In the Shadows

his face. “I promised my mother I’d be careful.”

“We’ll be careful,” Thomas said, impatiently inching toward

the door. “Besides, it’s nothing to do with your mother.”

Arthur stiffened and Cora went to him, taking his hand in

hers. She wanted to give him another chance to be honest, to prove

she was right to trust him. “My mother told Minnie. About your

parents.”

“You don’t know anything about them,” Arthur said softly,

staring at the floor.

She did, though. She knew all about his father, could tell what

kind of man he was from the ink he bled over hundreds of pages.

Obsessive. Determined. Utterly focused on something bigger than

himself, to the ultimate destruction of his entire family.

What had Arthur inherited from him?

Finally Arthur looked up, a burning intensity in his eyes that

frightened Cora. Suddenly he seemed so much more than quiet,

hidden Arthur. He had never before struck her as . . . dangerous.

“Well, come on, then. You want your answers so desperately. Let’s

go get them.”

Thomas’s cut of a smile matched Arthur’s expression. “All

right. I have a couple of knives in my room. Cora, you stay here

with Minnie and Charles. Keep together and don’t leave the

boardinghouse.”

She nodded and, fretting, watched them head up the stairs.

The door to the piano room right next to her creaked open.

Minnie and Charles peered out. “Is the coast clear?” Minnie asked.

Cora frowned. “Yes.”

“Well, let’s go! If we want to beat them all and have enough

time to hide in the boathouse, we’ll have to hurry!”

She grabbed Cora’s hand, Charles on her other side, and ran out