Her Dark Curiosity

 

THE FLOWER SHOP WHERE I sold my grafted rosebushes was one of London’s finest, owned by a Middle Eastern couple who imported their flowers from countries I’d scarcely even heard of. As I made my way toward Narayan Flowers & Wholesalers, I clutched my satchel with the journal inside. It had taken some time to convince Montgomery that instead of coming with me, his time would be better spent eavesdropping on the King’s Club members.

 

I entered the flower shop, jumping as the bell tinkled above the glass door. A dark-skinned middle-aged woman in a bright orange scarf leaned over the counter. She held a broom in her hand as elegantly as a parasol’s handle.

 

“Ah, Miss Moreau. How are those roses coming?” She set the broom aside and brushed clippings off the counter-top, sending dancing pollen into the hazy morning sunlight. It smelled of summertime here, amid the flowers that watched from every corner with perfect and still attention.

 

“I hope to have a few more finished before New Year’s, Mrs. Narayan, but I actually came today to ask you a question. Do you know anything about tropical flowers?”

 

She gave me half a smile. “Where do you think we import most of these from?”

 

I took a hesitant step forward, clutching my journal through the satchel’s stiff leather. I dared a glance at the street outside, nervous about revealing the flower, which by all rights should have been logged into Scotland Yard’s evidence file.

 

“Would you take a look at a flower to see if you can identify it?” I asked.

 

“Of course. Let’s see it,” she said, nodding to the counter.

 

I slid the flower from my journal’s pages and set it on the counter. “I’d like to know where one can buy them in town. It’s quite important.”

 

She stooped down, eying the flower almost nose to nose. A tiny, feathered white seedpod drifted across the room to settle on my coat sleeve. I pressed it between my fingers as if it might grant a wish.

 

To find Edward, I wished on impulse. To be wrong about him, and learn the professor’s death was caused by something else, someone else. . . .

 

It was a silly wish, and I let the seedpod fall on the floor.

 

Her drumming fingers stopped suddenly. When her eyes shot to mine, they no longer looked cheerful. “Where did you get this flower?” she asked.

 

I swallowed a lump in my throat. “I found it on the street. I . . . thought it quite lovely and wanted to buy more.”

 

She thrust the flower back at me. “It’s called Plumeria selva. You won’t find this flower for sale in any shop, not even the most exotic stores. It wouldn’t last long enough out of water to import it, and it isn’t valuable enough to grow in a commercial greenhouse.” She spoke her next words very carefully. “Which is exactly what I told Scotland Yard, when they came around asking if we sold them.”

 

She leaned forward, dropping her voice to a whisper. “You’ve read the newspapers, haven’t you? That flower is the calling card of the Wolf of Whitechapel. If you found one in the street, it might be important to their investigation. You must turn it in to the police.”

 

I stowed the flower back in my book. “Of course,” I lied. “I’ll head there straightaway.” I slid the journal into my bag, but hesitated. “Just out of curiosity, if the murderer didn’t purchase them from any shops in London, where do you think they came from?”

 

Mrs. Narayan picked up her broom again, fingers drumming on the handle, reluctant to dwell on such grisly topics. “He must grow them himself, though I have no idea why. Perhaps he lives outside of the city with enough space for a hothouse or a winter garden. It would have to be someplace warm and humid, and even then he would have to be a master gardener to grow tropical flowers in England.”

 

Edward certainly had no private hothouse, nor was he any type of gardener. Somewhere hot and humid, I thought, mind turning back to the island. It struck me then—the one place that always made me feel as though I was back on that sun-drenched slip of land.

 

The Royal Botanical greenhouse.

 

“Well.” I gave her an unsteady nod. “I supposed I’d best be off to Scotland Yard.”

 

I hurried from the store with my heart clanging as loud as the bell.

 

I rushed back to the professor’s, heart thumping at what I’d learned. The morning sky was clouding over with a threatening storm, and shoppers hurried past, anxious to be out of the weather and tucked near a warm fire with their loved ones, singing “Silent Night” and “We Three Kings.”

 

When I arrived, I found Montgomery gone but Balthazar home, making licorice tea for Elizabeth, who sat in the library with an open book and those reading glasses that made her look so like her uncle. I stood in the doorway and observed her; she didn’t turn a single page, just stared at the professor’s old decanter.