”

At this, Arnold burst out laughing in hysterics and said, “I’ve been managing somehow.”

But then Arnold became silent as if the weight of this family gathering had finally come to him like the shards of a broken dream getting pieced back together before his eyes. At that moment, when he broke down crying into his hands and said he was sorry for making a scene, Janet hugged her father, saying, “It’s okay, Dad! We’re all here now!”

Janet’s clones came up to their father’s bedside, all of them with tears in their eyes, all of them wanting to hold their father’s hands and let him know that they had always loved him even after none of them had the chance to say so in their last living moments. And so, with DeeDee and RuRu and Lady Graves and Maxine and Kevin and Ridley and Mindy and the Drevis sisters and Baron Underwood bearing witness to this family reunion, Janet and her clones shared this moment in the presence of their parents, and for the first time in years, Janet felt herself complete and secure.

When they all had their fill of tears, Janet let go of her father and looked back at DeeDee with the rest of the group, who then nodded her head at her. So Janet turned back and said, “Dad, I have to tell you something.”

“All right, just give me a moment,” Arnold said and swung his booted legs over the bedside.

“Are you sure you should be up?” Janet said.

“I’m fine,” Arnold said, standing up and raising his arms into a stretch, then went over to the tea table as the other maids vacated their seats, then took his former seat and waved Janet over. “Come and sit. I’ll listen to whatever you have to say, but in return, you’ll need to listen to what I have to say. It’s important, you see.”

“Does it have to do with his Highness?”

“No,” he said. “It has to do with someone else.”

Janet was about to ask who, but Rowena beat her to the punch, blinking the lamplight and saying, “Arnold, are you talking about Astor, by any chance?”

“Yes,” he said. “Both of you, come over.”

So Janet and Rowena went over and sat at the table, Janet facing her father from the opposite chair and Rowena sitting in between them, while Janet’s clone all crowded around Janet’s side of the table.

Then DeeDee said, “Janet, Rowena, my Lord Marquess, we’ll give you some time to yourselves.”

“Thank you, Miss Marionette,” he said.

“Call me DeeDee, my Lord,” DeeDee said. “You’ve visited my shop before, so we’re not strangers.”

“Thank you, DeeDee,” Arnold said. “Then answer me.”

“What is it, my Lord?” she said.

“Who are you, really?” Arnold said, gazing at her up and down. “I can tell from the items you carry in your shop that you’re no ordinary shopkeeper.”

“If you must know, my Lord, I’m DeeDee Marionette, Guardian of the Aether,” DeeDee said in a curtsey, then introduced RuRu and added, “And this is my younger sister RuRu Marionette, Guardian of the Darkness.”

And so, RuRu curtseyed.

The Marquess looked at Rowena, so Rowena bit her lip and said, “DeeDee’s the one I channeled in our séance to locate Astor’s whereabouts during our honeymoon.”

“Ah, I see,” the Marquess, then looked at the three young men. “And what of those three fellows over there? I saw them at the courtyard this afternoon, but I didn’t have a chance to greet them at the time.”

So Baron Underwood bowed to the Marquess, saying, “Pleased to meet you, my Lord Marquess. I’m Baron Simeon Underwood, the second son of Viscount Underwood. I’m the club advisor of Lady Fleming and her friends here.”

“Ah, I’ve heard of your father,” the Marquess said. “He’s a very shrewd man who knows his way around town.”

“Thank you, my Lord,” the baron said.

Then Kevin Sydney bowed and said, “Pleased to meet you, as well, my Lord Marquess. I’m Sir Kevin Sydney, the third son of Margrave Sydney. Lady Fleming and I share the same table in Classroom 1-3G.”

“Ah, I see,” the Marquess said. “Ah, thank you for looking after my daughter all this time.”

“You’re welcome, my Lord,” Kevin said.

Then Ridley Woodberry bowed and said, “Pleased to meet you, my Lord Marquess. I’m Lord Ridley Woodberry, the son of Duke Woodberry. If I may be so bold, I’d like to apologize for his Highness’s conduct against Lady Fleming during lunch earlier today. I tried talking sense into him yesterday morning, but he’s a bit of a hard case.”

“I know,” the Marquess said. “I’ve witnessed his stubbornness myself during the summons. Thank you for taking my daughter to infirmary today and yesterday, and thank you all,” he added, bowing his head to the three of them, “for looking after her in my absence.”

Now all three young men bowed, in unison, and said, “Thank you, my Lord.”

“Oh, and Arnold,” Rowena added, waving over the unseen Lady Graves and Maxine from the group, who both obliged her and approached the table, “I want you to meet two others with me in this room,” and she had them put their hands over Janet’s lamp on the table.

And lo and behold! Lady Graves and Maxine appeared in front of the Marquess muck like Rowena had.

“This is Lady Celeste Graves,” Rowena said.

“I’m honored to make your acquaintance, my Lord Marquess,” Lady Graves said, blinking the lamplight on the table. “I’m Lady Celeste Graves, the Protector of all saintess candidates in Lassen Academy.”

“Ah, the honor’s mine,” he said.

“And this is Abbess Maxine Diddly,” Rowena added.

“Pleased to make your acquaintance, my Lord Marquess,” Maxine said. “I’m Abbess Maxine Diddly, former Abbess of St. Avalon’s Abbey and former overseer of St. Avalon’s Orphanage. I met you and Marchioness Fleming when you were looking for Astor. Do you remember?”

“Yes, I remember,” Arnold said, then looked over at Janet’s three female club mates. “Are you three Lady Kessler, Lady Jean Drevis, and Lady Saraya Drevis?”

“Yes, we are, my Lord Marquess,” Mindy said, as they all curtseyed before him. “I’m Lady Mindy Kessler, the daughter of Count Kessler.”

Then Jean said, “I’m Lady Jean Drevis, the daughter of Viscount Drevis.”

And Saraya added, “I’m Lady Saraya Drevis, also the daughter of Viscount Drevis.”

“Pleased to meet you all,” he said, “and thank you for befriending my daughter.”

“You’re welcome, my Lord,” Mindy said. “Lady Fleming’s a good friend.”

“By the way,” he added, “I’ve heard of your evictions during the summons. Do you need a place to stay?”

“Thank you, my Lord,” Mindy said, “but we’ll be staying here for the time being.”

“Are you sure?” he said.

“Yes, we’re sure,” Mindy said.

“I put one of my mirrors inside this room, my Lord, to secure it from getting infiltrated,” DeeDee added, pointing to the full-length mirror standing against the wall in between the armoire closet and the vanity table.

“Ah, I see,” Arnold said.

“After getting evicted from our dorms in Guinevere House this morning,” Mindy added, “we wanna stay here in Mariana House. At least, we know it’s safe here.”

“All right then. Good to know,” he said.

Now DeeDee started herding Janet’s club mates and her club advisor and then Maxine and Lady Graves and even RuRu towards the double doors, saying, “Everyone, let’s give them some privacy. Oh, and Janet, dear.”

“Yeah?” Janet said.

“Just let me know when you’re done, and I’ll let Mindy and Jean and Saraya back in,” DeeDee said, then told Kevin and Ridley and Baron Underwood to go back to their dorms and added that Mindy and the Drevis sisters can hang out in the servants’ quarters in the meantime. Once they were all out in the hallway, DeeDee pulled the double doors shut behind her, leaving Janet and her clones alone with their parents.

Moments passed in silence.

Then Arnold said, “Go ahead, Janet.”

“Um, how much do you know already?” Janet said.

“Enough to know that the past two days in school have been difficult for you,” he said. “And from what the voice-capture amulet managed to catch, I’ve also heard you talking with your clones at certain points in both days, so I have a clear idea of what must have happened at school. Why don’t you start at the point after I left for the summons?”

When Janet gulped, bracing herself for a long and painful confession, Rowena grabbed Janet’s hand and then grabbed a hold of Arnold’s hand as if Rowena was alive. This reassured Janet, so she told her father everything that had transpired after he had gone off that afternoon to attend the Prince’s summons. At various points in her narrative, the Marquess asked questions on certain details concerning her meeting with Lady Graves and Rowena and RuRu and Maxine, and Janet filled him on those encounters, thereby filling in the details of the reawakening of her darkness affinity and her contract signing at midnight with her friends and the subsequent sparring match with RuRu, which got the Marquess laughing. Yet all the while, Janet skipped the parts dealing with her saintess candidacy and her title, because she wasn’t sure how he would react.

But when Janet recalled the experiment in which she and the others witnessed her ex-suicide clone’s murder at the Prince’s hands before his own suicide moments later, Janet was forcing herself through this part of the narrative, fisting her hands to stop them from trembling, telling just enough for her father to reach across the table and hold her hands.

“It’s okay, Janet,” he said. “I’ve got the gist of it already. Please, don’t say any more.”

Janet nodded as her clones crowded around her and hugged her, so Rowena placed her hand over Arnold and Janet’s hands on the table while still holding onto the lamp in her other hand. After a time, the clones and Rowena let go of Janet as she was just beginning to recuperate herself.

Again moments passed.

During the interval, Janet thought about telling her father of her saintess candidacy and her title but decided to ‘play it by ear’ and bide her time. For now, Janet took a deep breath and said, “Mom, Dad, is there something I should know about Astor Bartleby?”

Her parents nodded their heads.

“Then tell us,” Janet said, including her clones gathered around, “and I’ll tell you something else.”

“Why not just tell me now?”

“Because it’s important,” she said.

The Marquess smiled with a flash of his red eyes and said, “You’ve improved at negotiating.”

“It’s not a negotiation, Father,” she said.

Marquess Fleming eyed Janet and her clones, saying, “What I’m about to divulge is officially off the record, so keep this to yourselves. Understand?”

Janet and her clones all nodded.

“All right,” he said. “Have you heard from Count Kessler’s Memory Times newspaper about certain masked incognitos lurking around the Student Commons Town?”

“I have,” Janet said.

“Who did you hear that from?” he said.

“From Lady Kessler,” Janet said. “She was talking about them while we were out in the cemetery this evening.”

“I see,” the Marquess said.

Janet paused, looking at her father as something clicked in her mind about those tabloid stories, something that made her gasp and gape.

“Ah, do you get it now, Janet?” he said.

“No fucking way!” Janet said under her breath, then cupped her mouth, as the connection between the older cousin she hadn’t seen since she was nine, Astor Bartleby, and the tabloids of incognitos that her friend Mindy had been gossiping about revealed itself. “Are you serious?”

“Very serious,” he said.

“After your father and I got married,” Rowena said, blinking the lamplight again, “we used our honeymoon to investigate Astor’s whereabouts in the Schrader Kingdom after we uncovered rumors of my brother’s murder there with Margrave Sydney’s help. We had him cross the border to the Schrader Kingdom to find any and all information available about the circumstances of the murder there. His findings led us through several border towns in the southern outskirts of this kingdom looking for Astor’s mother, but we couldn’t track her down. So we spent the rest of our honeymoon trying to find Astor’s whereabouts along the border and eventually tracked him down to an orphanage in a town named Old Parr. You know the rest.”

Janet leaned back in her chair, wondering just how far this crazy rabbit hole went, and said, “Mom, Dad, did you both work together incognito?”

“Not really,” the Marquess said. “The incognito part was Astor’s idea. I’ve trained him well enough, but he’s a bit of a showoff. That’s why there are so many rumors of his exploits in the papers.”

“So those tabloid stories—”

“—are exaggerations,” he said, “but there’s a grain of truth in all of them.” Then he looked Janet square in the eyes, making her avert hers from his. “Are you in?”

“You want to recruit me?”

Her father nodded and said, “I can’t always look after you while you’re here, and I’ve got my hands tied with the debacle his Highness has caused, and that’s putting it lightly. That boy’s in for a rude awakening tomorrow, and that’s just the start. In the meantime, having Astor keep an eye on things while you’re here kills two birds with one stone. He’s been asking me about you, anyway.”

“What did he say?” Janet said.

“He said he wants to meet you,” he said. “At your convenience, of course. He said he didn’t want to impose.”

“Did you tell him what happened?”

“I will in the morning,” he said. “Are you in?”

Janet stared at her father’s eyes, then at her mother’s eyes, both of which told her the same thing, so she smiled and said, “Yeah, count me in!” But then she bit down on her lower lip, bracing herself for the inevitable—

Which caught her father’s attention, who said, “And what of this ‘something else?’”

“I’ve become a saintess candidate,” Janet said, “and I’ve received a title already from RuRu.”

Her parents stared at her, their eyes wide and their mouths agape, till Marquess Fleming got up from his chair and kneeled before Janet like a knight.

“Father, wait a minute! What are you—”

“I swear to protect you!” he said, looking up at Janet and her clones and then at Rowena as he shed tears before averting his face in a teeth-gritting grimace. “What I couldn’t do for your mother or for your clones, I swear on my life to do for you. With everything at my disposal, I will make sure you won’t suffer the same fate!”

So Janet kneeled and hugged her father in her arms, while her clones and her mother gathered around them and put their hands on their shoulders.

End of Villainess [5]

[End of Volume 1]