Page 83 of The Starling and the Hatter

A burst of pride rushed through me. Hatcher had acted like a magistrate, and he’d been magnificent. If not for his quick thinking and shrewd questions, I would be the only one in this dungeon right now. Still, the fact that Robert so easily admitted to such a betrayal cut deeply. “I don’t understand how all of it could be a lie.”

“It wasn’t all a lie. I did like you. We had fun together.”

“And now you hope I rot in this dungeon?”

He gave another infuriating shrug.

“It won’t work,” I said. “They won’t believe you.”

He laughed. “Why not? If both I and your brothers are adamant that you were just as active a participant as we were, what’s going to make them believe you’re innocent? You had two stolen pieces in your costume.”

“That you put there when you came over to show me your card trick.”

He grinned.

I was horrified and disgusted and furious. There were no words. All I could do was slam my fist into the bars and turn my back on him, retreating to the shadows where I could wallow without being seen. I sat down in the farthest corner of my cell, put my head down on my knees, and cried. He was right. They’d never believe I was innocent.

But at least they also knew of Robert’s guilt, of my brothers’ guilt, and I owed that all to Hatcher. He had defended me before the duke and duchess. He was like a white knight of legend, and he was the only reason that Robert and my brothers were down here, sharing my fate. That, at least, was some consolation. So I went back to humming my melody—broken though it was by my tears—and as I hummed, I sang the words in my head.

He was only a hatter

Worked with fabric and thread

She was a maid in the forest

Who someone had left for dead

I sang it over and over, adding verses and imagining harmonies, until the creak and clang of a door opening rippled through the air. I lifted my head to listen as several sets of footsteps made their way into the dungeon corridor. The captain of the guard appeared outside my cell, a torch in hand. He peered in at me and then looked at the others.

“We finished our search,” he announced before looking at Daggon and then over to where Morley was being held. “Your wagon is fascinating, but it wasn’t very good at keeping secrets. It seems you men have been thieving day and night for some time.” He looked back at me. “I thought at first that all three of you Wolfe siblings were working together.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but he held up a hand and turned to Daggon. “But after speaking with your wife, it was clear she didn’t know you two even had a sister. Curious, don’t you think?” He then turned to Robert, walking toward the door of his cell. “And as for you. The way you ran and hid, then proclaimed your innocence before we’d ever accused you…” He shook his head. “Idiotic,” he mumbled.

What did that all mean? He didn’t seem to think I was working with my brothers, so…?

The captain crossed between my cell and Daggon’s, then stopped to lean against the bars to Daggon’s right. “What about you, Connor, did you hear anything interesting?” He looked over not at his fellow guard, but at the person in the cell beside Daggon’s. The one wrapped in rags who’d barely moved the entire time we’d been down here.

The man shifted but didn’t sit up. “Want me to snitch on another prisoner, do you?”

“If you wouldn’t mind,” the guard said politely, like they were friends, or perhaps had a business agreement.

The man snorted. “Girl’s innocent,” he muttered. “Brothers are terrible people. Other bloke used her up and spit her out, then decided to work with her brothers just to humiliate her and watch her suffer,” he mumbled before rolling over and ignoring us once more. I held my breath. He knew I was innocent. Would the captain take him at his word? Could this all be over soon?

The captain let a grin slip past his stoic facade before hiding it again. “Always helpful, that one.”

“How do you know he’s not lying?” Daggon challenged. “He’s a prisoner.”

“So long as Connor is fed a steady diet of ale, he’s as honest as they come,” the captain said as he shoved a key into the lock of my cell and pulled it open. “You’re free to go, miss.”

I stood frozen for just a moment, hardly believing my luck had changed so thoroughly and dramatically. I used the wall to push myself up, then stepped tentatively toward the door, half expecting him to slam it in my face and sneer that it was all a cruel joke. But the captain just waited patiently, ignoring Daggon’s protests, and I walked through unhindered and turned toward the stairs.

I fully intended to walk by Morley’s cell without either a word or a glance, but as I passed his cell door, the way he said “Elise” made me pause.

I didn’t turn toward him, but I could see his shadow from the corner of my eye. How strange that in this instance, Morley seemed to be innocent, and yet he hadn’t bothered to defend himself.

“I—” He didn’t seem to know what to say, but I couldn’t bring myself to speak first, not after all his silence.

My heart felt like it had been clawed into and left bleeding, and though I fully expected that Morley’s words would make the bleeding worse, there was always the chance he would surprise me.