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“Thomas.” I made to reach for him, but dropped my arm. “Thank you.”
“Thanking me is unnecessary.” He leaned in and kissed my cheek, unconcerned with our scowling audience. “You are always free to do as you please. Even if you choose to follow a strange man in a gaudy suit into the bowels of a steam cruiser while someone in his show is murdering women.” Delight flashed in his eyes when the ringmaster exhaled loudly. “I’ll see you in a bit.”
“If my suit is so gaudy then why are you staring at it like it’s your one true love?”
“Thomas,” I warned. “Do not comment on his jacket. He missed his evening nap and is cranky.”
“Yes, well, there was only one spot available in the nursery and I thought Mr. Cresswell should take it.”
I hid my smile as Thomas stared down the ringmaster like he was a reanimated corpse.
“Miss Wadsworth?” Mephistopheles asked, tone lacking any decorum or patience. “Shall we?”
He offered his arm, but I ignored it and hauled off toward the promenade deck without assistance. I was already in a rotten mood thanks to the tarot reading, and now the sudden appearance of Mephistopheles, the Devil himself, turned my disposition even more sour. Confused over my feelings indeed. I’d show Andreas how faulty his cards were.
Once we made it to the end of the deck free from passengers and performers alike, I whirled on him. “You’re trying to irk Thomas and it’s not fair to me. When I agreed to help you it was also supposed to benefit me, remember? This”—I motioned between us—“is not beneficial. What is so important that you require my assistance this moment? You seemed to be having fun with Jian and Anishaa, not searching for me.”
“Not here.” Mephistopheles pointed toward the corridor leading a few floors below. I tried to hide my shiver as we entered the dimly lit hall and walked swiftly down the flight of narrow stairs. Our footsteps echoed along the metal stairs, alerting anyone below of our arrival. I wanted to ask about the playing cards and how cartomancy might play into the killings, but didn’t wish to do so when we were so far from other people.
We came to the end of the stairwell, and I was amazed when it opened into a vast storage space that must have taken up at least a quarter of the entire hull. Cage after cage of iron bars and exotic animals lined each side of the cavernous room. Monkeys and tigers, lions, elephants, and wolves whiter than snow. I paused near the zebras, admiring their contrasting colors.
“Well?” I faced the ringmaster, hands on my hips. “What urgent matter do you have?”
Standing there alone with him, I tried not to think about last evening, his hands on my waist, laughing like I was some other person as he twirled me around. How free I’d felt for a moment.
“I’ve noticed you haven’t given Liza the letter yet.” He ran his gloved hands down the side of one cage, inspecting them before brushing them off. “Would you prefer if I did it? Then you might act as if your hands aren’t stained in the nastiness of the matter.”
“Is this why you wanted to talk?” I bristled at his tone. “How is opening someone’s eyes to the truth a terrible thing?”
He stopped walking down the line of cages, facing me. “Sometimes we choose not to see things we know are true, simply because we wish to keep the fantasy of what could have been alive. To see the realness of a thing, well, sometimes that removes hope. An unfortunate side effect. As a scientist you must know that. You cannot always remove a tumor without taking a bit of the surrounding healthy tissues, can you?”
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sp; I crossed my arms over my chest. “No, I do not require your assistance. And I don’t wish to wax poetic on how speaking the truth is like removing a tumor, or any other such nonsense. Was there anything else you needed, or did you only intend to irritate me?”
“You anger rather quickly,” he said. “I enjoy chaos, remember? I like studying reactions. You weren’t so quick to be rid of me last night.”
A flush crept along my skin.
“Any other parting words of wisdom, or might I go back to the carnival?”
Mephistopheles marched up to the lion’s cage, a muscle in his jaw twitching in annoyance. “Apologies for interrupting your romantic evening, Miss Wadsworth. But I thought you might want to see what I discovered before I alert the overbearing captain.” He jerked his chin toward the back of the cage. Judging from the strong earthy scent hanging in the air, the hay had been freshly changed.
I doubted he’d dragged me down here to see that, so I carefully leaned closer and jerked back. There were splatters of blood on the floor of the cage. But that couldn’t be right. I inhaled deeply, and exhaled. There was a logical explanation waiting, I simply needed to think like a scientist.
“Don’t you feed the lions fresh meat?” I asked. My brain refused to acknowledge what my eyes were reporting as truth—the basis for all good illusions. “I’m sure it’s simply—”
“The severed limb that’s to blame?” He pointed to something I’d not noticed at first; it was stiff and protruding from the hay. I closed my eyes briefly and cursed.
A pale arm gnawed to the bone at one end.
Unless it was a very detailed prop for the carnival, it was all too real. No illusion or trick. “Yes, I’m quite sure that does explain all the blood. How silly of me to require your assistance with sorting that out.”
I shot him an irritated look. “Don’t be cross with me. I’m not the one trying to destroy your carnival. Perhaps you should have thought of these consequences before carrying on a flirtation with a married woman.”
“My carnival is in peril and there’s a severed arm in front of you, yet you’d like to discuss my sleeping arrangements?”
“When they might be the cause of said issues? Yes.”
