“I thought you had a business to run?” Vivian said recklessly. “That’s what you told that cop, wasn’t it?”
“Danny’s here,” Honor said, her red lips pressed together in a tight line. For a moment, she looked like she wanted to say something else. Then she shook her head. “He knows how to look after things. And Benny and Saul will make sure there’s no trouble.”
“Honor—” Vivian hated the way her voice cracked on the word.
Honor didn’t look at her. “Time for me to go, pet.”
“Honor.”
But she was out the back door and gone. Vivian didn’t follow after her.
When she returned to the dance hall, Leo was still sitting at the bar. He looked relieved when she reappeared, though his relief faded into worry as he watched her. She stopped next to him, bracing her hands on the bar as she took a deep breath.
Take me away,Vivian wanted to tell him. “Dance with me,” she said out loud, trying to give him a smile. “I could use a distraction.”
“Sure thing. Give me just a minute.” He looked relieved by the simple, normal request, standing and giving her a wink before he headed for the bandstand.
Vivian turned back to the bar, watching without really seeing as Danny, halfway down the room, shook up a couple of gin cocktails while bending his ear toward Saul, who was muttering something too quiet to be heard by anyone else. Danny nodded, pouring out the drinks as Saul disappeared. He must have felt her eyes on him, though, because once he was done, he wiped his hands and came to lean on the bar across from her. “What is it, kitten?”
The gentle question made Vivian want to cry. She swallowed back the urge. She had one more day. A lot could happen in a day.
“Danny-boy, what’s Honor been up to recently?” she asked instead. “This week. It seems like she hasn’t been around much, some days. She been busy?”
He didn’t ask why she wanted to know, though she could tell from his expression that he was curious. Vivian held her breath, wondering if he would answer. Danny and Honor were a team. They were always on each other’s side, more than anyone else in the Nightingale.
Would he tell her if he knew? There was Florence now, and God knew her heart would break if anything happened to her little sister. But would loving Florence be enough to outweigh what he owed Honor?
“She’s been busy, for sure,” he said slowly. “Out, some nights. I’ve been in charge here a lot.” He shrugged. “Had to do inventory myself most days. She’s been hard to pin down.”
“What about last Monday? Was she around for inventory then?” Vivian asked. She could barely get the words out. She desperately wanted an answer. And she didn’t want it at all.
Danny frowned, running the cloth over the bar slowly. “I don’t know,” he said at last. When he looked up at her, Vivian knew he understood what the question really meant. It made her heart want to break, that he was answering her at all. Florence had won out. “I don’t think she was, though.”
Vivian felt like she couldn’t breathe. Why hadn’t she thought to ask him before?
Because she hadn’t wanted to believe it, ever since that conversation in the car with Hattie Wilson. She still didn’t want to. She was still sure there had to be another explanation, anything else. Anything that meant Honor hadn’t lied to her, hadn’t set her up, hadn’t been willing to let her take the fall.
A touch on her shoulder made her jump to her feet, every nerve on edge. She spun around to find Leo standing there. Up on the bandstand, they had just slid into the opening bars of “Charleston Charlie,” fast and fun. Around them, couples were heading toward the floor.
“I thought you might like a fast one,” Leo said, glancing between her and Danny. “Everything okay?”
Danny opened his mouth to reply, but Vivian got there first. “Everything’s peachy,” she said, tucking the pain in her chest down as far as she could. If all she thought about was the music, she didn’t have to admit that her heart felt like it was breaking. “That’s exactly what I want right now.”
Leo looked like he wanted to ask more, and she could feel him looking past her at Danny. But she didn’t give him a chance, grabbing his hand and hauling him toward the dance floor.
TWENTY-SEVEN
One Day Left
Vivian waited across the street, hovering at the edge of the park where a small crowd of children were chasing pigeons under the trees. The shrieking, darting bodies provided plenty of distraction in case anyone looked out of the house’s windows.
Vivian shed her coat while she waited. Spring had finally come to the city, all at once, in a breath of warm air that made her think of sweaty days hauling deliveries uptown and sultry nights spinning through the arms of strangers and friends. She didn’t let herself wonder if she would see those days and nights. She just turned her face up toward the sun and tried to ignore the ache like homesickness that was taking root in her chest.
Edison’s replacement had been waiting across the street that morning when she snuck out, dodging through crowds at the streetcar stop to give him the slip. Leo hadn’t been with her. After a string of nights spent sleeping on her floor, he hadn’t come home with her after last call. He had a job, he’d whispered, pressing a kiss against her forehead.He’d see her tomorrow, and everything would be okay, don’t worry. Don’t worry. We don’t need to worry.
At last, Vivian saw the car pull away from behind the house, catching the glimpse of a pale face behind veils of black netting, a tall figure staring stoically ahead. She waited until they were followed by an exodus of servants from the tradesmen’s entrance, most of them wearing black armbands, though she doubted they were heading to the funeral. She wouldn’t have, if she were in their place and granted a rare morning off.
Bea opened the back door as soon as she saw Vivian slip down the alley. She had a black armband too, its stitches quick and sloppy. Vivian wondered which maid had been responsible for making them, squeezing the rapid sewing in between her other duties.
