“You didn’t wake us?” Heathcliff growled. “What happened? Did Quoth even go out to follow the suspect?”
“Relax, everything’s fine. I tried to wake you, but Mina looked too cute and you growled at me, and I didn’t want to risk my neck. I watched the biddies. Quoth spent the night watching Dorothy Ingram through her window. Apparently, she knitted a hideous scarf and cried her way throughAn Affair to Remember.”
“I didn’t growl at you!” Heathcliff yelled.
“I assure you that you did, kind of like you’re doing now.”
“I couldn’t have. I was asleep.”
“Then you growl in your sleep, like a giant cuddly teddy bear.” Morrie ducked out of the way as Heathcliff swung a fist at him.
“Guys, can we focus,please?Mrs. Ellis, Miss Blume, are they okay?”
“Yes, perfectly safe and in fine form. I’ve just delivered their tea. Miss Blume dumped hers out the window in order to ‘divine the leaves.’ On my way out, Mrs. Ellis pinched my bum.”
I smiled. They were definitely fine. “What does it mean that Dorothy didn’t show up?”
“Probably nothing,” Morrie said. “Maybe your killer didn’t get the message about the slumber party, or perhaps she suspected a trap, or your screams of ecstasy echoed across the village and gave the whole game away.”
My cheeks burned. I scrambled to my feet. “I’ll go talk to them,” I mumbled as I headed for the stairs.
Mrs. Ellis winked at me as I walked into the World History room.Great, so she’d heard me, too. This was going to be all over the village before sunset.
And oh Hathor, Miss Blume works with Mum. This is very, very not good.
“Did you guys sleep well?” I managed to choke out.
“Oh, as well as could be expected,” Mrs. Ellis grinned. My whole face burned. “We were up all night, listening for the sound of our killer coming for us.”
“We heard all sorts of creaks and moans,” Miss Blume added. “This old building certainly islively.”
Astarte, kill me now.
“Right, well,” I cleared my throat. “Obviously you were perfectly safe. Will you be okay staying here in the shop today? Morrie and I are going to inspect Mrs. Winstone’s garden.”
Mrs. Ellis folded up her duvet. “Oh, no, we can’t stay here. We need to visit Brenda at the hospital, and Sylvia has clients booked—”
“Very well, Quoth— er,Allanwill go with you to the hospital.”
“Mina,” Quoth whispered from behind me. “Can I talk to you in private for a moment?”
Mrs Ellis’ eyes bugged out of her head as she leaned forward to peer around the corner at a shirtless Quoth, who shrank back into the shadows.
“Sure.” I followed him across the hallway and into the Children’s room. Quoth encircled my wrist in his long fingers.
“Didn’t you just say you were going to stop pushing me?” Fire flared in his eyes.
“Didn’t you say that you wanted to be pushed?” I shot back.
“You sound far too much like Morrie. Watching an old lady through her window was one thing, but you saw what happened at your mum’s. If I mess this up, Mina… if I shift in front of someone in the village—”
I squeezed his hand, losing myself in the deep brown of his eyes. “You’re just nervous, is all. The others have filled your head with all kinds of nonsense. You deserve a real life, Quoth. I want to walk hand-in-hand with you through the village and watch people’s heads turn. I want to take you to a punk concert so you can feel the way the music cuts you inside and forces all the bad stuff out. I want us to go to the National Gallery, and the Tate Modern, and maybe even one day we could take a trip to Paris and see the Louvre and all the amazing paintings that will fill you with joy. That could be your life, and I could share it with you, and it’ll be amazing. But if you want that life, you have to take Mrs. Ellis and Miss Blume to the hospital. Okay?”
In response, Quoth raised my hand to his lips, pressing them against my skin. A jolt of electricity shot through my body. Too soon, he pulled away, turning to leave.
“Where are you going?” I tried to tug him back, but he slipped from my grasp.
Quoth’s brilliant smile lit up the room better than any junk store lamp. “If I’m to visit the hospital, I should put on a shirt.”
