Her Dark Curiosity (The Madman's Daughter 2)

So what were these bodies supposed to tell me? If he meant me no harm, why hide behind such macabre gestures of affection?

It’s different with you, Juliet, Edward had said. We belong together.

He’d been wounded before he’d been able to explain what he meant by that plea for help. As I leaned against the brick wall, body ravaged by too many warring emotions, I wondered if Edward Prince had come back to London with that in mind. Not to destroy my life with rumors, not to claw out my heart, but to confess his love once more.

A hundred uncertainties twisted at my heart. The question was, Who else had to die first? Who else had wronged me? I could give him a list, I thought blackly, starting with Dr. Hastings. But I immediately regretted such thoughts. The truth was, he had to be learning about all these people from somewhere. No one knew about Annie stealing that ring except for Lucy. Perhaps she told someone; perhaps she wrote it in a journal that he’d found.

Could he be following Lucy, too?

Before I knew it, my feet were racing along the streets toward Lucy’s neighborhood, throwing glances over my shoulder. I didn’t dare involve her in any of this, and yet I needed to make sure she was safe. Edward could be anywhere. I made my way toward her house in the finest part of town, where the muddy snow had been cleared from the streets. Every manor was stately here, even finer than in the professor’s neighborhood, and each home was decorated for the holidays in the latest fashions with mistletoe over the entryway.

Lucy’s family’s mansion was impossible to miss, a four-story red-brick palace on the most prominent corner, by far the grandest house in Belgravia. A wall of perfectly trimmed hedges designed to keep the riffraff out circled the rounded brick turrets. An iron gate led up the front walk to the imposing entryway topped with a holiday garland that smelled of pine.

I paused by the gate, casting another cautious glance over my shoulder. The smell took me back to my childhood, when I used to come here for parties. We’d had the most beautiful carriage then. I remembered soft lace curtains and peach upholstery. Montgomery would sit up front with the driver, learning his duties as groomsman, while Mother and Father and I rode in silence in the back until we pulled up at this very gate. Montgomery would take my hand—never meeting my eyes, as a proper young groomsman—and help me down from the carriage. The place beneath my left rib throbbed again at the memory.

A door slammed and a maid appeared in an upstairs window with a rug and duster. I started to pull my hood over my hair and duck away, but I reminded myself that I was once again welcomed into this house. The Radcliffes had forbidden Lucy to see me after Father’s scandal, but now that I was ward of the illustrious Professor von Stein, they had no problem smiling at me like nothing had happened. I approached the front door and knocked.

Clara, the maid, answered the door while wiping her hands on a rag. Her face lit up when she saw me. “Miss Juliet! What a treat—we haven’t seen you around here much.” She paused. “You looked like you’ve seen a ghost, miss. Are you ill?”

I shook my head, though she was closer to the truth than she could imagine. “Is Lucy home?”

“She’s in the salon with her aunt. Shall I tell her you’re here?”

I hesitated. My heart thumped with need to see Lucy, to make certain she was safe. But with her aunt in the room, I wouldn’t be able to speak openly. “I didn’t realize she had company. I’d really wanted to speak with her alone. If you’ll just pass along the message that I came, and have her come visit as soon as she can . . .”

“Juliet!” Lucy’s face appeared behind Clara, and she jerked the door open wider. Her frown accused me just as much as the finger pointing at my chest. “You’re not leaving without saying hello, are you?”

Her face was so warm and full of life, after those in the basement. “If you’ve already company—”

“Henry’s here for tea and Aunt Edith is chaperoning. And I’m in desperate need of you, you horrid friend. After you left me alone with John, I practically had to fend him off with an umbrella to keep him from kissing me again.”

“I’ll come back tomorrow. We’ll chat then.”

Lucy folded her arms across her chest. “I’ve told Henry so much about you that he must believe you’re an imaginary friend I invented out of boredom. The least you could do is have a cup of tea with the poor, dull man.”

At the end of the alley a carriage rumbled by in the direction of Covent Garden. I should be headed there now, to get the latest gossip from Joyce about the murders and see what else I could find out about Scotland Yard’s investigation. But Lucy was narrowing her eyes at me, and I said, “All right. Though I can’t stay but a few minutes.”

“We’ll see about that. And Clara, I came to tell you I’ve eaten all the gingerbread cakes and we need more.”

Lucy linked her arm in mine as she dragged me up the main staircase to the parlor. “Thank god the holidays will be over soon, else I’d put on a stone in weight. Oh, I’m so glad you arrived! Henry’s been boring my ears off and I’m desperate for some real conversation. At least he’s nice to look upon.” She caught herself, and quickly added, “Though only in a certain light. Otherwise he’s an ogre.”

We reached the top of the stairs and I tried to brush my hair back and make myself look presentable, when all I could think about was a boy back from the dead.

We entered the parlor, a small but opulent room with a cheerful fire crackling in the ornate fireplace and tea service set out on the low table between the upholstered chairs. Lucy’s aunt, a rather stiff-lipped, dried-out woman, turned when we entered, eyebrows raised at my sudden appearance. Henry was sitting on the sofa with his back to us.

Lucy brushed an errant curl back. “Aunt Edith, Henry, I’d like to introduce you to a dear friend. This is Juliet Moreau.”

I dimly heard my name, but for some reason she sounded far away. Henry had turned at the sound of her voice and was staring at us. At me. Suddenly the room felt too small, as though the furniture was pressing in and the fire consuming all the oxygen. He stood slowly to greet us. I was vaguely aware of Lucy’s aunt standing as well, her mouth moving and sound coming out, but she was no more real than a dress shop mannequin. Everything seemed equally unreal, just vague suggestions of furniture and people.

Everything, that was, except for the young man whose gold-flecked eyes met mine.