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He gave me a lazy grin. “Of course, I did. And it didn’t hurt that I desperately wanted to kiss her. I behaved poorly. I won’t repeat that act again.” He straightened and flourished two tickets from thin air. “For you and Miss Wadsworth. Should you both ever care to visit the show again, please do so free of charge. I promise, no murder, no untoward bargains. I offer only friendship from now on. For both of you.”
I took the tickets and stuffed them into my waistcoat. “Audrey Rose is still…” I couldn’t bring myself to say. “Are you going to wait and say goodbye?”
He took his mask off and tossed it back into the room. Without it, I saw he was much closer to my age. Maybe only a few months older. I wondered at the path his life had taken, the trouble he must have faced to lose his sense of morality while still a youth. He and I weren’t so different. Perhaps we could be cordial one day. He certainly seemed as lonely as I had been.
“I think it’s for the best if you pass along my regards to her,” he said, finally meeting my gaze. “For what it’s worth, I am sorry for any grievance I’ve caused you, Mr. Cresswell. While your delivery needs vast improvement,” he said, his grin sliding back into place, “I appreciate your candor. If you ever require my help in the future, know I’d like to offer it.”
Four
INFIRMARY
RMS ETRURIA
9 JANUARY 1889
One moment I was lost in desolate thoughts, blaming myself for what happened to Audrey Rose, and the next, her eyelids were fluttering. It took a moment for her to fully open her eyes, and she released a startled sound when I leaned over the bed and took her hand.
Her expression brightened as much as it could, then quickly faded as her gaze roved over me. I knew what I looked like. Eyes, bloodshot. Hair, disorganized. Expression, wild. It had been the longest twenty-four hours of my life.
“I thought…” I held onto her hand as if the force of it would keep her here, in this room and this world, for eternity. “I thought I’d lost you for good, Wadsworth. What in the bloody hell were you thinking?”
&nbs
p; She drew her brows together, seemingly struggling to recollect the events of the last day and a half. “What happened?”
You almost killed yourself for me. You took a knife to the femur. You nearly ripped my heart from my chest as you lay dying. I inhaled deeply. “Aside from you rushing to save me from certain death? Taking a knife precariously close to your femoral artery?” I shook my head, gathering myself. Now wasn’t the time to get upset about foolish acts. I set my jaw. “The blade went in so deeply it stuck to the bone, Audrey Rose. Your uncle was able to remove it while Mephistopheles and I held you down, but we cannot be certain how much of the bone was fractured. Thus far we don’t believe it’s shattered.”
She flinched. I gritted my teeth, figuring her pain had reappeared at mention of it. My mother often complained of aches and pains, and her expression was similar. I’d give anything to take it from her, to rewind time and stop her from being my hero at her expense.
“Sounds as though you’ve all been busy,” she said, trying for levity. “What day is it?”
“You’ve been out for only one evening. We’ve reached port in New York.” I wanted to say more, tell her how desperately out of control I’d felt, how my emotions nearly stole all sense of reason and logic, but instead I concentrated on drawing little circles on her hand. The motion soothed me almost as much as it seemed calm to her. “Andreas confessed to all.”
She was quiet for a moment. “Even the body found in the crate?” I nodded. “Did he explain why that victim was different from the others?”
I focused on the sleeve of her dressing gown, twisting the fabric at her wrists. Perhaps it was the wrong time to discuss stressful topics. She’d just woken up after a solid twenty-four hours of being unconscious. I truly was an idiot who knew nothing of people.
“Thomas?” she asked, her voice soft. “I’m all right. You don’t have to treat me as if I’m made of porcelain now.”
As if she wasn’t the bravest or strongest person I knew. “It’s not you,” I said, letting go of a sigh. It was never the right time to discuss murder, but Audrey Rose could handle what I was about to say next. Even if I wasn’t quite ready to. “When we asked Andreas about that crime, he claimed to have no knowledge of it. He’s in the brig until detective-inspectors come to fetch him. They’re not sure where he’ll face trial yet, since most of his crimes occurred at sea. We may need to return to England.”
She stared at me like she couldn’t quite wrap her mind around that complication. Though perhaps she was starting to see the same pattern emerge that I was. “But why wouldn’t he have confessed to—”
“Your uncle and I believe it’s possible there might have been a second killer on board,” I said, laying it out with swift precision. Sometimes a clean cut was the kindest. “Passengers have already begun disembarking, so if Andreas didn’t commit that murder, then—”
“Then we just delivered a Ripper-inspired murderer to America.”
Her eyes grew wide as the realization clicked into place. Neither one of us spoke. I could only imagine the thoughts running through her mind, the fears. The memories regarding her brother that she was trying so hard to escape from. I’d spent the better part of the last few hours trying to find another potential scenario but had failed.
In fact, the more I contemplated the murder scenes, the more I homed in on the details, it became startlingly clear that that was precisely what happened. I had little doubt that an American Ripper was stalking the streets of New York this very moment.
“For now,” I said, “let’s hope we’re wrong and Andreas was simply feeling uncooperative.”
Wadsworth broke out of her reverie and met my gaze. She knew it was a lie but didn’t press the issue. Perhaps we both wanted to stay lost in the world of pretend the Moonlight Carnival had brought into our lives. At least for now.
“Was he the one who stole the fabric?” she asked. “Or was it an unrelated crime?”
“He admitted to stealing it—apparently he’s a petty thief when he’s not murdering for revenge. It’s an old habit he brought with him from Bavaria. He used to steal clothes from people he’d tell fortunes to. One woman recognized a missing garment and reported it to police, which is why he left and joined the carnival.”
