5: Who Was Behind The Fire?

On the second day, Carra took Nella and Vira to the small burnt courtyard. She had lived in this small circumscribed for more than ten years. She was three years old when her mother died, and was brought up by Angela.

Angela never liked Sophia. So naturally, it was impossible for her to like the daughter Sophia left behind. 

When the great lady, Madame Mildred, was around, the Cawthorne family was still able to restraint themselves. So Carra's life was pretty decent then. But since Madame Mildred was disheartened due to the loss of the old man, and secluded herself in the monastery, Angela had become the mistress of the Copperstone castle. Immediately afterwards, she threw Carra to the remotest part of the castle. Over the years, the deserted courtyard was left on its own.  

And now, the small courtyard burned by the fire had become more and more dilapidated, with traces of smoke everywhere. Since the small courtyard was originally an unmaintained place, Vira deliberately refused to let anybody in or out, under Carra's instructions. So the fire scene was not damaged much.

Before entering the burned chamber, Carra signaled Nella and Vira to tie their facial scarves. Although several days have passed, there would still be some harmful gases and coal dust at the fire site. If they didn't put on veils, their nostrils and mouths could be filled with black smoke quickly, which could in turn hurt their bodies after a time.

Well prepared, they entered the room. Carra quietly observed the surroundings of the chamber. To find the cause of the fire, she must first determine where the fire started, or to be more precise, determine the source of the fire.

She started from the slightly damaged outer chamber. She was looking carefully, not dismissing anything or any corner of the room. There was no other way for her anyway. In this world, there were no mordern technical tools. She could only rely on her own eyes.

Nella and Vira watched quietly from the side, glancing strangely at Carra. At this time, there was something disturbing about her eyes. They were violet. The same eye color as those of the ruling elders of the Lycan clan. Suddenly, they had a strange feeling that the young lady wasn't exactly what she appeared to be. She seemed otherworldly. The calm and wise light radiating from her purple eyes made her look unreal.

"Nella, you said you slept here that day, didn't you?" Carra asked, placing her hand on one of the small beds in the outer chamber.

"Yes, my lady." Nella replied. "That day, I lay down here and fell asleep. For some reason I don't know, I was already in deep sleep as soon I lay down. When I woke up, I found myself outside. At that time, the fire in the room had grown big that I couldn't find you no matter how hard I tried. I was about to risk the fire when I saw you coming out of the room before collapsing at the door."

In that case, someone must have done something to her, otherwise Nella wouldn't have fallen asleep so easily and deeply, Carra reasoned. She looked closely along the window sill, and suddenly found some white powder on the side of the window sill, which was not very conspicuous because it had a mixture of the black smoke and dust.

She told Nella to put the white and black powder in a silk scarf and wrap it tightly, then she went inside.

The interior was the place where Carra slept. It was neither big nor did it have much furniture. It was a simple room in the sense of it. She could imagine how bleak the original owner of her body's days were in the Copperstone castle. The girl had lived here for more than ten years without her mother and most of the time, without her father too. Yet she still grew up. 

Although Carra realized that Vira and Nella had contributed the most to keeping her alive. If it wasn't for the meticulous care and protection of the two, the girl would not have grown up as she did. It was a pity that, after all, it was impossible to guard against fate.

At the age of eighteen, she was supposed to marry into the ruling Lycan family, the Arthurians. Even if she was not loved by the prince, at least she would have a decent identity and status, higher than that of an ordinary Machan. But just like that, she died in a muddled manner. It was really an exemplary, miserable fate.

Carra felt distressed for the misery of the dead girl. This strengthened her conviction. Now, she must try her best to live a good life for them both. From now on, she would no longer be trampled on.

Gathering her thought, she looked closely along the wall. Her family and the local authorities had classified the fire as an accident. In these medieval times, accidents such as fires were common for houses with wooden structures and who frequently made use of candle oil lamps. 

But Carra didn't think so.

If it was the burning caused by candles or other sources, there would be smoldering at first, and then there would be an open flame, and considering the degree of burned leftovers, it was not like this.

She noticed that there was an ink painting that dropped from the crack in the wall behind the dressing cabinet. This artwork was painted by Sophia during her lifetime and was the dead girl's favorite painting. This painting had been hanging on the wall above. 

Carra picked up the painting and examined it. She noticed that only one corner of the painting was burned, and most of the area was not overly burned. What more, there was no trace of smoke.

The wooden frame of the painting was intensely carbonized. The carbonized and uncarbonized parts were clearly differentiated, and the inclination angle was very straight. This meant that when the fire reached this painting, it was already an open flame.

There was an open flame that ignited the painting which was originally hung on the wall. After the painting was ignited, it fell from the wall into the gap between the dressing cabinet and the wall due to the force, causing the fire to be extinguished without completely burning the painting.

So where did this open fire come from? The dressing table was near the window. She checked it, and found that there were signs of the window being pried open. So, it meant that someone purposely opened the window that night and set the chamber on fire, which partially engulfed the painting.

After the painting was ignited, it fell off the wall and happened to be caught in this gap. The combustion was completely extinguished. As fate would have it, this painting, left by Sophia before her death became the key to finding the truth about the fire.

But how would she spot this arsonist? She frowned slightly in thought. The person who set fire to her chamber late at night must be someone in the castle. She left her chamber, came outside, and stood by the window. Outside the window was some mud that the previous girl used to plant some flowers in her leisure time.

Looking carefully, Carra quickly really found a pair of footprints. Because they were previously covered by a few hibiscus flowers next to them, she couldn't easily spot them.

Carra, who had been engaging in forensic forensic work for many years, could see at a glance that the pair of footprints were heavy and light. It was obvious that the owner of the pair of footprints was a lame person. 

So she asked chamber maids. "Is there anyone in the house who partially limps?"

Nella and Vira looked at each other for a while, and thought of one person, Lancelot.

Lancelot was a human chef in the castle. He was hired a few months ago. He was usually polite to Nella and Vira. He was not like some of the servants who gave them annoying looks because of Carra's predicaments. So, the two had a good impression of him. 

For Nella in particular, she found it difficult to believe that Lancelot, a human, could be the one who set fire to the chamber of their lady, a machan. What could be his reason for doing so? There was no grudges or grievances between the two. So why wuld he want to kill the first daughter of lord Livongstone? Not possible. Nella had serious doubts about this.

"Well, you can't really know the heart of people." Vira sighed. 

"Do you really think he could do this?"

Carra and Vira looked at each other, noting that the girl Nella was really naive. If it weren't for someone behind it, what would be the benefit to Lancelot, a human, who had just come to the Copperstone castle, to set fire to Carra's solitary courtyard for no reason?

The question should be: who was the mastermind behind Lancelot? Was it Angela or Audrey, or did the two of them conspired against her? Was it someone else entirely? All these questions Carra could not answered at this time, so she could only use this chef, Lancelot, to find the answers.

However, there was an obstacle to that. Lancelot might be a chef in Copperstone castle, he was not in her service. And with Carra's level of power in the castle, which was almost nothing, there was no way she could get him to cooperate with her investigation. After all, this was an otherworldly medieval world. She would need a big support.

At this time, the only person she could think of, was Madame Mildred. Her own grandmother.