by Cate Martin
"At any rate, now that the attention of the crowd had shifted away, I decided to speak to Ivy. We hadn't had a moment alone since she told me she had chosen Thomas over me. Her mother had been with her in that moment, and then her father and Thomas as well. And Coco and Mary and Charlotte. I hadn't had a single chance to say a word to her at all."
"You were angry?" I asked.
"Angry? No!" Edward said. "I mean, it was a shock at first. I don't imagine anyone is jilted and doesn't feel a lot of terrible things. But I was never angry. All I wanted was a moment to tell her I wished her and Thomas well. But when I approached her to say so, I guess Thomas took that wrong. I'm not sure why. It's not like I was rushing forward with my blood hot or anything. I had my hand extended to shake hers and his as well."
"So Thomas started the fight?"
"It wasn't really a fight," he said. "It was far too awkward to call it that. I had my hand out to shake, and Thomas I guess wanted to knock it aside, to step between Ivy and me. But he sort of tripped and fell into me. I grabbed his shoulder to help him steady his balance. But it must have looked like something else to Ivy because she threw herself on Thomas' back as if to pull him off of me. Thomas pulled away from me, but too violently, and fell back against Ivy."
"And that's when she went over the railing?" I asked.
"No, she only fell against it," he said.
"Are you sure?"
He considered for a moment. "Yes. She only fell against it. But she cried out. Not loud, just a little sound of pain, but it made Thomas' blood boil. He swung at me." Edward touched a spot over his eye. I leaned forward to see more clearly, gently brushing back the locks of hair that had fallen over his forehead.
There had been blood, smeared away at some point but leaving little streaks to stain his skin. The goose egg underneath was mostly concealed by his eyebrow, but visible now that I knew to look for it.
"He struck you," I said.
"It was a trying day for all of us," Edward said.
"Why do you excuse him?" I asked.
"How can I not?" he asked. "I know what he is feeling now. We both lost a fiancée today. We're both wondering how much we are to blame."
"Did you hit him back?" I asked.
"No," he said. "But who knows what I might have done if the next moment had not occurred."
"This is when Ivy really did fall?"
"Yes. Thomas had just struck me, and I was seeing stars. Then there was blood in my eyes. I couldn't see what happened, but I heard Ivy scream. The way the echo of her voice through the hall changed as she fell. The way she…"
He didn't finish, but I knew what he meant. The sound of her body hitting the floor.
"So you don't know for sure, but Thomas had opportunity. He was closest to her," I said.
"There wasn't time," Edward said. "From punching me to turn and push her? No, there wasn't enough time."
"Are you absolutely sure?" I asked. "Time can run differently in such moments. An eyeblink can be an eternity. Or vice versa."
"I concede my perception of time might be off," Edward said. "I felt the world wanting to slip away from me for a moment. I think I was about to pass out. Thomas does box at a club in the city."
"There you are," I said.
"But no," he said. "I don't believe it of him. He was only striking me in the first place because Ivy was jostled into the railing and cried out as if hurt. He was protecting her, misguided as that impulse was. To turn from that to murder her? No."
"Was anyone close enough to Ivy then to push her besides Thomas?" I asked.
Edward touched his fingertips to his forehead and flinched. "Not that I could see. But Amanda, I couldn't see. You can't condemn him on so little."
"I'm not trying to condemn him. I'm trying to exonerate you," I said.
"Thank you," he said. "I don't even know how you're here. It's like I summoned you with a wish."
My stomach flipped over at that, but I told it to hold still. This was not the time.
"Coco invited the three of us, I guess when she still thought this was going to be your engagement party too," I said.
"I'm not surprised," he said. "She knew I didn't have any family to stand with me."
"She loved you like a brother already," I said. "She still does. She is also part of the reason I'm here now in this room with you. She knows you're not the guilty party and she won't stand to see injustice done. She's helping the three of us and Otto to clear your name."
"But if it wasn't me or Thomas, who was it?" he asked.
"I'm working on that," I said. The little globe of light on the floor was starting to sputter and die, but I couldn't complain. As unpleasant as its illumination had been, it had lasted far longer than I had expected. "Coco insists that someone knocked her down. So you were both trying to recover from a blow the moment Ivy fell."
"Who knocked her down?" he asked. "Did I bump into her when I fell back?"
"No," I said. "She thinks someone else was up there with you all."
He frowned. "I don't think so. But even before Thomas punched me, it was hard to see up there."
"Yes, that's a common theme so far," I said. I poked at the globe, and it shot up a couple of sparks like a pathetic volcano then lapsed further towards darkness.
"What is that thing?" Edward asked.
"I'll explain later," I said. "Just now I have to talk to Thomas."
"I understand," he said. "I wish you could stay, but I understand."
I raised a foot to stomp on the last of the light but hesitated. "Did you want me to reshackle you? It might be hard to explain how you freed yourself, but on the other hand, you looked very uncomfortable."
"I was," he said. "I don't care what they think. Leave me free." He wrapped his arms around himself, turning towards the wall as if to try to sleep.
The ache in my heart was almost more than I could bear. I wanted to sit down beside him, to put my arms around him and stay with him in the darkness.
But I couldn't. And not just because I had to go speak to Thomas, and to follow up every other lead I could find to prove him innocent.
I couldn't because the least kind thing I could possibly do for him in this moment, on this day when all of his hopes were so cruelly crushed, would be to make him believe he might have a different future with me. We had no future.
I really hated my life.
"Don't despair," I said. "You may have no family in the world just now, but you have many friends. Loyal, loving friends who will not rest until you are out of harm's way. Edward, you are not alone."
"Thank you," he said. He didn't look back at me, but his words were brighter than any he had spoken since I had come into the room.
I stomped out the light and left him in the darkness.
Chapter 15
I locked the door again behind me then looked up at Brianna. She gave a little wave for me to follow her back down the hall to where Sophie was standing at the top of the stairs. Brianna motioned for Sophie to start dancing up another wind, then summoned a spray of obsidian-like sand from the end of her wand. Sophie sent it flying down the hall to the two guards still snoring away in the chairs.
They both woke with a loud snort, and we quickly raced down the stairs, all of the way back to the darkened corridor behind the ballroom.
"What did he say?" Brianna asked me, but there were a group of men talking together just a few feet away in the corridor, and I shook my head.
"Not here," I said. We continued down the corridor to the bright lights of the ballroom. A crowd of angry partygoers was gathered at the far set of doors, demanding that the police let them leave the house.
"Oh dear," a woman near us said. "I do hope there isn't a fight."
I slowly turned as I looked around the room for any sign of Otto or Coco or Charlotte, but they were nowhere to be seen.
"It's too crowded to talk here either," I said. Even as I said it, something bumped me hard enough to send me staggering back half a step until Bri
anna caught me.
"Parlor," Sophie said, and we followed her to find that room fortunately empty, although someone had left out a tea service on one of the tables. Brianna tapped the pot with her wand to warm it up then poured out cups for each of us.
Once we were sitting in front of the fireplace, our chairs drawn as closely together as we could move them, I told them everything that had passed between Edward and me.
Well, mostly everything.
"So he doesn't think Thomas is guilty either," Sophie said, stirring her tea over and over with a little spoon. "That complicates things."
"We aren't looking to blame Thomas, though," Brianna said. "We're looking for the real culprit. Aren't we?"
"Yes," Sophie sighed, setting her spoon aside but not touching her tea. "I'm just saying, if Thomas were guilty, it would be easier to prove than it will be for us now to find this mysterious extra person up on the balcony that no one got a good look at."
"Maybe Mr. or Mrs. McTavet saw something?" Brianna asked hopefully.
"If they had, I'm sure the police would know it already," I said. "They'd be looking for someone who isn't Thomas or Edward. But they haven't. They are only building the case against Edward, not searching for a different suspect."
"Maybe if we went back up to the third floor and tried that spell again?" Brianna said.
"I don't think it will help," Sophie said.
"Besides, everything we've done so far we've gotten away with, but the police are getting suspicious. The guards outside Edward's room know something happened. They'll be more alert now. And they might hear us on the balcony now that they'll be more vigilant," I said.
"So what do we do?" Sophie asked.
"Talk to Thomas," I said. "There is nothing else."
"But Edward doesn't think he did it," Brianna said.
"Edward is kind to a fault," I said. "To a fault. He doesn't want to believe that Thomas might do it."
"I wish we had known Thomas before," Brianna said. "We have no real sense of his character."
"He had means and opportunity," I said. "He had knocked Ivy back into the railing once before."
"By mistake," Brianna said.
"And he was still the one closest to her when she fell," I went on.
"And as to motive?" Sophie asked.
"Maybe it was an accident," Brianna said.
"No," I said. "Well, maybe. But consider this. We already know he trains as a boxer. His reflexes are faster than his thinking, right?"
"Can we assume that?" Sophie asked, but I ignored her.
"He overreacted to Edward trying to speak to Ivy," I said. "Then he overreacted even more to Ivy getting bumped against the railing. It's very doubtful she was even hurt then, and besides that, it would've been more Thomas' fault than Edward's."
"So?" Sophie asked.
"I'm establishing a pattern of behavior," I said. "Clearly Thomas Weingarten is a man not in control of his own temper. We know there was this extreme, unprovoked escalation in a very short period of time. Is taking it one step further so inconceivable?"
"Yes!" someone cried from the doorway, and we all jumped to realize that at some point on our conversation we had neglected to keep our voices down.
"Mary!" Brianna said, for indeed that was who had overheard us.
She looked a mess, eyes red and blotchy, a coffee stain on the skirt of her gown. But I quickly realized that her body shook not with grief but with anger.
"How dare you?" she demanded, looking straight at me.
"What have I done?" I asked.
"Accuse Thomas. What proof do you have of what you say?" she asked, hands curling into fists.
Sophie leaped to her feet and pulled Mary into the room to sit in the chair she had just vacated. She made little murmuring sounds and comforting gestures, but Mary would not take the hint to be quieter.
"I wasn't accusing him," I said. "We were just discussing theories."
"You sounded like you were sure," Mary said. "You sounded like you were ready to hang him."
"I'm not sure of anything," I said. "I haven't even had a chance to speak with him."
"Why would you speak with him?" Mary asked. "You sound like you think you're the one investigating Ivy's murder and not the police."
"The police have sealed themselves off in the library to question all the wrong people," I said, crossing my arms. "Someone has to actually investigate."
"You're not trying to solve her murder, you're trying to absolve your friend," Mary said. "At the expense of my own."
"We're not," Sophie said, the only one of the three of us still capable of keeping her voice down, save Brianna who had fallen silent the moment the angry talking had started.
I took a deep breath, then three more. I forced my arms to unfold, although they felt like dead weights now hanging at my sides. "Edward didn't do it. And he told me he didn't believe Thomas did either," I said.
"When did you speak to Edward?" she asked.
"A moment ago," I said.
"How?"
"The usual way," I said, then plowed on before she could ask another probing question. "Coco also said there was a stranger up on the balcony with you all. Are you sure you didn't see anything more? Anything that would clear all this up?"
"No," Mary said, her voice thick. "I wished I had. I wished I could clear all this up. But you must believe me that Thomas would never do this. He isn't capable of it."
"Physically, he is," I said.
"Physically, any of us are," Sophie said, and I had to admit that was true. Ivy had been petite. Coco at thirteen was already taller than her sister and with quite a bit more heft.
"I was referring to his moral character," Mary said.
"Well, I don't know him," I admitted.
"I know you don't. If you did, you'd never be able to suggest the things you were suggesting. His father is a lawyer renowned across the Midwest for his high ethical standards. Thomas is cut from the same cloth. He's had the most refined of upbringings, has always been the model his peers were meant to emulate. He simply could not do this."
"Lucky for you the police agree," I said darkly. "Which is why Edward has to be their scapegoat. Edward who has no prominent family name, no renowned father or refined upbringing. The fact that he, also, could never do this is never going to enter anyone's mind."
"I wasn't saying that," Mary said.
"Weren't you?" I shot back.
"Amanda, you know she wasn't," Sophie said. "Please, take a moment to center yourself. You're not thinking clearly."
"Neither is she," I said. Although I was pretty aware that I sounded like a sullen, moody preteen in that moment.
"No, I am not," Mary admitted. "I can't. Not when it comes to… this."
"Thomas," I said. "You can't think clearly when it comes to Thomas."
Mary looked down at the mangled mess of a handkerchief clutched in her hand.
"You were upset before any of this happened," I said. "The engagement announcement was a shock to you. You ran away. No, not away. You ran upstairs. To demand answers."
"I wasn't going to demand anything," she said, but her hand around the handkerchief was forming a fist again.
"Surely someone owed you an explanation," I said. "Your best friend changes her mind so drastically, so dramatically, and she doesn't even tell you ahead of time. She must have had opportunity. Was she just being cruel?"
"Amanda, what are you talking about?" Brianna asked.
"Charlotte and I arrived later than we intended," Mary said. "Ivy and Mrs. McTavet were both glowing with happiness, but servants were constantly interrupting to ask questions about the food or the band or a thousand other things. I guess she didn't have the time."
"Didn't she?" I asked.
Mary tried to sniff back a fresh wave of tears.
"She could've made the time," I said. "She should have."
"Yes," Mary said, crying in earnest now. "She should have. She was my best friend. I was here for her, but she
didn't even think of me."
"Did she know?" I asked. "How you felt about Thomas?"
"I never said it explicitly," Mary said, her voice barely audible. Sophie slid an arm around her, and Mary rested her head gratefully on Sophie's shoulder.
"She was your best friend," I said. "She knew."
"Yes," Mary said. "I think she did."
"Hold on," Brianna said, fingers fluttering as if she were adding up all the little clues. "Oh! Mary was in love with Thomas."
"Not was," Mary said miserably. "Am. Always have been, and heaven help me always will be."
"He's not worthy of you," I said.
"No, he never played me false," Mary insisted. "I always knew how he felt about Ivy. He's loved her since we were kids. But she didn't want him. But he liked me well enough. And I knew that as soon as Ivy was settled with another, then his heart would finally be free."
"I'm still not liking him," I said. "Charlotte doesn't either, does she?"
"Charlotte," Mary said, then seemed to swallow back her first attempt at completely that thought. She took a breath and spoke with more calm. "Charlotte is difficult. She always has been even as a baby. There's no accounting for her moods. And if she takes a disliking to someone, nothing will ever change that."
"Did Thomas do something to her years ago then?"
"If he had, it was some trifling little thing that she'll never let go of," Mary said. "Please, just speak with Thomas as you spoke with Edward and then speak to me as to his character. Please."
"That's reasonable," Sophie said, looking up at me.
"Quite," I said. "And what we were going to do next anyway."
"Oh, thank goodness," Brianna said. "For a minute there I thought you were going to argue that Mary was the murderer."
"She had motive," I said.
"Amanda!" Sophie chided.
"But not opportunity," I went on. "She was too far away. Every witness agrees on that."
Sophie was still staring daggers at me, but Mary took no offense.
"You'll think better of Thomas after you speak with him," Mary said. "But please, don't mention me. I don't really enter into things."