House of Salt and Sorrows(14)

Before I could voice my surprise, he’d left and was halfway down the busy pier, ducking around another approaching crate.

“Wait!” I cried out, and he paused, turning back.

His face was painted in unexpected pleasure as he waited for me to continue.

Though my cheeks warmed, I stepped closer. “I can show you the way to the marketplace…if you like.”

He glanced toward the covered stalls several docks down from where we stood. “That marketplace over there?”

His light tone suggested he was teasing, but my stomach writhed in its foolishness. I forced myself to smile. “Yes, well, I’m sure you’ll be able to find your way.” I nodded once. “Good day…” I didn’t know his name, and the farewell felt open-ended. “Sir,” I added, two seconds too late.

As I retreated toward my dinghy, my face burned scarlet. Suddenly I felt a hand slip loosely around my wrist, twirling me to face the handsome stranger once more. I grabbed his forearm to steady myself. He seemed taller somehow, and I noticed a thin, crescent-shaped scar on his temple. I knew I was staring and quickly took two steps backward, allowing for the proper amount of space between us.

“Cassius,” he supplied. “My name is Cassius.”

“Oh.”

He offered the crook of his elbow. “I’d be very grateful for your assistance in finding the marketplace. It’s my first time on Selkirk, and I’d hate to get lost.”

“It is an awfully large wharf,” I said, peering about the marina as if it had tripled in size.

“Will you help me, then, Miss Thaumas?” His eyes danced, his face about to break into another grin.

“I suppose I ought to.”

He led us down another dock, taking a left, then a right, then a left again, drawing out the short walk.

“So you’re a healer?” I asked, skirting a coil of rope. The wharves were quickly filling up with fishermen hauling out for the day. “You said you were here to take care of your friend?”

“My father,” he clarified. “And no. I’ve no special training. Just familial devotion…familial obligation, really.” His smile turned stiff. “This will be our first time meeting, I’m afraid.” He ducked toward me to avoid a catch of lobster traps that had been hoisted onto the dock from a nearby boat. Leaning in, he whispered conspiratorially, “You see, Miss Thaumas, I’m a bastard.”

He said this with a devil-may-care recklessness, intending to shock me.

“That doesn’t matter,” I responded honestly. “It shouldn’t matter what your parents did, just what you do as a person.”

“Very generous of you. I wish more shared your opinion.”

We took a final turn, coming directly off the pier and into the marketplace. Tables and booths were set up under makeshift canopies, shielding the fresh catches from the unforgiving rays of the sun. A light breeze kept the worst of the smells at bay, but there was a sharp underlying tang of gutted fish that no amount of wind could clear.

“Well”—I gestured to the stalls—“this is it. I’m sure any of the fishmongers can show you where he lives. It’s a small community. Everyone knows everyone.”

After the words left my mouth, I saw how true they were. As we wandered into the crowd, eyes fell on us, instantly recognizing me as the Duke’s daughter. Though most of the merchants had the decency to murmur behind discreetly raised hands, I could still hear their whispered accusations.

“That’s that Thaumas girl.”

“Such a shame about…”

“…not even dead a month…”

“…cursed…”

The hairs on the back of my neck bristled at the mention of the curse. It was a foolish rumor, but rumors had a way of morphing into something big and ugly. I didn’t know if Cassius noticed I was too embarrassed to meet his gaze.

“What’s she wearing? It’s not even gray….”

“…make her leave…”

“…she’ll bring their bad luck to us…”

“Hey! You there!” a voice rang out over the murmured buzz. “You shouldn’t be here!”

“I have to go,” I said, releasing my hold on his arm. The urge to run from the whispers overpowered any desire I had to stay with him. “I hope you find your father and he gets well soon!”

“But—Annaleigh!”

Before he could stop me, I turned on my heel and sprinted back to the safety of my dinghy. I needed to be out on the water, out among the waves. I needed the sea breezes to push the building panic from me, needed the rhythmic pull of the ocean swells to set my mind right again.

We weren’t cursed.

Hopping down into my boat, I tried to cast the crowd’s whispers from me. But they lingered in my mind, echoing and growing until the handful of fishmongers became a jeering crowd, then a mob, with torches and knives.

I stood on tiptoes, peering over the planks of the dock to see if anyone had followed me. A small part of me hoped Cassius had, but this end of the marina was quiet. He was back in the marketplace, probably receiving an earful on the Thaumas sisters. My heart sank low as I pictured his golden smile fading away when he learned of the ghoulish passings at Highmoor.

Though the only one to see my foolishness was a little fiddler crab skittering along the planks, my face flushed. I didn’t know Cassius, but I couldn’t bear the thought he might be thinking ill of me.