His Highness's Second Wife
His Highness’s Second Wife Chapter 72

Marden gulped another glass of alcohol down, leaning back in his chair while his eyes remained on the documents in front of him. She was selling it – she was selling the restaurant. Why was she doing that? She had barely started working it and there was so much money to be made off of it. It was almost ironic that he had found all of that from a client that spilled the secret to one of his bed partners was this why she wanted him to inquire about boat passages to the new continent? He had thought it was a weird request weird, but he had learned not to ask questions that wouldn’t be answered in straight or comprehensible answers.

But if she was leaving, he…

Well, he couldn’t exactly stop her. But she was his business partner and a friend of sorts, so she owed him at least an explanation. And what about the connection between the restaurant and the brothel? Was the next owner going to honor that? Would they also want a percent from the brothel’s earnings? What about the money he owed her? He couldn’t pay her yet. Maybe in another half a year or ten months…

“Ugh,” Marden grunted, his eyes stopping on the half-empty bottle at the edge of his desk. He reached for it, unfastening the stopper, and pouring some more into his glass. When it was half full, he put the bottle away, lifting the glass to his lips.

A loud, terrifying scream erupted somewhere above, echoing through the entire brothel and making the conversation and laughter coming from the reception rooms cease. Marden choked on his drink as he heard it, spilling half of the liquid over his shirt.

“Bloody hell!” He cursed, rising to his feet and putting the cup down. He tried to clean the stain off his new shirt, glaring at the ceiling. What was that about now? Did someone see a cockroach again? It was not like it was going to eat them.

Those things appeared everywhere, no matter what you did, and they couldn’t just disturb the work of others because they were disgusted. It was probably Lisa again. She was the worst of the bunch when it came to bugs.

He almost hoped it was something as stupid. If not that, then probably one of the clients had turned too rough again. They were all warned about that, but some people never learned Marden sighed, heading for the door with unhurried steps. He hated kicking patrons out, but his workers were expensive to hire and they were doing an excellent job, so protecting them was a must. And Lydia had warned him not to let such things pass, or eventually, his clients would start doing whatever they wanted. Especially the more powerful ones.

He opened the door and headed for the staircase when a second scream joined the first.

“I’m coming, I’m coming, damn it.” He murmured to himself, taking two stairs at once until he was on the second floor. He didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, so he proceeded to the third floor. As his head appeared above the landing, he checked the corridor, wondering which room the scream had come from, when he noticed that a few of them were open and a small group had gathered by the last one.

He took the last few steps running, then strode to the end of the corridor, pushing aside both clients in their undergarments and working girls in the nude who were trying to peek inside Hale’s room. When Marden got to the front, he looked inside with a scowl, expecting to see Hale curled in the corner with an angry client demanding a refund.

His pain endurance was worse than most of the girls’ but his regulars liked him and went gentle on him so Marden rarely got complaints about him.

What Marden didn’t expect to see was a body lying on the ground in a pool of b***d with Arissa and one of the bodyguards trying to put pressure on his chest wound. Marden blinked a few times, making sure his blurry vision wasn’t making him see weird things, then took a step forward, then another, until he was kneeling next to Arissa

“What the f**k is going on here?” He asked, looking down at Hale’s pale face. Hale stared at them with a hazy expression, his unnaturally long lashes fluttering tiredly. His thin, feminine lips had turned almost transparent, and there was b***d running from the edge of his mouth. Marden couldn’t see the wound from the cloth the bodyguard was pressing against it, but judging by the amount of b***d on the floor, there was nothing they could do for Hale.

“Marden,” Arissa called, and he looked at her, only to realize she was looking down. He followed her gaze, eyes stopping on Hale’s hand that was reaching out for him. He took it and the young man pulled him weakly, but Marden lowered himself nonetheless.

“Bed,” Hale whispered with a raspy voice full of struggle. Marden frowned in confusion. “Note. Danger.”

Hale started coughing and Marden pulled back, watching as the young guy breathed his last, head rolling to his side as his glassy eyes remained locked on the bed. Marden looked at it as well, then turned to the people watching from the hallway. A few of the girls were crying while another one had dropped to her knees with a blank expression and wide eyes.

“What the f**k happened, Arissa?” Marden turned to the red-headed woman next to him. She had pulled her hands away from the body, covering her mouth.

“I.. I.. I.. don’t k-know!” She said with a panicked expression. Marden stared at her uneasily, wondering if he had ever seen her so shaken. “One of the g-g-girls heard the struggle in the room and a shout so she opened to c-C-check if he was being hurt and saw someone jumping from the W-W-window!”

“When?” He asked.

“T-two minutes ago when she screamed.”

By the time Arissa replied, Marden had jumped to his feet and was sprinting out of the room, pushing past the growing crowd while people kept asking him what was going on. He rushed down the stairs, tripping and almost falling a few times. When he yanking it open and stepping outside. It was for the day and half of the street lamps had already finally reached the first floor, he rushed to the door, already past midnight so everyone else was closed run out of oil, drawing half of the streets in shadows.

There was no one on the street, not even a damn dog digging through the trash or the leftover food some of the owners left for the stupid animals.

Everything was quiet too, the only sounds coming from the brothel, and even then seemed muffled tonight.

Who would want to kill Hale, of all the people? The guy was harmless – he was as weak as a girl and even got scared easier than them. If it wasn’t for his pretty face and his willingness to work with men, Marden would have never taken him in. But apart from one client who got rough with him, there had never been complaints from and for Hale. He didn’t have any enemies, either.

So what could have caused someone to come specifically for him and to leave through the window on the third floor? Who even could do that?

Could they fly or walk over walls? This made no sense.

Was this about what Hale had heard a few nights ago? The boy had told him he had something to report, but Marden had been busy searching for passenger ships and Hale had been booked every night so they never had that talk. What if he had overheard something dangerous?

Bed. He mentioned the bed for some reason. And a note. A bed, a note, and danger. He must have written it down and hid it. He used the last of his words to tell him that. Just how important was that information? probably long gone. Maybe the girl that opened the door saw something – their face, or something distinctive that he could give to the guards and ask to investigate. Maybe Lydia could do her magic and get them to actually try to do their job, even though the victim was a prostitute. It’s not like he was less of a person because of his occupation.

Marden ran a hand through his hair, cursing out loud. Whoever had done it, they were Marden shouldn’t have drunk this much.

He should have been sober for this. “Damn it!” Marden shouted angrily. He stopped and put his hands on his h**s, taking a deep, calming breath. He had to stay calm and deal with this situation properly.

He had to report to the authorities first.

Take care of the body. Notify the family and arrange for a funeral. He… A sharp pain exploded in his back, moving through his body and stopping at his stomach. He looked down in surprise only to see a blade sticking out of his chest, dark b***d dripping on the pavement in front of him. Still in stock from the sight, Marden barely felt the hand that squeezed his shoulder.

“You give bastards a bad name, Marden, so hurry up and die already.” A voice whispered in his ear before the same hand that held him in place, pushed him. He tried to steady himself, but his body felt strangely weak. As he crashed onto the pavement, the pain in his stomach spread like fire, engulfing every inch of his body and making him cry out. He managed to roll to his back, hand reaching for his chest, where something warm and sticky slipped through his fingers.

His vision had turned even blurrier, but he still raised his head and looked around as he heard steps running away. When the figure disappeared from view, he let his head fall back to the ground, staring up at the stars instead.

When he asked Lydia questions sometimes, she often said the stars told her the answer. But looking at them now, they were eerily silent. He wondered if they would tell him who stabbed him just now. Maybe it was the same person who stabbed Hale. That would solve two mysteries at the same time. And what was that about bastards? Since when did the bastards have a good name at all?

“Oh, my gods! Marden!” Arissa’s piercing voice cut through the silence of the night, and a few seconds later a pair of the stomping feet stopped next to him. Arissa’s blurry face appeared in his vision, her lips moving so fast all he could hear was a slurry of words. Finally, he caught the words doctor’ and ‘help’ then she started talking to him again.

Marden closed his eyes tiredly, only to receive a slap on the face. He opened them again, giving Arissa an annoyed look, but she was no longer looking at him. There were more people around too, but they were too fuzzy to recognize.

Marden locked his eyes on the stars again, trying to distract himself from the pain.

“Bed. Note. Danger.” He repeated to himself, wondering if he’d live to replace out what the f**k that meant.