The moment we left the office, I called out after Karl’s rapidly retreating back.
“What do you mean, I’d exacerbate the situation?”
He ignored me on a regular basis, but this time, I was determined to chase him down and demand an answer. Seeming to pick up on that, he stopped in place and turned around with an annoyed air.
“I mean that there is nothing you can do, Craig Bauer. You realized that he had lost weight, did you not? And yet you overlooked his actual decline in condition. He deflected, dodged, and concealed it from you—the fact that he requested me to keep it secret shows how desperate he must have been to hide it. I imagine you must be enjoying your sweet, easy life, but while you indulge yourself in foolishness, the strain simply shifts elsewhere.”
His calm, matter-of-fact words stabbed directly into my unsteady heart. I’d locked Lord Heinreid away from the eyes of others, and I’d believed that we were closer than anyone—that I understood him better than anyone. This man before me had no interest in Lord Heinreid whatsoever. He always appeared to maintain a certain professional detachment—even now, I still believed that to be the case. But Lord Heinreid had kept his illness hidden from me and revealed it to him.
Karl continued speaking, striking me while I was down.
“Despite His Majesty’s words, I believe it would be best for you to refrain from visiting that man for some time. He will not be able to rest with you present, will he? Neither mentally nor physically.”
His tone was utterly condescending. As I grasped the meaning behind his words, blood rushed to my head. Barely restraining myself from charging over and grabbing him by the collar, I glared into the gray eyes behind those glasses.
“What are you implying I’d do to a man on his sickbed?”
“I couldn’t possibly say.”
The former butler gave a small, scornful sniff, then turned on his heel and left me to stew in my anger.