The Sweet Far Thing - Page 139/257

“What was it?” Felicity jumps in.

“I don’ ’ear ever’ fin’, Miss Pesterpants,” Brigid chides.

I mouth Miss Pesterpants to Felicity, who looks as if she could cheerfully strangle me.

“Wotever it was,” Brigid continues, “Missus Nightwing were very cross about it. I’ve never seen ’er so angry.” Brigid puts the candlestick back just so. “There. That’s better. I’ll ’ave to ’ave a word with that Emily. And you best get to prayers, before Missus Nightwing turns you out and me righ’ after.”

“What do you think it all means?” Felicity asks as we fall in with the other girls. They gather their prayer books and straighten their skirts. They crowd around too-small mirrors, pretending to tidy their hair when really they’re only gazing at themselves, looking for hopeful signs of budding beauty.

“I don’t know,” I say with a sigh. “Is Wilhelmina trustworthy or not?”

“She does appear in your visions, so it means something,” Felicity says.

“Yes, but so did the girls in white, and they were fiends who would have led me astray,” I remind her. The very girls who meant to lure Bessie and her friends into the Winterlands for who knows what purpose also came to me in my visions, giving me a measure of truth and lies. In the end, they led us straight into the clutches of the gruesome Poppy Warriors.

“So what is Miss Wyatt?” Felicity asks. “The lady or the tiger?”

I shake my head. “I honestly can’t say. But she took the dagger—that’s for certain—and that’s what we need to find.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

OUR TRIP TO THE REALMS ISN’T AS MERRY WITHOUT ANN. Even the magic can’t lighten the mood. The factory girls take her departure particularly hard. “Our lot got no chance,” Mae grumbles to Bessie.

“You must make your own chances,” Felicity retorts.

Bessie gives her a hard look. “Wot would you know of it?”

“Let’s not fight. I want to dance and play with magic. Gemma?” Pippa gives me a knowing look.

With a sigh, I tread the familiar path to the chapel and Pip follows. This time when we join together in the magic, the draw on me is hard. It’s as if I fall into her deeply. I’m part of her sadness, her envy, her bitterness—things I’d rather not see. When I break away, I’m tired. The magic itches beneath my skin like insects crawling.

But Pip sparkles once again. She nestles into my side and wraps her arms about my waist like a little girl. “It’s wonderful to feel special, even for just a few hours, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” I say.

“If I were you, I should never give up this power but keep it always.”

“Sometimes I wish I could.”

Pippa bites her lip, and I know she’s worried.

“What is it?” I ask.

She picks berries from a bowl and moves them between her fingers. “Gemma, I don’t think you should give quite as much magic to Bessie and the others this time.”

“Why not?”

“They’re factory workers,” she says on a sigh. “They’re not accustomed to having such power. Bessie’s gotten quite full of herself.”

“I hardly think that’s—”

“She wanted to go into the Winterlands again. Without you,” Pip admits.

“She did?”

Pip takes my arm. We step carefully over the groaning vines slithering across the floor. “It’s better if I have more, don’t you think? That way they have someone to look up to, someone to guide them. They’re such children, really. And I can keep them safe for you.”

That’s a laugh coming from Pip, but the news about Bessie sounds an alarm inside me. “Yes, all right. I’ll give them less,” I agree.

Pip kisses my forehead. She drops the berries she’s been playing with into her mouth, one, two, three.

“Should you be eating those?” I ask.

Pippa’s eyes flash. “What does it matter now? The damage has been done.”

She drops the fourth into her mouth and wipes the juice from her lips with the back of her hand. Then she pushes the tapestry aside with a “Greetings, my darlings!” just like a queen greeting her subjects.

As promised, I give the factory girls sufficient magic to allow them the appearance of clear skin and fine dresses but not enough to create true change. They have no real power this time, only borrowed illusion.

“Don’t seem to work so good tonight,” Bessie grumbles. “Why’s that?”