13 Secrets (23 page)

Rowan broke into a run, leading the way. She heard Sparrow’s breathing as he jogged behind her. Soon they were back at the rear garden of the pub, and loud voices came from within it.

“I can’t risk being seen by Jack’s father,” Sparrow said, shaking his head. “You’ll have to do it.”

“Do what?”

“Find a fire alarm and set it off. It’s the only way to get everyone out. Once the place has emptied we’ll take her upstairs.”

“All right.” She slipped into the trash area, concealed from the alley, and stowed the coat in her knapsack, which she left hidden. Trying to look confident, she strode into the pub through the back door. Through the bar she saw Jack’s father standing out front with a broom. He was red in the face and muttering to a customer.

She spied a fire alarm next to the small storeroom close to the stairs. A swift jab of her elbow smashed the thin glass, and an ugly, deafening bell rang out in a continuous drone. Quick as a cricket, she darted into the open storeroom and hid behind the door, listening.

“Out! Everyone out,” a deep voice boomed. “This is not a drill. Everyone into Wishbone Walk at the front. Now, please!”

Through the hinges, Rowan saw Jack’s father
stride past her hiding place. “Could anything else possibly go wrong today?” he muttered bad-temperedly to himself.

“More than you could have imagined,” Rowan whispered, watching as he went into the garden and repeated the same orders there.

Within thirty seconds the building and its garden were empty, and mounting voices from the street in front reached her ears. This was their only chance.

She slid out of the storeroom and back into the garden, ducking her head into the alley.

“Sparrow?”

He emerged from behind a wild cluster of ivy, visibly straining to keep from dropping the woman in his arms.

“It’s empty,” she whispered. “Go, now!”

He vanished into the pub. Rowan dashed to the trash cans and grabbed the knapsack containing the coat, then waited in the alley. A minute passed with no sign of Sparrow. Sirens wailed in the distance.

“The fire brigade,” she murmured. “Hurry up, Sparrow!”

He emerged, pulling his arm across his forehead in relief, and hurried to meet her. “I left her on her bed,” he said. “But I don’t think she’s going to be out of it for much longer—she was starting to mutter by the time I put her down. The alarm bell definitely wasn’t helping.”

Together they exited the alley to the side of the pub, emerging in Wishbone Walk. The street was in
chaos. A large crowd had gathered to watch the events unfold, and Jack’s father was trying, unsuccessfully, to keep them back, while at the same time scanning the faces.

“Where’s my family?” he said. “They should have come out… has anyone seen—”

He broke off. Jack was pushing toward him, Lucy in his arms. He pulled them to him, and anxious words were exchanged. Over his father’s shoulder, Jack spied Rowan, his small face questioning and full of worry. She smiled and nodded, suddenly exhausted and grateful that for Jack and his family, at least, things were going to be all right.

Jack pointed suddenly. His father turned, then raced back toward the building where his dazed wife had appeared by the front entrance, rubbing her eyes. He tugged her away to their children, kissing her forehead as she hugged Jack and Lucy.

The sirens grew louder and flashing lights were visible as a fire engine rumbled down the tiny street, forcing the crowd back. Sparrow ducked his head and took Rowan’s hand, pulling her toward Mrs. Beak’s tea shop, now almost deserted except for one or two tables. Tanya, Fabian, and Suki were still seated, silent and stone-faced in their anxiety. Suki hooked a handful of ice from Tanya’s empty glass, wrapped it in a napkin, and pressed it to her temple.

Tanya jumped up when she saw them.

“Time to go,” said Sparrow, jerking his head for them to follow.

They scrambled out from under the awning and merged with the crowd of people on the street, heads down, until they reached the square. Sparrow led the way to the town hall, finally releasing Rowan’s hand to collapse on the steps.

“We did it,” he said, allowing himself a small smile. “Jack’s family is safe.” He rested his elbows on his knees and rubbed his face.

“I knew we could,” said Fabian, his eyes shining behind his glasses.

“So it’s over?” Tanya asked, gazing at Rowan. “Your last job. You don’t have to get involved with all that anymore.”

Rowan sat down next to Sparrow. Her knees felt weak, like they would not hold her up much longer. “No,” she whispered. “It’s not over.”

“What do you mean?” said Suki sharply. “You brought Jack’s mother back—you
saved
her.”

“I meant it’s not over for me. Not yet.” From behind them, the sirens finally stopped wailing, leaving Tickey End eerily quiet. “We need to go somewhere and talk about what just happened.” Rowan paused and swallowed dryly. “Because for me, I think it’s only just begun.”

Suki’s caravan was one of the smallest, and was furthest from the performance area of the circus, a few doors down from Tino’s. A deep sea-green, adorned with silver engravings and patterns, it stood surrounded by the circus community’s tethered horses, accompanied by a pleasant munching noise as they grazed.

Suki opened the door and beckoned—then squealed and backed into Sparrow before anyone else was even through the door.

“What’s the matter?” Sparrow barged past her into the living area. “Oh, it’s Crooks.” He turned to Suki in surprise. “Did you know he was going to be here?”

Tanya clambered up the steps, Fabian and Rowan close behind. Suki’s face was clouded with anger when they got inside.

“No, I didn’t.” She grabbed a cushion from a nearby chair and hurled it across the caravan. Crooks was sprawled out on Suki’s tiny bed, his boots resting on a patchwork blanket. The cushion caught him on the side of his face, but failed to remove the smirk from it.

“How many times have I told you
not
to keep letting yourself in?” she yelled, hands on her hips. “Just knock, like everyone else!”

Crooks gave a lazy shrug, a bunch of keys hooked around his finger. “You weren’t here,” he drawled, swinging the keys in a circle. “So I thought I’d come in and wait for you.”

“Well, don’t. You made me jump.”

“Clearly.” Crooks pushed past the velvet curtains on either side of the bed. He straightened his striped trousers and flicked his black hair back off his face. “I can see you’ve got guests, so I’ll come back later.”

“You might as well stay,” said Sparrow, with a grudging glance at him.

“Fair enough.” Crooks plopped back down on the bed, grinning.

Suki sighed and sat down next to him. “Close the door,” she told Fabian, who was the last in. “You’ll have to take a seat anywhere you can find one. I’m sorry it’s so small; it’s only designed for one person.” She seemed lost all of a sudden. “It was Cassandra’s before it was mine.”

Sparrow perched on a wooden window seat close to the bed. Tanya, Fabian, and Rowan squeezed in
and sat on a woolen rug on the floor. It was cozy in the caravan, and more homely than at Tino’s, with intriguing items dotted around the place, a little like Mad Morag’s. Yet there were no items that gave any indication of Suki’s past beyond the circus—no family photographs or trinkets, nothing that was without function. Tanya wondered if she found reminders of her family too painful.

“So what’s going on?” Crooks inquired.

No one answered at first. Eventually Sparrow broke the silence.

“That job we did today—there was a… something unexpected happened.”

“The one with the changeling mother?” asked Crooks, still spinning his bunch of keys. “Did something go wrong?”

“Not exactly. We got rid of the changeling… found the real mother and brought her back, but…”

“It was all a ruse,” Rowan put in. It was the first time she had spoken since Tickey End, and only after she had entered the caravan had she stopped looking over her shoulder. “The whole thing… it was devised to get me there. The person masquerading as the changeling used the family to get to
me
.”

“
What?
” Tanya said, incredulous. “Who?”

“And why?” asked Fabian, looking equally shocked.

“Eldritch,” Rowan whispered, fearing to say the name. “And the reason why is easy—he wants his revenge.”

“Eldritch,” Suki repeated. “The fey man you left in the cellar, is that right?”

Rowan nodded.

“Well, you can’t really blame him,” Crooks said. “I mean, you
did
leave him there, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I know, but—”

“And you can’t blame Rowan for reacting that way,” Tanya snapped, glaring at the black-haired boy on the bed. “Eldritch was there when her brother—when James—was taken away! It’s only natural that she would have wanted revenge.”

“But he didn’t deserve that,” Rowan muttered.

“Maybe not,” Tanya said. “But you acted in the heat of the moment—it wasn’t out of spite.”

“So if you left him there, how did he get out?” Crooks asked.

“His hand… the one that was manacled to the wall. It had been cut off—there was just a stump,” Rowan said in a small voice.

Fabian let out a low whistle. “He did it himself?”

“It’s possible,” said Rowan. “But I can’t think what he would have used—he had no weapons. The Hedgewitch would have taken them from him.”

“So perhaps someone else helped him,” said Tanya. “But who?”

“The coat,” Rowan whispered. “It has to be.”

“What about the coat?” said Fabian.

Rowan pulled the fox-skin coat from her bag. “This coat was made to order by the Hedgewitch. It was the only garment in the place that was ready—
someone
was coming to collect it. But I’d already taken it. Whoever that person was would have been angry with me for taking it, and Eldritch wouldn’t have held back in telling them. That would be reason enough for them to help him escape, leaving him free to come after me.” She pulled her knees to her chest and began to rock. “I knew it. I knew he’d get out somehow and come after me….”

“So why now?” asked Crooks. “And why go to the trouble of involving Jack’s family?”

“Because he knew he couldn’t get to me directly,” Rowan answered. “I’ve been protecting myself and surrounded by people. This is the only job I’ve done in months. With me using the coat it made things a lot easier for him—it’s more difficult to abduct a person than it is a fox. To get to me he had to trick me into coming into contact with him. He must have been planning it all this time.”

“But if that’s true he must know about what you do,” said Suki, her eyes wide. “That you were involved in all this… that it wasn’t just James you were trying to find. And if he knows about you, then…”

“Chances are he knows about some of us… if not all of us,” Sparrow finished.

“And with what’s just happened to poor Fix, and Cobbler and Dawn still missing, I’d say we’ve got a problem. A serious problem.”

“They’re not… missing,” Tanya said. Her chest felt tight with the pressure of the secrets she had been holding in all day. “They’re dead.”

“How can you possibly know that?” Crooks asked.

“Because I saw them. I mean… I didn’t actually see them, but I went to Morag’s—the gypsy woman’s—today. While I was there, she had a vision. I was standing next to her, looking into the water where the vision appeared. I saw it exactly as she saw it.” She glanced at Rowan and Fabian and saw their shock at this admission. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. We already had too much going on, and I didn’t want to panic anyone.” She paused, looking from face to face, with the exception of Fabian’s. “It showed you… all of you. Your faces, one by one. I recognized you all from the barn the other night. It showed Fix… dead. A fly was crawling over her. And it showed two more faces, faces I didn’t recognize—but I knew then that it was Cobbler and Dawn and that they were—”

Sparrow’s face had drained of color. The entire caravan was in silence, horrified by the revelation. “Go on,” he whispered.

“She said something,” said Tanya. “ ‘The thirteen secrets have been found out.’ That’s what she said.” She glanced at Rowan. “She said you’d know what it meant.”