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  “What is this place?” Cadence slid away from me, head twisting this way and that as she took in the sight and stepped into a manmade clearing at the grove’s center.

  “We used to play here when I was younger. Henry, me, even Victoria from time to time; this was our secret hideaway.” The sunlight felt cooler and more temperate here, the breeze less intense. I walked to the nearest trunk, sliding my hand over the familiar white bark. “No one comes here anymore, though. Shame, it’s such a nice–” I turned around to find Cadence lying face first on the grass, moving her arms and legs over the blades in slow waves. “–spot.”

  She turned her head to one side, thick bangs falling over her eyes like a blindfold. “Do you think they’ll find anything?” Her words were somewhat muffled, seeing as how half her mouth still rested against the ground. “The enforcement officers, I mean.”

  “I doubt it. They’re not known for being the brightest Arrhidaeus has to offer.” Lowering myself onto the grass beside her, I wondered how much longer she intended to molest the ground in this fashion.

  Cadence rolled onto her back, pushing the wayward hair out of her eyes. “Inspector Brisbois seemed quite intelligent to me.”

  I stifled a snort, ceasing my search for a nix. “Yes.” Picking at the grass, I fixed her with a cold stare. “You two seemed to be getting along rather well.”

  “Were we? I didn’t notice.”

  I turned away, anxious to conceal my grimace. I did not find jealousy an attractive emotion in others, and I doubted it would flatter me.

  Cadence sighed and fell back onto the grass, crossing her arms under her head. “I suppose I just know how to speak to detectives.”

  “Oh? This talent wouldn’t be a hold-over from your seedy, but entirely forgivable Paraesepisian past, would it? Which you still haven’t told me about by the way.” I rolled up my shirt sleeves and tossed propriety to the wind, lying down in the grass with my arms splayed out around me.

  “Not much to tell,” she said, shrugging as she worked her flat white shoes off her feet. “I lived an ordinary life populated with ordinary people and we all did ordinary things.”

  Cadence glanced over at me and jumped at the sight of me at eye level. After watching me with what I took to be mock suspicion, her expression relaxed into a smile. “May I use your arm?”

  “What?” I contracted my outstretched appendage with a snap. “Why?”

  Cadence squirmed closer, moving across the ground like a lopsided caterpillar. “While the crust of your planet is covered in this monocotyledonous herbaceous plant, the ground is still surprisingly hard, and my arms are getting tired.”

  By the end of her explanation, she was nuzzled against me, staring up at me with naive hope. She was a queer bird, no mistaking that. But the warmth of her and the pleading smile that blossomed over her pink lips disarmed me in a way that no one had done before. Having her closer wouldn’t be a terrible thing. I extended my arm.

  She lowered her head onto my bicep with a quiet sigh, sending shivers all over my body. I pulled myself closer to her, resting a hand on her far hip, waiting for any sign that such advances were unwanted, but receiving no such chastisement.

  “I know a lot about detectives because I used to sell mystery novels.” She tugged at the bottom of her white shirt, giving me a pleasant view of her chest as it rose and fell. “For a job, I mean, not entertainment.”

  “Just mystery novels? Were you one of those specialty sellers?”

  “Yes,” Cadence sighed, turning onto her side to face me, brow furrowed and eyes distant with remembrance. “I carried new titles, of course, but most of my stock consisted of old Earth stories.”

  Smiling, I picked a stray blade of grass off her collarbone and tossed it away, coming back to rub at her skin with my fingertips. “How old?”

  She scrunched up her nose, wobbling her head back and forth. “The 19th to 22nd century, mainly.”

  “Very niche indeed.” I cleared my throat when she dropped her head onto my chest, nestling herself closer to me, her warmth enough to set my blood ablaze. Bringing my hand up to stroke her tangled, silky hair, I breathed in the smell of her with half-lidded eyes, murmuring, “And this has given you an insight into inspectors, has it?”

  She gave a small nod. “Criminals too.”

  “Oh, well, naturally.”

  “In fact,” Cadence began playing with my shirt buttons, a frown pushing out her bottom lip, “if the EO really are as unintelligent as you claim, I may be ideally placed to solve the theft of the Negrescu Necklace myself.”

  I swallowed back a laugh. “Yes! They’d probably appreciate the help.”

  Her arm went lax on top of me. I closed my eyes and focused on the pleasant heaviness of her body on mine and the sun on my skin.

  Something moved across my forehead, and I opened my eyes to find Cadence’s hand pushing my bangs up off my forehead, tickling the skin there. Cadence looked up at me with her beautiful summer smile, which crinkled the edges of her eyes and brought out the gentle curve of her cheekbones. It undid me, unraveled me like I was a battered ball of yarn, and I wrapped my hand around the back of her neck, closing my eyes as I leaned in.

  “I have work to do.”

  Frozen halfway to her lips, I struggled to clear my thoughts. “Work?”

  “Mmhmm!” Cadence smiled, rolling off my arm and up into a sitting position, forcing me back. She sprung to her feet, shaking out her shirt and pants before twirling around and striding towards the edge of the grove. “Goodbye!”

  “Where are you going?” I sounded more peeved than I liked, Cadence’s flare for dousing my Arrhidaean ardor beginning to border on cruel teasing. “Cay!”

  She spun on her heels, still walking as she shouted back, “I can’t just lie around when there’s a mystery to unravel! Thank you for the walk, Chance! And your trees, they’re beautiful!”

  I watched her hurry to the house, a spring in her step, her arms rocking back and forth like a swing in a gale. I opened my mouth. I closed it. Rolling flat onto my back, head banging against the ground, I threw my hands up into the air, whimpering. Life, it seemed, had spiraled out of my control. My father would be marrying a gussied-up dreg, I was about to be cut off from my inheritance, and now I couldn’t even manage to make time with the dimwitted refugee I had picked up on the train.

  When had things gone so wrong? As a matter of fact, when did I ever let a woman get to me like this? If there was one thing a man like me learned over the years, it was that there were always mountains which were unconquerable. Women who, for whatever reason, refused to be flattered, humored, or otherwise romanced. You couldn’t take such things as personal failures. Better to shrug them off and move on to the next conquest, rather than dwell on why the liaison fell flat.

  But there was something about Cadence, a quality of hers which left me captivated, trapped and happy to be so.

  I liked the girl. I did.

  Scrambling to my feet, I rushed back towards the manor, determined to make the pink coloring in my cheeks the result of physical exertion rather than the butterflies which had swelled up inside me at the thought of her.

  As I drew near the house, I spotted Victoria and Desdemona reclining in the gazebo on the back lawn. Despite her protestations otherwise, it seemed that Victoria had begun to enjoy Desdemona’s company, at least in the same way a cat enjoys the company of a mouse. I considered Victoria and, increasing the pace of my stride, I set my mind on a new course of action.

  Victoria lounged against the small set of stairs at the base of the structure, her tight dress leaving little to the imagination as she stretched her legs out in front of her, head upturned to Desdemona, who was perched on the railing above her.

  “I’ve always said that I would never marry a widower without seeing it first.”

  Desdemona’s teeth dug into her bottom lip. “It seems a bit, well, commercial, doesn’t it?”

  “A woman should look after her own interests, dear.
I wouldn’t say a vow or sign a certificate until I saw my name in that will.”

  Blush colored Desdemona’s cheeks, the surge of blood splotching across her thin skin. “Felix has mentioned something about–” She stuttered to a stop when I approached, eyes widening as she twirled her pale hair around her fingers.

  “There you are Chance, darling! I’ve been looking for you everywhere.” Victoria smiled, lifting her manicured hand to me.

  I turned it over and kissed her palm. She peered at me, eyes narrowing. “Are you alright, dearest? You look positively peaky. Come here and sit with me.”

  I lowered myself onto the step in front of her, allowing her to wrap an arm around my shoulders and tug me against her legs, her stockings scratching my cheek.

  “So, who do you think did it?”

  I pulled away from Victoria with a huff. “Vicky, really!”

  “Oh, come on,” she drew me back, resting her cheek on top of my head and grinning. “You don’t think everyone else is talking about it? I think it was Dr. Merton. I always thought he was a shifty sort of man; a bit desperate looking, you know what I mean.”

  “He wouldn’t–” Desdemona stopped, perhaps out of shock at her sure sounding voice, before continuing in a humbler tone, “I mean, he doesn’t seem the type to steal. A proper professional like that.”

  “He wasn’t always so professional.”

  I rolled my eyes, stifling a yawn. Victoria could never resist launching into one of her gossip-dripping stories. I considered leaving, but the sight of Cadence lingering by the corner of the house, talking with Solomon, reminded me why I must endure such things.

  Solomon laughed at something Cadence said and leaned forward, rubbing her arm. I pulled Victoria’s arm tighter around my shoulders, nibbling on the inside of my cheek.

  “Did you know he used to work in District 3 in Römer?”

  Desdemona yanked at the hair woven around her fingers, wincing as she shook her head.

  “At one of those free clinics; all the patients pure trash; drogan addicts, prostitutes, the lowest of the low. Working for the Hale family must have seemed like a dream after that.” Victoria kissed my ear before straightening, head revolving like a periscope. “Where is he anyway?”

  “He and Belinda are in the shed looking at some rocks I believe.” I began rubbing her leg without thinking, watching Cadence from afar.

  Desdemona leaned against one of the wooden columns supporting the roof. “Is that what all that stuff in there is for? Geology?”

  “Geology, computer science, botany – it’s a scientific hodgepodge.” Cadence glanced at us, and I jerked my head away, taking Victoria’s free hand and kissing it. “Father always wants his friends to feel at home.”

  I avoided Cadence for the rest of the day, engaging in idle chit-chat and distracting myself by watching the EO officers through the large windows as they moved from room to room, every so often dusting a window for fingerprints or taking some knickknack away as evidence. They left when the sun began to set, Inspector Brisbois making vague promises about hearing from him soon, even though it was clear from his flat tone that the EO had found little of interest around the house and no sign of the necklace.

  Housebound for the foreseeable future, Minerva loaned Cadence more of her clothes, insisting that an evening gown and pant suit were not enough to get a woman through a weekend, dressing her in a simple peach summer dress that hugged her body, accentuating everything that had attracted me to her in the first place.

  Dinner dragged on, every topic of conversation exhausted in less than two minutes. My father, almost always an excellent host, had taken the theft of the necklace as a matter of personal embarrassment, and was quite put out the entire evening.

  Everyone scattered to take up their individual pursuits after dinner, Minerva and Solomon going to bed early, with Belinda following suit, complaining of a headache. My father occupied the library, citing some work he had to finish, and Dr. Merton, as unpopular a companion as ever, was left to his own devices in the study. When Henry invited Desdemona and Cadence to join him on an evening stroll, Victoria and I, alone at last, withdrew to the sitting room where I began to make love to her as I often did, telling her that her eyes were like emeralds, that the sound of her voice made me quiver, that she was all I could ever think about when I was away. After many compliments of such a nature, she allowed me to kiss her.

  But that night’s seduction was different, my kisses long and deep, and unable to content myself with her lips, I drew my tongue down her neck and across her chest. I traced swirling patterns down her arms and onto her thighs with my fingertips, while my mind was miles away, buried in the memory of Cadence’s eyes, her lips, her damnable, blessed smile, and even her strange tapping, all firing my desire to levels I had never experienced.

  Victoria pulled back from me, breathing heavy, and ran her tongue along her lips. “It’s awfully exciting having a jewel thief in the house.”

  I hummed against her skin, nibbling the underside of her jaw. “Very stimulating, isn’t it?” Groping the fabric bunched up against her inner thigh, I rested for a minute, trying to catch my breath. “Aren’t you the least bit scared?”

  “Scared?”

  “Well, whoever he is,” I kissed her again, flicking her bottom lip with my tongue, “he could come rifling through your room tonight when you’re asleep.”

  “Do you think someone will?”

  “It’s a possibility.” I pressed against her, reveling in the feel of her fingers clawing across my shoulders. “It’d probably be safer to spend the night with someone, safety in numbers and all that.”

  “Chance!” Victoria’s voice rang high and bright in my ear. I sat back. She caressed my neck, smiling. “I thought you said that we shouldn’t…” She swallowed the word. “That it’d ruin all the excitement when we finally do get married.”

  “I’m an idiot, don’t you know? You should never take me seriously.” I lunged at her throat, biting and sucking at the sensitive skin there with an intensity that surprised us both. “Victoria, if I don’t have you tonight, I think I’m going to go crazy.”

  “You are crazy.”

  I slid my hand up to her hip, making her swallow a laugh. “Let me take you upstairs, please; let me take you.”

  It was the first time I had begged Victoria for anything, and I wouldn’t have been surprised to find that it was the only reason she said yes at all. She didn’t realize that I wasn’t asking it of her, but of her body. I wasn’t interested in bedding Victoria; I never had been. But I was desperate, not just for sexual release, but for affirmation. I needed to know that I was good enough for Victoria to find the confidence to try for the real prize at least one more time.

  9

  Chapter 9

  I awoke from my coitus induced slumber to a loud banging. Lifting my head off my overstuffed pillow, I looked about through bleary eyes, shafts of sunlight struggling through the heavy curtains. Victoria turned over next to me, grumbling in her sleep. I yawned, pulling the covers over my head, when I heard Dr. Merton shouting in the hall.

  “Mr. Hale! Mr. Hale, sir!” Another series of loud bangs ripped through the air. “Sir, can you hear me? Mr. Hale!”

  I bolted upright, groggy, but alarmed. Stumbling out of bed, I pulled on my pants and, shrugging into my dressing gown, I groped for my key on the bedside table, where I thought I had placed it the night before. While I searched the room for it, Belinda’s panicked voice joined the doctor’s outside.

  “Should I call an ambulance?”

  Somehow my key had gotten knocked to the floor in front of the door. Sweeping it up with one hand, I shoved it into the lock and rushed out into the hall. Belinda and Merton stood in front of my father’s room, faces creased with alarm, still in their pajamas and dressing gowns. Belinda pounded on the door. “Felix! Felix! Say something, Felix!”

  I strode over to them, tying my robe shut. “What the hell–”

  “Your father isn�
��t answering,” Merton moved Belinda to one side, pulling and twisting the door handle, straining against it with all his might. “The door is locked from the inside; I can’t get in!”

  “Father!” I pushed my ear against the wood, but no sound came from inside. “Dad, open up! Dad!”

  “Do you have a key?”

  I shook my head at Merton, swallowing to wet my throat. “No, I–” I leapt away from the door, a thought spurring me into action. “There’s a connecting door through here, maybe he left it unlocked!”

  The three of us raced back into my room, where Victoria had had the good sense to wake up and put on some clothes. I heard her startled voice in the background, but all my thoughts were focused on my father. Twisting the handle of the connecting door, the portal flying open with oiled ease, I rushed into the room, calling for my father, until the sight of him stopped me like a train hitting a brick wall.

  Somewhere behind me, Victoria screamed and kept on screaming.

  My father lay on the floor in front of me in the same blue striped suit he had worn the day before. The back of his head was a tangled mass of bone, skin, and brain matter, a ring of blood surrounding the wound like a halo. His body twisted like a gnarled tree, bones protruding from flesh, his arms and legs jutting out at grotesque angles. All the skin on his face had been ripped away, leaving only shiny sinew and muscle behind. His lidless eyes stared into me.

  I couldn’t move, clutching the doorknob with such force that I would find a stinging, purple bruise in the center of my palm later. The doctor pushed past me, kneeling and putting his fingers to my father’s neck. The tensing of Merton’s shoulders assured me of what I already knew to be true. He looked up at me, breathing heavy. His gaze flickered to the space behind me. “Get them out of here.”