The list had seven names on it when Eli and I were done.
Seven people who had known the original Damien Valecrest with enough proximity and enough attentiveness to potentially notice what Evelyne had noticed. Not all of them were threats in the same way or to the same degree. Three were servants who had been part of the Valecrest household before the marriage and had since been folded into the Blackwood estate staff, people who interacted with me regularly enough that any significant behavioral inconsistency would have already registered clearly if it was going to. Two were distant family associates who had attended the same social circuit as the original Damien for years and still appeared at court occasions where I was present. One was an old business associate of the Valecrest house who came through the estate on trade matters twice yearly.
And one was Eli.
