Simon had been about to object, espying the curious glance of Miss Baxter just beyond the plump old woman’s anatomy, when she sharply shut the door in his face.
Well, how rude! Simon thought, furrowing his brow. She didn’t even give me a chance to answer. Feeling rather ornery, Mr. Todd shuffled his shoulders and with a harrumph, shoved his ethereal noggin right through the front door.
“I am not a salesman, Madam,” he said, giving her an awful start. “My name is Simon Todd and I am a guest invited by Mr. Dashing to breakfast.” The room was large and spacious, and in fact the majority of his companions were already looking towards the door from the dinner table, probably curious as to who had knocked in the first place. The older woman, having turned around at his impromptu introduction, shouted in surprise at the sight of a young gentleman’s head seemingly mounted on her door.
“Ha! Well met, Mr. Todd!” Dashing said, standing up from a sturdy wooden chair at the table. “Oma, this is our equerry, Simon Todd. Let him in wouldn’t you?”
The old woman removed her goggles, sliding them over the top of her head to reveal small, wide, blue eyes buried within a plump face. Simon nodded at Dick and stepped back, removing his head from the heart of the door. He smiled at Oma as she opened it to regard him, and stood straight backed, resolved to forget the mild rudeness she had displayed towards him a moment before.
“You’ve a lot a spirit and spit in you, don’t ya?” she asked.
Simon chuckled at the old woman, bouncing up on the balls of his feet. “More spirit than spit I would think,” he said, moving to enter the apartment as she held the door for him. Though the window looking outside had been small enough to insinuate that the space within was tiny, the apartment actually appeared quite large. There was only one other door save the one at the entrance, and that, Simon assumed, to be the toilet. Otherwise the rooms and beds were all above the main floor space upon a wide open loft easily accessible by a spiralling iron staircase. The floor was solid wood, with many old looking things decorating panelled walls and faded floorboards. It reminded Mr. Todd of an old, expansive attic. The only difference was that the white sheets had been removed from some of the furniture.
Miss Baxter, Jane Darcy, Fae and Dashing were all sitting at a large oak table when he entered. A platter of baked bread, butter, tea and hard-boiled eggs occupied the middle of the serving space in addition to an assortment of fruits and cheese displayed upon silver saucers.
“This is my Oma, Simon. Don’t let her nice grandmotherly appearance fool you. She’s an old pistol, that one.”
The older woman laughed, setting her goggles on the table and removing a pin from the tangle of hair atop her head. “I may be old Dicky, but I know how to shoot a gun better than you can spin a yarn.”
“She must be good,” Jane noted, to which Fae laughed.
Simon unwrapped the cloth about his briefcase, setting it down on an empty chair before taking a seat. By the nonchalance of the old woman, Simon assumed his companions had already discussed his disposition. Either that or the old woman was a tad crazy.
“I haven’t seen a ghost since the haunting house of Thornfield! What got your goat?” Oma remarked, confirming Simon’s suspicions as she ducked one hand beneath the table to feed old Lucifer a few table scraps. Mr. Darcy seemed curious about her story, but Fae interrupted before he or Mr. Todd had a chance to reply.
“They all be adventurers in this family, Simon,” she explained, leaning back away from the table with her arms crossed. The few beams of sunlight that did make its way into the room seemed to catch in Miss Hershal’s hair. It had been pulled back into a tail, having grown past her shoulders over the last few weeks.
“Well some of us used to be.” The older woman clicked a small button, invisible to the untrained eye, on the side of the pin she’d pulled from her hair, opening a rather delicate tool in which she began tinkering with on the goggles.
“Speaking of which, Jane has informed us that you may have some interesting discovery to share with us all?” Mr. Dashing smiled, picking up a slice of bread and slapping a few hunks of cheese on top before reclining back into his chair. “What has our equerry gotten himself into, hmm?” he inquired in good humor.
Simon looked down before answering.
This is all going to work out, he thought, swallowing past his apprehension.
“Well, it just so happens that I managed to stumble into the missing part of my soul the other day, and her name is Cosette.”
His companions exchanged incredulous glances.
“The missing part of your soul?” Fae was the first to speak, her face scrunched up in concern.
“Well, it’s a fine name for a soul, I think.” Dashing laughed, “Why’d you name it after a lady though? Couldn’t you have thought of something perhaps more manly?”
“Maybe he means a soulmate,” Jane mused, chewing on the tip of his thumb. “Perhaps Mr. Todd has met his match in love.”
Simon was a bit abashed by the subtle glances he noticed being tossed towards Miss Baxter. He shook his head and shrugged. “No, nothing of the sort really. Apparently when I fell off the…my roof, my soul split with another being.”
Miss Baxter leaned forward. “Really?” she said, eyes curious. “That would certainly explain your strange disposition.”
Simon felt uncomfortable. “Yes well, I met the young lady last afternoon. Apparently she’s been following us ever since Darlington.”
Mr. Dashing laughed.
Fae snorted. “Sounds like she just wants a bite of our dragon gold. How’s we to know she’s who she says she is? This girl a ghost, too?”
Simon bit his lip. “Well, no,” he admitted. “She’s a sort of spi-spider lady, I suppose.”
“A spider lady?” Jane asked with his eyebrow quirked.
Simon cleared his throat. “Yes well, apparently she took a tumble with me and when whatever occurred, her body and mine, as well as a part of my soul, fused together.” Simon bit his lip. He was certain there was somebody else that would be much more able to explain this strange phenomenon. In all honestly, he didn’t really understand it himself.
“Mind an old woman’s idle questions, but where is this spider girl then? You got her lodged in your pocket somewhere?”
Simon could tell well enough that Mr. Dashing’s Oma thought him a bit of a loon. He supposed he couldn’t fault her for it. He’d probably think the same in her position.
“She was a bit… bashful. But I hope to introduce you to her before we head out from Ebonguard.”
“So she is coming with us?” Fae looked about at the present company.
It was Miss Baxter who answered, “I think this makes perfect sense.” She stood and walked towards him. “If a creature was unlucky enough to fall within a spell radius that was removing Simon’s physical form, certainly it would fuddle up things.” The young shepherdess pursed her lips. “And if she is a part of Simon’s soul, I can see why he’d want her with him. Mortimer was very clear what would happen to you when she passed on.”
Simon gulped then looked away towards the others. “I don’t think she’d really desire a share of the gold. If the case should arise, she can have half my share.”
Mr. Dashing nodded. “Well, what does everybody think?” he asked, looking primarily at Miss Baxter.
“I think we should meet her first,” Fae said.
Jane shrugged. “I would be interested in meeting a spider girl.” He smiled. “Sounds like a character in a storybook.”
“I can agree to that at least,” Fae muttered, crossing her arms as Jane leant forward to grab a hard-boiled egg from the table. “But it all sounds awfully strange to me! You said she was able to follow us the entire way? How is that even possible?”
“I don’t know. It makes a bit of sense to me.” All those instances of webbing, of waking up thinking he had seen a large…something. They seemed all explainable now. “Though, I do believe her. I wouldn’t come and tell you all this i
f I didn’t.”
“I think I can speak for everyone when I say we all believe you, Mr. Todd.” Miss Baxter touched his arm, and though he couldn’t feel the obviously soft fabric of her ballroom glove, he could feel the press of bone against his suit coat.
“Thank you, Miss Baxter.” He pressed his lips together, looking into her bright eyes and seeing Cosette speaking to him from the small room at Barnaby’s.
“Mr. Todd,” Cosette had said the night before, eyes full of worry. “I think it’s for the best if I admit to you something that I secretly overheard a little while ago.”
Simon hated to think what Miss Baxter would say in her defence, but looking up into her emerald eyes he couldn’t bear to wait any longer.
“Miss…Penelope. May I speak to you privately a moment?” Simon asked, regarding the others a second later and smiling. “I need a necromancer’s opinion on something.” He chuckled awkwardly, prompting the others to nod and turn away.
Simon wished with all his heart for a glass of jasmine tea to calm his nerves. As the two of them exited the small apartment, Mr. Todd led them down the stairs far enough away to evade any intentional or unintentional eavesdroppers. Miss Baxter obliged of course, carrying her crook with her as she followed down towards the main street.
Simon stopped in the alley before they could breech the corner to the candy shop. Her smiled deepened with concern as he fidgeted from foot to foot with hands clasped and shaking.
“Simon? Are you alright?” she asked, cocking her head to the side and regarding him thoughtfully.
“Miss Baxter, I need to ask you something, and I hope you’ll forgive me if it’s a terrible mistruth.” He chewed at his bottom lip. “I also hope that in the case that it isn’t, you’ll spare me my feelings and just be honest about the entire situation.”
The young girl seemed to stand up taller, and a little part of him begged to remember that she was a powerful sorceress who commanded demons. “What is it, Mr. Todd?”
He took a deep breath. “Cosette—”
“The spider girl that’s been accompanying us?” Penelope interrupted with a grin.
Simon nodded, steadying himself. “Yes.”
“What about her?” Her voice was soft, delicate, without any indication of the power she possessed.
Simon wondered if those ghostly chains still silently bobbed in the space behind her. “Cosette told me you’re the reason I’m a ghost, Miss Baxter.” Her smile faded a bit, he noted, lowering his head to regard the cobblestones. “She told me she overhead you and Mr. Dashing back on the Cardinal, discussing the dragon cave, discussing my current state of being after our meeting with Mortimer Grim at the university.” He looked up, saw her blank expression and continued. “She said you both planned to make me this way so that I could get through the barrier at the dragon lair.”
“Simon…”
He set his jaw, forcing himself to stand up straight and meet her gaze despite the worry it caused him. “I need to know the truth of it, Miss Baxter. I’ve followed you through, well, hell and back. I think I deserve an explanation?”
She sighed.
“At least,” he stumbled, feeling a bit guilty, “w-wouldn’t you think?”
She nodded, pulling back a few strands of her sunny curls as they fell from the green shell of her bonnet. “I’m sorry, Simon. I shouldn’t have kept it all from you.”
He frowned. “So, it’s true?” He didn’t want to believe it.
“Well, not in its entirety. I didn’t plan for this all to happen. It’s just, you were a victim of circumstance.”
Simon pulled back, confused.
Miss Baxter continued, “When you fell from my roof after watching me in the bath, I really thought you were dead. Your neck was all turned about in an entirely wrong direction and I was quite sure a few of your limbs were broken. I wasn’t sure if I could even revive you to be honest. I hadn’t really done anything of the sort before. My father yes, but he’s an entirely different creation altogether.”
Penelope regarded him, taking a step forward entreatingly. “I wanted to keep your soul intact, Mr. Todd. I tried the most powerful ritual I could, but obviously it didn’t go as planned.”
Simon shook his head, “What about all this business about you, Mr. Dashing and the dragon cave?”
Miss Baxter stepped back. “Dick told me about the cave back at Grimguild, and I wasn’t really sure I could even break the spell. He was there that day when I was bathing.”
Simon blushed.
Miss Baxter couldn’t help when a ghost of a smile touched her lips at the young gentleman’s bashfulness. “He was down in the den,” she admitted. “He helped me with the spell and to move your body after the ritual.” She shook her head. “To be honest, I hadn’t thought it worked. You lay still for a long time and then after we went inside, thinking we’d have to bury you, your body disappeared!”
Simon recalled going back later as a ghost and noticing his body was missing. He wondered if that was when Cosette had been born.
“A little while later, a few of the townsfolk said you were down buying flour at the bakery.”
“I was making pie,” Simon said. He had wanted to see if he could taste it.
“Yes!” Penelope sighed. “Mr. Todd, when I learned you were a ghost I admit I thought it would be good to bring you along. If I couldn’t break the barrier I was sure you’d be able to do something.”
Simon frowned.
“It was the wrong thing for me to do, and to keep hidden from you.” She fingered the long ivory shaft of her shepherd’s crook thoughtfully. “I was still filled with anger from my meeting at the university. I need the gold, Mr. Todd. I won’t be able to avenge my mother’s death without the purchased loyalty of the mages.”
Simon was still. “I know that, but…” He looked away. “Why didn’t you just tell me? Do you really think I would be angry? You caught me on your roof! Which was all a misunderstanding by the way!” Oh gods! “I was in no way trying to act the deviant! I was merely watching to see when you returned so I could invite you to dinner but didn’t want to be a bother to your father by visiting all the time to inquire as to whether or not you had returned from—”
She laughed as he raised his hands. “It’s alright, Mr. Todd.”
Simon inhaled. “I’m sorry.” I am such a blithering ninny.
“I am more-so.” She walked forward, once again touching him on the arm. “I should have told you.” She took in a deep breath. “I was just too swept up in my own ambitions that I was afraid you wouldn’t go along with me.”
She was nothing like the young girl he thought he had left Darlington with. A part of him understood her apprehension to tell him anything. He hadn’t known a thing about her until this adventure. Not really. At least from Simon’s point of view, they had been virtually strangers prior to leaving their small town.
He still loved her though, even if she wasn’t the entirely naïve, innocent, angelic, young girl he believed her to be.
“Well, perhaps we can all just forget about everything.” He smiled sheepishly, thinking about his unlucky fall from her roof and how she had known all along.
Miss Baxter, alternatively, laughed as she watched him turn a bright red. “Alright, Mr. Todd.”
The young accountant sighed, closing his eyes. “It really was an accident! Still very rude of me, I admit! But I never intended anything of the sor—”
She turned before his rushed explanations could turn into jumbled rubbish. “I’m quite certain I don’t know to what you’re referring to.” She winked. “But unlike you perhaps, I am getting awfully hungry for breakfast.”
“Oh. Right. Terribly sorry.” He walked after her back towards the stairs.
“I am looking forward to meeting this Cosette, however,” she said sweetly, eyes bright in the early morning smog of Ebonguard.
Simon laughed. “After breakfast. We can all go meet her at Hamilton Tower.”
“That would be wonde
rful. I can’t wait to see the girl your soul thought to manifest.”
Simon nodded. “Y-yes. She’s very, uh, sweet.” And followed her back up into Mr. Dashing’s apartment.
Chapter 37
A Dragon’s Tea-Lemma
They left for Hamilton Tower at eleven-fifteen.
Simon was glad to be finally underway. The rest of the morning had been bright with conversation. Mr. Dashing had been eager to announce his plans for his share of the dragon gold over cheese and toast. Simon was silent when the hapless gunslinger admitted he wanted to purchase Manny’s circus, saying how Cherie was slave to the horrid, elephanti ringmaster. Apparently after the whole debacle with the soul snatching skeleton horses of the carousel, Dick had admitted his affection to Cherie at some point. The lithe acrobat, whilst dangling from silk scarves, had, by Dashing’s recollection, poured her heart out to him.
“She said the circus was her life,” he said into his cup of tea. “She said that as long as he kept those steam powered automatons walking the hills and plains lands, that she’d have a purpose.”
Of course, Simon and Penelope knew Manny was a reaper. As long as he continued to roam the land and forgo his return to the underworld where Mr. Grim awaited his deposit of souls, Cherie would continue to somersault as though alive. But Dashing was convinced that by purchasing the circus he could get rid of the decorated man and claim her heart.
Who knew? Maybe he could. Simon didn’t see fit to argue at the moment. They had to get the gold first.
Looking down at his pocket watch, Simon smiled as they all walked towards the tower, taking mind of the zooming automobiles filling the clogged streets. A few folks were still adorned in gas masks, but the majority of Ebonguard denizens were without. The Cinderstone Ziggurat of the royal family of Freland was stoic in the background, the very tip fading away and disappearing into the smoke of the city. A few low flying dirigibles hovered overhead, eclipsing the light every now and then and casting a large shadow over the group of companions as they made their way towards their destination.
The Curious Case of Simon Todd Page 40
