Chapter Twenty-Seven
Cricket left Mistress Eliza to her cards and found Zephyr outside a nearby tent sharpening his blade.
“Did you follow me over here?” she asked, sinking down beside him.
“Possibly,” he drawled.
She rolled her eyes. “At least you didn’t barge in.”
“A thank you gift will be sufficient.” He chuckled, then sobered. “How did it go?”
Cricket recounted the conversation between her and Mistress Eliza, how the necromancer wanted her to travel with the carnival. And that Cricket decided she would return to them after helping the authorities in any way she could.
“I’ll stay here with you until you leave,” Zephyr said.
She shook her head, placing her hand on his arm. “Don’t. You and the carnival have lost so much, and I know performing is an escape for you. You need it. I promise I’ll come to you.”
“That’s a promise you’ll have to keep then.” He winked. “After I take you to Anika’s, I’ll leave for my aunt’s. I won’t be back until late into the night, but can I take you on a picnic in the morning? I still owe you one.”
“I would love that. And I still owe you a favor.”
“Oh, it will come soon enough.” He smirked.
She went with Zephyr to collect his pack for the short journey to Sorel before taking a horse back to the manor together. He helped her down from the mare, and he didn’t hesitate to pull her close, his arms folded around her. With those shapely lips of his, he kissed her, worshiped her mouth as he backed her into one of the pillars.
He slipped his tongue between her lips, and the kiss deepened. She never would’ve stopped kissing him if it wasn’t for a meek voice gasping, “Oh my,” behind them.
Heat flooded her neck and cheeks as she stepped away from Zephyr to find one of the servants, Nettie, carrying a basket of lavender. Zephyr didn’t appear embarrassed in the slightest. Instead, his hooded eyes peered at Cricket as if he wanted to devour her again.
“See you tomorrow morning, lovely Cricket,” he purred, capturing her lips once more.
Somehow, she forced herself to peel away from him, and as soon as she brought her hand up to knock on the door, it flew open to Anika, the widest of smiles lighting up her face. “Now that is what I call a kiss.”
Breeta sat in the chair, appearing flushed herself as she stitched at a rapid pace. “Perhaps it’s best you not do that again in front of a window for all to see.”
Cricket fought a smile as Anika motioned her inside, then she took a seat across from Breeta. A servant brought them sandwiches and tea, and they spent a long while chatting. Cricket shared every detail of the carnival’s inner workings with them until the sound of a horse’s hooves filled the afternoon air, and Bram returned. He shoved the front door open, his normally calm gaze wild. When his eyes met hers, he sighed. “Cricket, you’re all right. I didn’t know if you would be back yet.”
“I’m fine. What is it?” she asked, exchanging a worried glance with Anika.
“I need to talk to the two of you.” His gaze drifted to Breeta. “Alone.”
Breeta didn’t argue as she gathered her things and hurried out of the room.
Bram took off his hat and raked a hand through his disheveled hair. “Miles has been working on something in secret. It’s about the dahlias. He kept the ones Charles had with him and then the others after that instead of disposing of them.”
“Is he the one doing this?” Anika hissed.
“No, he suspected that the dahlias found in Charles’s satchel had belonged to one of the more recent victims, and he wanted to find out if his theory was correct. I wish he had told me, but after the incident with Charles, he wanted to ensure he could do this without someone turning on him.”
“What did he find out?” Anika asked.
Cricket bit her lip, wondering if it had led them to where the flowers were either grown or being sold.
“I don’t believe the dahlias were purchased from anywhere. These flowers aren’t withering as they should. They remain in full bloom as if under a spell of some sort,” Bram said, taking two from his satchel.
Cricket flinched, praying these flowers weren’t the ones that had been on Juniper. But she had to touch one for herself. She ran her fingers across its petals, which were soft to the touch, perhaps even familiar. The hair on her arms rose like needles at the strange feeling.
“I believe the murderer is someone at the carnival,” he continued. “I didn’t before, but even when the carnival was in Sorel, there would be enough time to journey here and back if they rode fast enough.”
A horrific thought crossed her mind—she was the only performer who could bloom dahlias, ones that she recently found out she could cut from herself.
Bram held up both flowers. “The dahlia in my right hand is from a victim, and the other in my left is from you . I saved it after the inn but hadn’t looked at it again until today. Without water, it hasn’t withered a fraction. It’s as if it’s just been plucked from a stem.”
“It’s not me. I didn’t do it,” she said, her voice hard.
“Of course she didn’t.” Anika glared at Bram.
“I don’t think you did anything, Cricket,” he started, lowering his voice. “For one thing, you were never alone at the pub when a murder occurred. I believe someone took them from you without you knowing. You told me you passed out several times, and Zephyr was alone with you.”
“Zephyr?” she hissed. “Are you mad? He has nothing to do with this.”
“You’ve also been sleeping with him at night,” Anika murmured. “Could he have? Don’t think about it with your emotions.”
Cricket covered her mouth as she remembered Zephyr carrying her when the darkness took over. She supposed he could’ve taken some then, but what about before that? Another image struck her like lightning, cracking a tree in half. His curiosity feels hers, and if he’d been around her while she was the Sleeping Darling, could he have done something then? Drawn them forward, then snipped a few off? Thinking back to the pub, he’d also been there when the victim was murdered… Could a blond man have been relieving himself at the same time as Zephyr, and he’d chosen to kill him? Had dahlias been hidden in his satchel? Then there was the incident when she’d found the note pinned to the tree. He’d been the first to arrive, and she hadn’t seen him enter the woods. Would he have been quick and sneaky enough to do these things? Perhaps even rip their rib cages apart with his vines?
Cricket’s hands shook, and her lungs clamped—she didn’t think she could breathe. “His curiosity might be able to pull mine forward… But it can’t be. That would mean he murdered his own sister.”
Bram pursed his lips. “People murder family members all the time. I’ve seen unbelievably gruesome things done to them.”
“Were you awake with him the whole night when Juniper died?” Anika asked.
Cricket had blamed herself for Zephyr being with her instead of his sister, but they had been asleep for most of the night. Or perhaps it was just her... Would she have heard him sneaking out if she was deep in sleep, exhausted from him pleasuring her and with everything else that had been going on? “Not the whole night, no. But it couldn’t be,” she finally answered. “What about when the carnival was in Sorel? What of those dahlias?”
Bram gripped the back of his neck. “The flowers from the earlier victims were disposed of, and perhaps those had been ones from somewhere else. It’s another reason I need to question him.”
“He won’t be back until late since he went to Sorel to meet his aunt and tell her of Juniper’s death. I don’t know her name or where she lives.”
“Bloody hell,” Bram grumbled.
Cricket bit the inside of her cheek, part of her not wanting to tell him this, but the sooner Bram questioned Zephyr, the sooner they could all move on to the real murderer. It was impossible that Zephyr had killed his own sister… “He’s meeting me here in the morning for breakfast.”
Bram jerked his head up. “That’s perfect. It doesn’t give him a chance to run, and I want to question him before anyone else at the carnival in case they were to warn him.”
“I’m going upstairs to bathe, if that’s all right?” Cricket whispered, needing to think.
“Of course,” Anika said, taking her arm in hers and helping her up the stairs as though Cricket might collapse at any moment.
“I’ll be fine.” But would she really if Zephyr had done it? No. He’d even helped her unbury a body. That would mean all along, he knew he was the one who murdered the victim. The very thought was absolutely preposterous.
Cricket remained in the bath until the water turned cold. She couldn’t get herself to eat more than a few bites of fruit, and she avoided everyone for the rest of the day as she tried to sift through her thoughts. None of it was making sense, or was it? If Zephyr needed to be questioned, she concluded that she would be the one to do it. The way he was with his sister, bringing her trinkets… He couldn’t have. She was starting to loathe herself for doubting him for even a second.
Pulling back the curtains, she peered out at the night. Zephyr said he would be home late, so she would go to him and wait if he wasn’t there yet. The halls were silent, and Bram and Anika had already gone to bed. Only two servants stood in the sitting room, watching over the manor. She descended the steps, and no one said anything as she passed. After all, she was a guest.
Cricket quietly drew open the door and slipped out into the night. She waited for a servant outside guarding the home to round the side of the manor before she hurried through the garden. Making certain her footfalls remained light, she kept to the shadows and went out the gate, then down the road to the carnival.