“But… but this is a bookshop!” Heathcliff spluttered.
“Not now Mina’s in charge.” Mum pointed to the noticeboard I stuck beside Heathcliff’s desk with our weekly events. “Now it’s a community gathering place, with book clubs and stamp collecting meets and even a Science Fiction convention. I don’t see why Jewels of the Ocean can’t be part of that.”
My shoulders sagged. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“Sure, Mum.” I sighed. “You can host your pearl party.”
Heathcliff’s fingers dug into my arm. “What are you doing? You’re letting your mother shuck oysters in our shop.”
“I know, it’s crazy. This is my fault. She did a half-day of good work and I thought that made her responsible. But she’s really done a great job looking after Nevermore while we’ve been away. She hasn’t called you a gypsy once. I just…” I shrugged, then lowered my voice to a whisper. “I want her to feel included. And I want to keep her close. With Dracula wandering around… and if he’s really after me because I’m Homer’s daughter, then he might go after Mum, too. My father’s note said that Nevermore protected me. Maybe it protects her, too.”
Heathcliff snorted. He wasn’t angry. He waslaughing.
I shook his shoulders. “Who are you and what have you done with Heathcliff?”
Heathcliff tried to answer, but he was too far gone. He gripped my shoulder as tears of laughter rolled down his cheeks.
* * *
“You never mentioned you were a keen gardener, Mina,” Edie said as Oscar and I slid out of the rideshare.
“Oh, it’s a… dormant hobby.” I crossed my fingers behind my back, thinking of the time my neighbor asked me to look after his cannabis plot while he visited his ma in Dublin and I accidentally sprayed the entire thing with weed killer instead of fertilizer. Edie didn’t need to know about that. She certainly didn’t need to know the real reason why we’d come here. “I’m particularly interested in… um, orchids and such. With spring upon us, it’s a good time to start looking for new specimens.”
“Excellent idea. Plus, it’s a great place for you and Oscar to learn about obstacles.”
Oscar trotted through the garden center, leading me through the labyrinthine rows of plants and flowers, dotted all about with bright-colored pots and strange and wonderful statues. Toward the back of the store, Oscar led me to a door with a sign that read, “RARE PLANTS: ENQUIRE AT COUNTER.”
Edie beamed. “There’s braille on that sign. On all their signs, actually, I’m impressed.”
A friendly-looking woman appeared at my side. She spoke with an Eastern-European accent. “My mother loved to garden her whole life; even when she went blind she could do everything by feel. She especially loved walking amongst the fragrant and beautiful wildflowers of our homeland. It is because of her that I started this center, and I believe thatanyonecan take pleasure in gardening as she did.” She smiled. “My name is Tatiana. Can I help you?”
“Hi, my name is Mina, and I’ve fallen into orchidelirium.” I didn’t know the modern term for being an orchid fancier, but I learned all about the Victorian fascination with the rare plants in one of Jo’s books. “I’m particularly interested in wild orchids from Romania, and I heard you have a couple of specimens ofOrchis simia. I’m interested in purchasing one.”
“I’m sorry.” Tatiana curled her long fingers into fists. Fury rolled off her in waves. “Wehadtwo perfect specimens of the rare monkey orchid, but they were recently stolen.”
“Oh, no. I’m so sorry to hear that.” I knew they’d been stolen, of course. It was all in the newspaper article. But I was getting quite good at acting. “I know you specialize in rare plants. Did they take everything?”
Tatiana frowned. “They did not. It was very strange. TheOrchis simiais not our rarest and most prized orchid by any stretch, and yet the thieves bypassed every specimen in our stores to take only those two plants. Occasionally, we have these types of robberies where thieves break in with a specific ‘shopping list’ – they’ve been commissioned by a collector to acquire a specific species, which is why we don’t list our orchid species on our website any longer, but…” she trailed off.
“What?”
Tatiana winced. The memory of the robbery was physically painful to her.Of course, it’s painful.I remembered how violated and afraid I felt when the charity Christmas tree and presents were stolen from the bookshop. Tatiana leaned against the wall and wiped her hands on her apron again. “The police found a scattering of leaves under the window where the plants were extracted, from theOrchis simia. Why go to all the trouble of stealing the orchids only to break it in the process? It will be worth nothing to the collector if it’s damaged.”
That’s because the flower isn’t important. The thief is after the dirt – the Romanian soil.
“Sounds like incompetent thievery,” I ventured.
“That was the other strange thing – the window was brokenoutward. If they got out through the window, how did they get in? All our doors were locked.”
That makes perfect sense if Dracula entered the building in his bat form through a vent, then transformed into his humanly visage in order to drag the pots out through a window.
Tatiana clicked her tongue. “Listen to me, going on about my misfortune. You do not care. You only wish to see the orchids. I can tell you that we have a new shipment of Romanian specimens coming in a few weeks. If you join our mailing list I can alert you when they arrive. For now, we have a large selection of Asian and South American varieties.” Tatiana produced a key from her dirt-speckled apron and unlocked the door. “Would you like to see?”
“Of course.”
It was a credit to Tatiana that she didn’t inquire as to whether Icould,in fact, see the flowers, or demand my dog stay outside. She just flung open the door and ushered me in.
As Tatiana dragged me around the small space, holding up orchids and exclaiming over their peculiarities, I dared a look at the broken window patched over with cardboard. It was high on the wall; Dracula would have had to climb on the shelves to crawl back outside.
