Page 28 of The Starling and the Hatter

I refocused, grateful that the song was nearly at an end, and did my best to finish strong and bold, throwing up a flared hand on the beat following the last note.

I breathed hard while the little crowd clapped. Then I swept into a deep curtsey, holding it for several extra seconds as I heard coins dropping into my nest. Then I swept up, giving a smile as I dropped my Starling stance and waved to the crowd.

A little boy waved back and I blew him a kiss before stepping down. I gathered my coin nest and perch and hurried in the direction I’d seen Robert.

Fortunately, the family he’d been dogging had stopped and were allowing him to show off his tricks. I stood back and watched while he crouched and presented the little girl with a flower from behind her own ear and then pulled an endless scarf from his sleeve to the amazement of the young boy.

The children were well dressed, as were their parents. Not enough to be nobility, but not common either.

After both children let out delighted laughs, Robert tousled the boy’s hair and then straightened, accepting the coin that the father held out before tipping his hat and stepping out of their way.

He slipped the coin into his pocket, grinning at the ground as he walked toward me.

I couldn’t just let him walk by, so I summoned my courage and as he passed me, I said, “Robert.”

He looked up, seeming surprised. “You know me?” he asked.

My heart squeezed. Perhaps all the reasonable explanations I’d come up with were pointless. Perhaps I simply wasn’t memorable enough. “You don’t recognize me.” I had recognized him the moment I’d seen him last week in the crowd, and yet he stared at me without a flicker of recognition.

He looked more closely at me. “Marianne?”

My hope dissipated, replaced by a sizzling and irrational anger at whoever this Marianne was.

“I’m sorry!” he apologized, seeming upset by my clear distress. “Perhaps if you took off your hat and veil, I might get a better look at you.”

I blinked, realizing what an idiot I was. Hatcher and I had designed this hat specifically to obscure my identity, and while I had left it perched high originally, I had pulled it low after seeing the familiar fortune teller. I was grateful it worked. I set down my perch and quickly removed the pins so that I could pull the hat and veil from my head, feeling like a fool. “Sorry,” I said. “I completely forgot that I was wearing it. Sometimes my costumes become like a second skin.”

Once the final pin was removed, I swept the contraption from my head. The moment I lifted my eyes to meet Robert’s, I saw surprise and recognition sweep over his face.

“Elise.”

I smiled as I let out a relieved sigh. “Hello, Robert.”

A grin split his face as his eyes swept over me. “I’m glad to see you looking so well.”

“And you,” I said, embarrassed by his frank admiration. “I was a little bit hurt when you watched my performance in Duskmoor but didn’t bother staying to say hello.”

“I would have if I’d known it was you. That was quite a sight to see. I never imagined that the beautiful and mysterious Starling was someone I already knew.” His brow scrunched a little, and I imagined he was trying to put the image of me as the Starling together with what he knew of Elise Wolfe. “How come you never sang like that when you were with your brothers?” he asked.

I shrugged, even as I fought the discomfort that scratched at my spine when he mentioned my brothers. “It wasn’t part of the act.” I looked around, suddenly paranoid that my brothers would show up here, despite the tainted past that they had with the local nobility.

“They aren’t here,” Robert said as he stepped closer to me.

I looked over at him, embarrassed that he’d read my mind. “Pardon?”

He smiled the kind of smile you give when someone is trying to fool you and it’s not working. “Your brothers. The wolf wagon. They aren’t here.”

The knot in my chest loosened. “I know,” I said, even though that was exactly what I’d been worrying about. “Is it just you then? You aren’t with your family?”

He nodded. “I’ve been on my own this season. I know the old timers think it’s best to stick with those you know—protection and loyalty and all that. But we visited the same towns and saw the same people year after year.”

“You were looking for new marks?” I teased.

The light left his eyes as soon as the words were out of my mouth, replaced by affront. “I don’t mark people, Elise. Some of us are content with performing.”

I blinked, feeling soundly chastised. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…my brothers always supplemented their income.” I myself used to be a fair pickpocket. “They said everyone—”

He shook his head. “Not everyone. I know it’s a common practice, but it isn’t for me.”