by Cate Martin
"I'm sorry," I said. "I know how much you longed for the match, how hard you worked for it. From what little I saw of her, Ivy seemed very lovely. And I know you wouldn't have held her in such high regard if she wasn't worthy of it."
Wow, I almost sounded like I believed that.
"Everyone loved Ivy," he said. "She was the very heart of every room she ever entered."
I had no answer for that. It was getting harder and harder not to admit that I liked Ivy less every time I heard something new about her.
"Yes, I think shock is the word for the state I was in all afternoon," Edward said. "I wandered the upstairs halls; I don't even know why. I really should have just gone home, but Mr. McTavet was so anxious for me to stay. So I lingered. I felt like a ghost, like I was already haunting Thomas and Ivy and would for the rest of my days.
"But then Mr. McTavet made his announcement. He said those words. He said their names together. And that time I heard it. I really heard it. Thomas and Ivy were going to be husband and wife. And such a feeling came over me out of nowhere. I hadn't expected to feel anything like it."
I reached out and caught his hand, very afraid of what he was going to say next.
"Please don't," I said. "You don't have to tell me."
"I want to," he said, squeezing my hand back.
"No. Don't confess. Don't tell me what feelings overwhelmed you. Nothing you can say is going to make me blame you for what happened. I know you didn't do it."
"What are you talking about?" he asked.
"Anger?" I said. "I'm sure you felt betrayed. I can understand feeling anger. Even a desire for revenge would be quite understandable in those circumstances. But don't tell me. I need to remain impartial, right?"
"But I wasn't feeling any of those things," Edward said. "The feeling that washed over me out of nowhere was relief. All of my hopes and dreams had been thoroughly, cruelly destroyed, and yet in the moment when I accepted that was true, and it was all over, all I felt was relief."
Chapter 19
Edward was still looking at his hands, although they now just rested half-open in his lap. He had stopped flexing them over and over. He seemed at peace.
But I was glad he wasn't looking at me. My heart had stopped beating for a moment, and I wasn't sure whether my face had gone bright red or ghastly pale, but either way it would be clear my feelings were stomping all over me.
"It was a relief. It was finally over. And I hadn't even realized it was an ordeal," he said. "It's all so strange."
"You don't have to process everything all at once," I said. "It's okay to take your time."
But he didn't seem to hear me. He just kept talking. He kept saying all the words that were making it hard for me to breathe.
"I thought I loved her. I was quite certain of it. I had even had fights with Otto about it. He didn't think I truly loved her. He said she was just a symbol of the life I wanted. I don't think that's true, even now. She's not a symbol to me."
"Otto was just trying to be a good friend," I said. "If you and Ivy had gotten engaged, he would have been the first to congratulate you both."
"Oh, I know. He said his piece, and then he was going to hold his peace. That's how he phrased it. It's just so strange. I was absolutely convinced I spoke from the heart when I argued with him about it. And yet, the moment Mr. McTavet said Thomas and Ivy, their names together, I realized I had never loved her. And I felt relieved that I would no longer think I did. Does that make any sense?"
Then he looked up at me, catching me unawares. I sat back, straight and tall, and made the expression on my face shift to something neutral. I might be thrilled to hear the words that he had never loved Ivy, but I couldn't let that show. Not to him.
"Wait a minute," I said, shifting my attention to all the other words he had been saying. "Are you saying you were under a spell?"
He blinked, confused, then nodded. "Yes, I guess that's one way to describe it. It felt like I had been under a spell and then it was broken. Just like that."
"It felt like, or it was like?" I asked.
"What are you asking me, Amanda?" he asked. "I know you're not teasing me. Not now."
"No, I'm not teasing," I said. "I just thought maybe you were telling me that Ivy put a spell on you."
"Like something out of a song," he said. "But no, not Ivy. Ivy just… changed her mind."
"Maybe you're just having a manic response," I said.
"What does that mean?" he asked.
"Maybe your feelings will switch on a dime again, and you'll feel all the sadness all at once."
"I don't think so," he said. "No, that's not what I'm feeling. I truly am relieved. I wanted nothing more than to wish Thomas and Ivy every happiness in the world. If anything, I'm sad I didn't get a chance to do that."
"It is a shame," I agreed.
"I'm not sad about losing Ivy," he said, looking at me intently. "She wasn't the one for me."
I shot up from the sofa and moved closer to the fireplace, to turn my back on those eyes and whatever he was about to say next. But even with my back turned, he could keep talking. I needed to steer the conversation in a different way.
"You are taking it all better than Mary Taylor," I said. "She's quite distraught. Do you know Mary?"
"A little," he said. "She was always close to Ivy."
"Ivy didn't tell her she was changing who she was getting engaged to," I said. "Mary didn't find out until the announcement, in front of everyone. She was crushed."
"She had feelings for Thomas? I had no idea," Edward said.
"I'm not sure Thomas did either, unfortunately," I said.
"It's better not to wait with such things," he said, and his voice was much closer. He was standing just behind me, and I could feel him willing me to turn around.
"Was there anyone else?" I asked, a sudden thought striking me.
"What?" he asked.
"Was there anyone else caught up in this love tangle? You with Ivy, Ivy with you and Thomas, Thomas with Ivy and Mary. Was there another person caught up in this somewhere? Perhaps loving from afar? Someone with a temper and a desire for revenge, perhaps?"
Now I did turn to face him, but only to be sure he was listening to me.
He was. His face was serious as he thought it over.
"You've been to all the parties, all the afternoon gatherings. Ivy had a lot of other suitors, right?" I said.
"I'm thinking who else I saw here," he said. "There were a few more men who were pursuing her with great seriousness. On their part. Ivy liked the attention, but she didn't encourage it when she wasn't prepared to return it."
"Did you know she was encouraging Thomas?" I asked.
"No," he admitted.
"Then there might have been others."
"No, I don't think so. Thomas is… was different. They had a closeness from being childhood friends. He never called on her as a suitor that I know of."
"Still, if you can think of any names, that could be useful," I said. "There are so many places to hide in this house, so many ways to get in besides the front door. The person who did this might not have even had an invitation. But they could still be here now. Edward, you could be a target."
"I don't think so," he said. "I don't feel like I'm in danger."
I clenched my hands in fists to keep from tearing at my hair. What I really wanted in that moment was to hear a little less about Edward's feelings. It was all too much.
"Please, stick close to Otto," I said. "And speaking of, we should go find him now. It's not safe for the two of us to be on our own."
"Wait," he said, catching my wrist before I could head to the door.
"Edward, this isn't the time," I said.
"It has to be the time," he said. "I have to tell you-"
"Please don't," I said.
"Amanda," he said, taking a step closer.
"Edward," I said, putting my hand on his and removing it from my wrist. He let it drop to his side, but the hurt in his eye
s was going to kill me. "You said all you wanted in the world was to wish Thomas and Ivy joy on their engagement. And I know that feeling. Because I came here with that same desire. To wish you and Ivy joy. And I'm sad for you that it all ended so badly."
"You won't even let me say the words?" he asked.
"Please don't," I said. "They won't change anything. They'll just make it harder for both of us."
"Amanda-" he started to say.
I had never been so pleased to see a dozen police officers pour into a room before. They banged into the library, knocking both doors wide open, their voices loud and boisterous as they headed for the places, they had only just left moments before on the sofa and around the desk.
Edward stepped back from me and thrust his hands into his pockets. Only the chief seemed to notice how close we had been standing together by the fireplace, but he only raised an eyebrow. He didn't say a thing.
"Oh good, Scott, you're here," Reilly said as he came through the doors. "We had some more questions for you."
"I'm happy to help," he said then glanced at me. "Miss Clarke had an interesting theory."
"You can fill us in on that yourself, I'm sure. Miss Clarke has to rejoin the others in the ballroom now," Reilly said, putting a hand on the small of my back to steer me towards the door.
"Don't hurt him," I hissed at Reilly.
"Madam, I'm an officer of the law," he said.
"I know," I said and shot him a look.
"That's enough of that," he said, then gave me a little push to keep me moving past the door. "Go on into the ballroom now. There's cake, and it's nearly midnight. Keep walking. I'm not closing these doors until I see you safely through those doors.”
I felt the rush of anger throughout my body, the blood in my ears singing, my heart thumping like a war drum. Then I felt my hair prickling up like from static and forced myself to calm down. This wasn't the time or place to unleash all of my power.
At least, not yet.
Chapter 20
The ballroom was as far from a party atmosphere as it was possible to get. Mrs. McTavet, having been brought down from her private rooms by the police, was loudly grieving in the corner near the band. They had stopped playing and were sitting together on the far side of the little stage. Coco was sitting near her mother, trying and failing to be any comfort at all.
An older woman was encouraging Mrs. McTavet to drink more from a cup that I dearly hoped held more than mere tea. Her guests were already on edge from their long entrapment. Her tears were making the situation near intolerable. Many of the women were starting to cry as well. The men looked like they were fixing to make another attempt at getting past the guards at the door. It was getting easier to tell who of the remaining partygoers were gangsters and who were more mundane businessmen.
I didn't linger. No one was near Coco, not Brianna or Sophie or even Charlotte, and I wished I could do something for her, but I had other duties that had to come first.
As much as the chief had said everyone was to be confined to the ballroom, the two guarding the door to the back corridor didn't even look up as I passed between them.
But when I reached the parlor, I found it empty.
I hesitated in the doorway. Had I somehow missed seeing Brianna and Sophie in the ballroom? No. With Sophie in that eye-catching red dress, there was no way I wouldn't see her if she was there. Or Otto in his bottle-green suit, for that matter.
The spell must have worked. They must be in pursuit of the murderer even as I stood there uselessly in the doorway.
I went into the parlor and sat down in one of the wing-backed chairs. It would only take a moment. I would pop into the world of threads and look around. Brianna and Sophie, I would know at once, and the key itself glowed like a beacon. I only needed a moment.
But the moment my eyes closed, before I had even steadied my breath, I heard the sound of the parlor door clicking shut. As if someone was trying to do it stealthily.
To trap me in there.
I had forgotten that I was bait.
I stood up from the chair, one hand holding my bag and the other inside of it, groping for my wand, but both hidden from view of the door by the back of the chair.
"Oh," I said when I saw who was there. It was Charlotte. "I hope we didn't frighten you before, up on the stairs. Or perhaps you've already run into Sophie and Brianna, and they explained?"
She didn't answer, just stood there looking at me. I could read no emotion on her face. The single lamp still burning in the room cast more shadow than light, but I could still see her face well enough that I should have gotten some clue as to what she was thinking or intending.
"Are you looking for Mary?" I asked. Which was a silly thing to ask. What if she said yes? I had no idea where Mary was. Searching with the others?
"I know Mary isn't here," Charlotte said. Her voice was as flat as her face was blank. She was starting to creep me out.
I went ahead and took out my wand. I let her see it. She glanced at it, but only for a split second.
"What do you want, Charlotte?" I asked. She took a step closer to me, shoving a mass of loose hair out of her eyes.
"You got so close to the answer, but then you danced away," Charlotte said.
"What are you talking about?" I asked.
"Before, when you were in the library talking to Edward," she said and took another step closer.
I held the wand up higher. "You were listening from that cubby."
"Of course I was .You heard me in there,” Charlotte said, unbothered. As she moved her face fell into shadow, but the light shone on her legs. The hem of her skirt was torn, and her shoes looked like mine: quite ruined by the snow.
"When were you outside, Charlotte?" I asked.
"It doesn't matter," she said. She started to take another step but froze when I thrust the wand out towards her.
"Not another step," I said. "Speak your piece, but do it from there."
"I wonder what you can really do with that thing?" she said.
"Finish what you were saying," I said. "You were listening to Edward and me talking. You said I was close to something."
"Yes," she said. "You wanted him to help you figure out who the extra person was that was tangled up in all of the mess. The one that threw all of the love matches out of alignment."
"That's not what I said. We were trying to figure out who the murderer was."
"Well, that's not a mystery any longer, is it?" Charlotte asked.
I reckoned it wasn't. Charlotte was up on the balcony when Ivy fell. Coco couldn't conceive of her friend doing such a thing, but looking at her now I had no problem believing that Charlotte had knocked Coco to the ground and then thrown Ivy over the balcony.
It was easier to see the size of her now that her ill-fitting dress was torn. She had looked round and soft before, but now I could see she was short but stocky. The largeness of her limbs was all muscle. Ivy would have been easy.
She must have lured Thomas into a false sense of security somehow. But I could imagine if he were near the rail already and she caught him off guard, she could upend his feet and send him over head-first. I could imagine it all too clearly.
But there was no reason to say any of that out loud.
"Then what are you teasing me about?"
"The extra person," Charlotte said, growing impatient now. "The one who destroyed everything. The one that drove Edward away from Ivy, the one that made Ivy take Thomas instead when he was meant to be with Mary."
"I thought you hated Thomas," I said.
"It doesn't matter how I felt! He belonged to Mary!"
"All right," I said as soothingly as I could.
I really hoped that spell had worked. Because if it had, then the others would be on their way back to this room now.
"We can't make other people love whom we want them to love," I said. "Thomas might never have chosen Mary even if he was free to do so."
"He would have," Charlotte said.
"And Edward didn't drive Ivy away. He loved her. You heard that yourself if you were listening."
"He says he never did. And I could tell he never did. And so could Ivy. Ivy knew he didn't love her, not really. That's why she finally turned to Thomas."
"Edward is not to blame for all of this," I said.
"We agree on that," she said.
"You stole my key," I said. She just grinned at me. "How did you know I had it, or what it did?"
She grinned wider. "I'm not allowed to tell you that," she said.
"Not allowed by who?" I asked. She said nothing. But she tipped her head to one side and something golden around her neck caught the light. A locket hung at her throat, dangling from a choker. Had she had that before? No, I was sure she hadn’t.
I gripped my wand more tightly. Her eyes darted over to it, noticing my movement.
"You know who's to blame?" she asked.
"You are," I said. "Although how murdering your sister's best friend and secret love is supposed to make her life in any way better is beyond me."
"No!" Charlotte shouted at me. "You are! You're to blame. If you hadn't turned Edward's head, we'd all be in the other room celebrating their happy engagement and waiting to count down to the new year. If only you didn't exist!"
Before I could reply, she charged me, throwing the chair aside to tackle me.
As I fell to the floor, my wand flew from my hand.
And wherever it landed, I had no clue.
Chapter 21
As surprised as I was to find that Charlotte could hit like a linebacker, she was equally surprised to see how quickly I got back to my feet. I'd played hockey all through high school, and while we played clean matches without resorting to all-out brawls, I had still learned how to take a hit.
But I was distracted. As much as my wand didn't feel like my own anymore, I still didn't like not to know where it was. I tried to keep my eyes on Charlotte, hands up to grapple with her if she tried to charge me again, I couldn't resist the urge to glance down in the direction I thought it had fallen.
It only took a fraction of a second to see that it wasn't under the tea table, but that was all it took for Charlotte to knock me down again. I curled into a ball, protecting my stomach as I fought to catch my breath.