House of Salt and Sorrows(72)

“Then why didn’t they come back?”

I wondered the same thing myself. Lenore had made it through the storm. When I pressed her for details, trying to find out what had happened that night, she turned to me with her strange and empty stare and simply walked away.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “There’re lots of things I just don’t know.”

“The curse,” Verity said, her voice soft and small.

“There is no curse. Just bad luck.”

“Couldn’t bad luck be a curse?” Mercy asked.

“No. It’s just coincidence.”

“The curse could make itself look like coincidence.”

“There is no curse!” I shouted, much louder than I meant to. The girls jumped in surprise. It wasn’t nice to have startled them, but the carriage was blissfully silent for the rest of the ride.

When we reached Highmoor, Mercy and Verity hopped out of the carriage, anxious to get away from me, but Fisher remained behind, his eyebrows furrowed into one straight line.

“What?” I prompted when it was clear he had something on the tip of his tongue. He shook his head, reaching for the door. I grabbed his hand, stopping him. “Fisher, what is it?”

“Cassius was with you when you found Rosalie and Ligeia?”

“He was.”

His brown eyes flickered over mine for a moment before returning to the window.

“It’s nothing.”

“It’s obviously something.”

His breath billowed around him in the cold air. “It’s just…I went through those woods myself. During the search…I know my memory of that day is a blur, but I feel like I’d have seen the girls when I went past the berry bushes.”

“What are you getting at?”

He rubbed his forehead as if his fingers could erase the dark thoughts piling up. When his eyes met mine, they were as sharp as tacks. “I’m saying they weren’t there. I’m saying someone put them there later on.”

“Put them there?” I repeated. A bit of cold sparked in my heart, running through my veins like icy water, freezing me in place. “What do you mean? You think…you think they were murdered?”

“Don’t you? You told me someone killed Eulalie. You shouted at me and all of Astrea that Edgar was pushed. Don’t you suspect foul play here?”

I frowned, horrified. “No…Eulalie…that was someone else. Someone who was jealous of Edgar and…But Rosalie and Ligeia…they’d gone dancing. They were just caught in the storm….”

“Were they?” Fisher asked, his voice brusque but not unkind. “You said you saw three sets of tracks in the snow….”

“That was Lenore,” I said readily before realizing how feeble it sounded.

“Why would only Lenore make it back?” Fisher leaned in close. “You know she wouldn’t have left them.”

“But the berry branch in her hair—”

“Could have been planted later.”

I imagined a great, hulking shadow stealing into my sister’s room as she slept, leaving behind a single twig, and shuddered.

“You think the third set of footprints were from the killer? Eulalie’s killer?”

He nodded.

My mind spun, trying to remember all the reasons I’d thought Eulalie’s murderer had been an unrequited love. If it hadn’t, if my theory had been wrong…

“If Rosalie and Ligeia really were murdered…that means none of us are safe,” I whispered.

Glancing out the window, I saw Verity and Mercy patiently listening to Papa talk with the High Mariner, and my stomach plummeted. Someone could be after them. Someone who…

The final carriage pulled into the courtyard. Cassius stepped down, offering his hand to assist Camille and Honor. He gave our coach a lingering look before escorting them inside.

“How much do we really even know about him?” Fisher asked unhappily. “I mean, your father didn’t even know Corum had a son until he showed up. Doesn’t that strike you as odd?”

My head hurt, a sudden migraine brought on by the icy chill and the accusations swirling in the air. “It’s a little suspicious, I admit. But it doesn’t mean he’s a killer.”

“True, but…”

I held up my hand, stopping him. “I have to ask this, Fisher…. You’re not saying any of this because…because I chose him over you?”

His mouth dropped open. “Of course not! How can you even think I would…” He put his hand on the door of the carriage, ready to throw it open and leave me.

“Wait! I’m just saying…” I blew out a long breath, shaking my head. “I don’t know what I’m saying. I’m sorry. I haven’t been sleeping well, and I…I’ll think it over, all right?”

Fisher’s eyes burned into mine.

“What? Right now?”

He shrugged. “Do you have something else more pressing?”

Sighing, I tried to remember that day. “You and Sterland were in the maze with Regnard and Ethan, weren’t you?”

“For most of the morning.”

I counted them off on my fingers. Ivor had been upstairs, searching for clues about our worn-out slippers. Another tick.