looking at my crooked smirk.
“A bit.”
We returned to the bed, Belle seeming twice as tired as before but half as stressed.
I laid awake long after she’d fallen asleep, watching the steady rise and fall of her chest. It was an old habit, but it always calmed me. Tonight, though, my nerves remained frayed. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw that pile of bones, the skull sitting on top. I wondered if they’d slept in this house, too. I wondered if someone guarded them then. Soon, I’d find myself pacing between my sleeping wife and my sleeping daughter, watching the miracle of their breathing. I hated closing my eyes, letting her slip from my sight for even a moment felt like a betrayal of the promise I’d made myself that she’d always be safe with me. How much harder was that promise going to be to keep with sleepless nights ahead of us? Slipping from the bed, I carried the remains of our evening meal to the kitchen. Then I double checked all the locks and the security cameras. All was as it should be. Everything was in its place. Everything but the bones of strangers lying in wait in my cellar.
My feet carried me to them without thinking. I flipped on a worklamp and ducked carefully under the police tape. They’d photographed them and then laid them out in a neat orderly row. A bunch of bones that looked like femurs and ribs—but it was the skulls that stuck with me with their hairline cracks. Proof their deaths had been anything but natural. There were six of them in total, no longer piled in that gruesome pyramid I saw when I closed my eyes, but I knew exactly which one had been on top. It was the one I saw when I closed my eyes. You can’t erase the sight of a skull that small from your mind.
4
Belle
Harrods was already experiencing the holiday crush, even in October. The department store had wasted no time decorating for Christmas. A massive tree was erected outside the entrance, which meant tourists were clustered around it taking photographs. Strings of lights were hung along the building’s exterior, and I was greeted with a Happy Holidays by the doorman. I resisted the urge to remind them that we were still weeks away from Christmas, knowing my ill humor regarding the matter stemmed more from being ready to give birth than any impropriety on the part of the shop. With all the preparation at the house, I hadn’t even thought about getting presents. Now it occurred to me that my spontaneous shopping trip, meant to lure Edward into the open, might be the last chance I had to prepare for the upcoming holidays. I had no idea if I’d get a chance after the baby was here. Suddenly, I felt the familiar panic I’d begun to experience every time I thought about what the future held. Just as I was on the verge of hyperventilating, a man bumped his shoulder into me.
“Excuse…” the rebuke died on my lips when I turned to glare at the guilty party.
“You came!” I threw my arms around my best friend who accepted my embrace awkwardly. I pulled back to study Edward for a moment, wondering if I was overwhelming him but he simply gave me a sheepish smile.
“I don’t want to squish Mini-Belle.” He patted my stomach softly, looking as though he was afraid if he touched it too forcefully he might break me.
“Mini-Belle?” I repeated.
“Well, you two haven’t given her a name,” he explained. “Have you?”
“We have a few contenders.”
“How vague of you.” He spoke lightly but there was an edge coating his words, as though he didn’t approve.
Of course he didn’t. Edward’s family was built around secrets. Secrets that had recently cost him the person he loved most in the world. It must be hard to see any kept information as innocuous after something sinister takes someone that important to you.
“I promise you will know as soon as I do.”
“You could just be like us Royals and give her every name you come up with,” he said dryly.
“Ah, yes, the old Louisa Anne Elizabeth Mary Victoria Fanny scenario,” I said.
“Fanny?” he repeated. “Please tell me that’s not a contender.”
“Billie?”
“That might be worse.” Despite his rough edge, the corners of his lips tipped up and he nearly smiled.
“Dare I say that you look good?” I asked, as we wove arm and arm through the crowd in Harrods.