Bloodleaf (Bloodleaf 1)

“He didn’t want to go; I could tell,” she said miserably. “But I didn’t want to stop him.”

“But why? It looked like you had a moment, right before he left . . . Maybe if he had stayed you could have—?”

“This is why.” She pulled a note from her pocket. “Dedrick sent me this yesterday. My mother is coming into town at his behest. He has arranged for me to see her, first thing tomorrow morning. She believes she’s been invited to see a property my father is considering purchasing. I’m going to be waiting there, as a surprise. If Nathaniel knew . . .” She picked at the untrimmed threads on the baby’s dress, shrugging.

Something about the subterfuge felt wrong, but who was I to judge? They all thought my name was Emilie.

I said, “It’s only been a few weeks since I last saw my mother—?and we did not part on the best of terms, either—?but I’d give anything to talk to her. If I knew I could see her, I’d defy anyone who tried to stop me.” I folded my arms. “So I understand how you feel. But it shouldn’t be a secret. Nathaniel doesn’t have to like it, but I do think that he should know.”

“You sound like my mother,” Kate said wryly. “You should come meet her. I think you’d get along.”

“If she’s at all like you, it would be hard not to. But Zan said Molly used to work in the fish market on the waterfront before getting hired in the castle. Maybe someone there could tell me more about her ‘beau.’ Might even be able to get a name.”

“No magic this time? No séance?”

I shook my head. “The only thing I’ve been able to achieve with magic is to make things worse.” I looked at my hands, dotted with tiny cuts in various stages of healing. “I’m going to try another way.”

“Dedrick has a home on the waterfront. It’s where I’m going to meet my mother tomorrow.” She brightened. “We can walk there together.”

* * *

We left at the break of dawn, watching the sun send streaks of soft pink across the sky as it rose. It was almost enough to distract from the muck left from the dead plants. The sour-sweet stench of rot hung over the entire city.

As we approached the waterfront, Kate said, “Keep alert. In this district, it’s easy to leave with empty pockets without spending a single copper.”

Here the scent of decay was overpowered by the smells of fish and unwashed bodies and other, less pleasant aromas. The shouts of haggard, sea-weathered sailors intermingled with the cry of gulls circling above. Kate pointed to a building on the eastern side, a manor of glass and gold, that overlooked the docks like a smug emperor. “There’s Dedrick’s place.” She fidgeted nervously. “Time to go. How do I look?”

“Beautiful,” I said gently. “But your mother won’t care. She’ll just be happy to see you.”

Kate gave me a quick hug. “Wish me luck.”

“Good luck!” I said, but she’d already disappeared into the crowd.

I approached a stall constructed of gray timbers and old tin, near the ghost of a hard-bitten woman whose expression was a mixture of wary suspicion and open hostility. Small wonder: the back of her head was caved in. She sat on a barrel like a gargoyle, while a girl—?a real girl, of flesh and blood—?manned a display of buckets filled with drooping flowers nearby. I approached cautiously from the angle farthest from the ghost; that was one death I preferred not to see.

“Lovely day, is it not?” I asked the girl.

She gave me a nervous smile. “Perfect day for a daisy, mum, if I do say so meself.”

“So it is. I’ll take a few.” I gave her two silvers—?almost the entirety of my wages from Zan.

She gaped. “No, mum, I can’t accept this. Not for flowers two steps from bein’ compost, curse this blight.”

“Keep it,” I said. “What’s your name?”

“Elizabeth,” she said hesitantly. “Most call me Beth.”

“Beth, I’m trying to find out more about a girl named Molly. She was a housemaid at the castle, and”—?I cleared my throat—?“she recently passed. Did you know her?”

Beth’s expression clouded over. “I knew Molly. She used to sell chocolate and candy from that stall over there.” She pointed across the way. “She was nice. I’m real sorry about what happened to her.”

“They said she got her job as a housemaid to get closer to a man she’d been seeing.”

“I don’t know much about that,” Beth said. “I didn’t know her all that well. We was just friendly.”

“You never saw a man frequent her stall?”

“All sorts of men hung around her stall, miss. It’s the way o’ the docks. Girls like me learn quick how to handle it.” She flashed a gnarly-looking knife tucked into her apron pocket. “Men don’t learn as quick. Takes a few pokes before they get that flowers is the only thing I be sellin’ here.” She paused. “Molly was of a softer spirit. She wasn’t so tough as me. Sold more on account of it, I think. But at what cost?”