We watched as the two men slipped off the veranda and down the steps. Shortly after, a telltale plume of cigarette smoke rose up from behind the hedges. Like two schoolboys, they’d slipped out of the party to go have a smoke.

I glanced back at Piper. She was glaring at the shrubbery as if she could light it on fire with her fury alone.

“True to form, he’s off smoking. I heard she told him he had to quit, but that was years ago. Now he’s wandered off, doing whatever he wants and leaving his bride alone,” Viv said. “I hope she gets used to that.”

It was a depressing observation. I finished my wine. “How much longer do you think it’ll be before dinner?”

“At least another twenty minutes,” Andre said. He glanced at his watch. “Maybe we should mingle.”

Viv looked appalled and I was right there with her, but I also had more pressing matters to attend to. “Sorry, you’ll have to make chitchat without me. I’m off to find the loo.”

“Leave a trail of bread crumbs,” Viv suggested.

“Or just follow the sounds of misery, which is this cocktail hour,” Andre said.

I lifted my empty glass to them and headed back into the castle, depositing the glass at the bar on my way.

I stepped into the dining room to find the staff hurriedly prepping the room by filling the water glasses and placing baskets of warm rolls and accompanying butter dishes on the tables. I picked up my pace as I did not want to miss the call to dinner. Out of the dining room, I assumed there would be a bathroom close by. I assumed wrong.

I wandered down the hallway, glancing into each room I passed. Lots of parlors, sitting rooms, a music room, which I had to examine from harp to grand piano to gong—yes, there was an actual gong—but no restroom. I turned around and went back the way I came, choosing a different hallway on my return. No luck. I tapped my foot with impatience. Twenty-plus minutes had definitely passed and I was certain they had begun serving dinner. I looked about for a staff member but they must have all been called to the dining room. There was no one around. I kept going.

Desperate, I tried the first doorknob to my right and opened it, not expecting it to be a bathroom but checking anyway. It wasn’t a bathroom. It was the library, the same one Harrison and I had stumbled upon earlier. I glanced back at the hallway. It did look familiar.

I weighed my need to find a facility against my curiosity about the castle’s book collection and, naturally, the books won. I stepped through the door and turned to take in the entire room. The excitement I felt quickly morphed into dread.