Page 21 of Her Cruel Dahlias
“And kind hearts.” She smiled, her voice gentle. “You both have that.”
Zephyr’s expression washed away, replaced by something more playful. “Well, I have a kind heart that can make you feel good any time you want.”
“That can make me come as many times as I wish?” Cricket let out a small laugh when Zephyr’s eyes widened in surprise. “Seems you aren’t the only one who can say unexpected things at inappropriate moments. I’ll see you back at the carnival, and thank you for accompanying me here.” She walked through the gate, glancing back as she padded up the garden pathway. He continued to watch her, and she knew it was to ensure she safely made it inside. Her heart gave an extra thump as she looked away from him, passing around the water fountain.
Behind the manor, a fine mist drifted up from the sea, and she loved the days when it would pour in over the garden as if this place was meant to be in a mystery story. She bit the inside of her cheek, reminding herself that she was currently in one.
Two servants, Nettie and Ebba, tended to the flowers and weeds in the gardens near the front of the manor. They looked up as she passed, their eyes blinking in surprise.
“Hello.” Cricket smiled at them like she always used to, and they both waved. She wondered if they were uncomfortable that she’d once been dead, the way Charles had been around her earlier. But she and the other carnival performers weren’t immortal—they would all die one day just like them.
The various-colored rose bushes were in full bloom, and she brushed her fingers across a bright red bloom, hoping it would somehow get her curiosity to start behaving by bringing her the flowers she needed.
On either side of the door were potted succulent plants, something Bram’s mother always had, saying how one never knew when aloe vera might be necessary to help heal a wound. Cricket and Anika hadn’t grown up wealthy, but that had never mattered to Bram. Just as it hadn’t when Bram’s father married his mother.
Cricket’s heart pounded faster as she lifted her fist to knock, the deep rumble loud in her ears. Perhaps she should’ve asked Zephyr to accompany her further, but she didn’t want Mistress Eliza to get annoyed with him when she needed him back at the carnival to help. She wished he didn’t have to be a part of these murders, yet after today, they both were.
As her nerves ticked inside her, she prayed the wicked dahlias wouldn’t sprout unwillingly, but her locket with the dried petals rested against her collarbone if she needed one. Even then, no scratching brushed her muscles while she waited.
She reached up to knock again when the door opened to a servant wearing a simple black dress and a white apron around her waist. The woman’s blonde hair was plaited back, her face unfamiliar.
“Hello,” Cricket said, her voice shaky. “I’m supposed to meet with Bram and Anika for tea. I may be later than expected.”
“Miss Cricket?” the woman asked, her smile bright and pleasant.
She nodded, fidgeting with the skirt of her dress.
“They’ve been expecting you. Come inside.” She shut the door behind them before gesturing her toward the long hallway. “Just take this all the way down to the drawing room, and I’ll let them know you’re here.”
“Of course.” Gilded-framed paintings still hung along the crimson silk wallpapered walls of the hallway. Lavender sat in tall vases across the wooden floor, and the scent tickled her nose. Besides the last time she’d visited, the manor was always comforting, quiet, peaceful. Before Bram’s mother passed away, she always had the servants decorate the home in lavender.
The hallway opened to the spacious drawing room with an unlit fireplace at the back. A blue chaise, two velvet red chairs, and a settee rested in the center. Between them, an ornate rug lay beneath a carved wooden table, a vase of lavender decorating it. Cricket recognized Anika’s artwork on the walls and smiled. She would know her friend’s style anywhere, the way she layered the colors and curved the lines.
Footsteps sounded from above, and Cricket glanced up to find Anika walking down the staircase, wearing a yellow dress with capped sleeves and white lace around the collar. Her feet were bare, and Cricket’s smile grew wider. Anika had always hated shoes.
Anika’s black hair hung to her waist in thick curls, and her stomach cast a small bump, barely noticeable. If Bram hadn’t admitted that Anika was with child, Cricket would’ve never guessed.
Cricket’s gaze lingered on Anika’s stomach a beat too long before meeting her dear old friend’s deep brown irises.
Anika smiled wide, and it lit up her eyes. As soon as she stopped in front of Cricket, her smile fell. “I’ve been worried sick. You took off without so much as a goodbye.”
“I did. I’m sorry.” Cricket bit the inside of her cheek, knowing she must’ve seemed like a wounded, envious shrew at first. After what Bram had told her, how Anika had always wanted children, her heart swelled, and she didn’t have to force herself to smile. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you.” Anika chewed on her lower lip, always her sign of anxiousness. She took a deep breath before speaking, “I should’ve told you when you were here last, but I was frightened. I didn’t want you to hate me more than you already did. If I had known you were alive, I never would’ve let Bram court me. Perhaps I shouldn’t have, even if you’d never returned.”
Cricket’s chest tightened, her friend’s words ringing true to her ears. She didn’t want to take away any of the happiness, even if it had been at Cricket’s expense. “Fate led us on this path. I know you love one another from the little while I saw you two together.” Setting away the last remnants of the hurt hidden deep within her, she placed her hands on Anika’s shoulders. “The world pushes us in directions we may never have found otherwise. You knew I always wanted to perform more than anything. And now I am.” She wouldn’t tell her the whole truth, that she hadn’t mastered her curiosity, that she only recently was allowed on the stage, and even then, it was her barely doing a few pirouettes. “At least we know the child will be beautiful.”
Anika released a choked sob and folded her arms around Cricket as though she might disappear again. “I missed you so much. My days aren’t the same without you,” she sniffed.
Cricket lifted her arms and held her just as tightly. “You have Bram.”
“Oh, you know how men are. Sometimes we need our closest female friend to gossip with.” She grinned as she drew back, tears gathering on her lashes and streaking her cheeks.
And then the true reason she was here washed over Cricket. It wouldn’t be about catching up over tea or learning more about the murders, but a discussion over the recent victim that Cricket had seen herself. “There’s something important I need to discuss, and it won’t be pleasant.”
“Is everything all right?” Bram asked, his voice concerned as he rounded the corner.
Cricket turned to find him dressed in a button-up white shirt and black trousers, his boots shined to perfection. “A woman’s body was found near the side of the road, not too far away from the carnival,” she said.