Page 31 of The House of Quiet

Chapter Twenty-Four

A Bird Plotting

As morning approaches, Birdie paces the kitchen.

She can’t stop staring at the empty chair by the door.

The one where Rabbit would slump after a day of helping the House Wife.

She tries not to remember how chipper Rabbit was when they met.

How excited to be contributing to her family’s future.

Rabbit is gone, as is the ghost who took her place.

Arrow sits on the window bench, staring out at the dark night. If anyone comes, they’ll have a lantern and she’ll be able to see them.

Birdie wrings her hands. “We need to figure out who isn’t really here for treatment.

They must be spying for the minister, since he’s trying to change things.

Which is another wrinkle. We might not have much time before they board up this house and move the entire thing to the coast. I doubt we’ll be taken along. ”

“It’s not Nimbus,” Arrow says. “No one could fake what he’s going through, and he’s in his room most of the time.”

Birdie nods, relieved they’re in agreement. “It’s not him. It’s got to be someone the minister already knows and trusts; Nimbus never crossed paths with him. I worked in both their houses. I would have known.”

“Not Dawn, either,” Arrow says. “We’d feel her emotions about it. She literally can’t be sneaky. Maybe Lake? She pops up in strange places all the time. She could be eavesdropping. And she might not be as young as she looks.”

Birdie sits at the table. “The day before yesterday I found her in the linen closet having a heated conversation with no one. She’d been in there so long she’d soiled herself.”

“Oh,” Arrow says softly.

Birdie shares Arrow’s disappointment. Lake, like Nimbus, is truly incapacitated by her ability.

Unlike two others. Two others who have never said what their abilities are, or proved they even have one.

Two others who have made themselves central to the household activities, who are always in a position to observe, who are old enough to know the minister and work with him. “It’s Forest, or…River.”

Arrow shakes her head, round eyes narrowing.

Then something in her seems to settle, leaving her gaze heavy.

“River’s constantly prodding for information.

And she set herself up in the kitchen, which seems out of character for someone with her upbringing.

It puts her in the middle of everything—making it easy to keep tabs on Cook, the House Wife, and the rest of us.

She also claims to know almost everyone, including Sky.

Which means she knows his family. And she’s connected to the minister of defense. ”

“That’s who the minister of finance was working against. I stole letters to that effect.”

“And,” Arrow says, her voice slowing with reluctance, “she knows I’m from the north.”

Birdie raises her eyebrows. “You didn’t think you should tell your partner that someone else in the house knows that?”

“She doesn’t know know. Only suspects. I haven’t told her anything. But she’s not the only one who’s made an effort to get close to us. Forest followed me upstairs when I confronted you.”

“Because you had a knife!”

“He didn’t know I had a knife. He was just following me. And that night we found Nimbus wandering, Forest came into the kitchen after us. It was like he knew we were awake. Like he was watching, or waiting. And since then he’s made sure we’re never up in the middle of the night without him.”

“River’s done the same!” Birdie protests.

Arrow holds up a finger to shush her. “I know. Which is why I brought her up before Forest. But we can’t ignore Forest just because you get lost in those upsettingly blue eyes.”

Birdie wrinkles her nose, then sighs. Arrow’s right. And she’s being more than fair in considering the person she has feelings for, too. “Fine. Yes. Forest is suspicious.”

“He could be anyone. He could be reading our minds, or putting thoughts in. Or he could be doing nothing at all. No abilities. Just a spy making certain everything at the House of Quiet is running how they want it to now that important children are here, or gathering evidence for the minister’s argument that they should start a new facility. ”

“If that’s the case,” Birdie says, “why didn’t he turn us in when the minister was here? He knows neither of us is who we say weare.”

“The same reason River didn’t come out, if she’s the spy. Because they weren’t expecting the minister.”

“How do you figure?” Birdie leans forward, curious.

“Remember yesterday morning? Cook knew the coach was coming in, and she didn’t want anyone seeing whatever—or whoever—it was bringing, so she drugged us.”

“The tea,” Birdie says.

Arrow nods. “The tea is the signal that Cook knows the coach is coming.”

“That’s how you knew your message was here, too,” Birdie says.

Arrow shifts uncomfortably on the bench, as though pained by remembering what she was trying to do mere hours ago. “Not the tea. It was the wood. I realized supplies had come in. My contact said she’d send me messages in the sugar bags.”

Birdie taps her fingers against the table. She never can sit perfectly still. “If Forest or River is at all clever, which we know they are, they’ve figured that out. Without the tea, they had no reason to suspect any visitors.”

“So it could still be either of them.”

Birdie doesn’t want it to be Forest. She’s already trying desperately to ignore the very real possibility that Magpie, her Magpie, her heart out there in the world, is actually not out there but lying still and cold forever in the bog.

The idea of facing Forest’s betrayal on top of that threatens to overwhelm her.

She shrugs, trying not to show how upset she is.

She has a job to do, and she’ll do it. That’s what Birdie’s good at.

Pushing down her own feelings and getting to work.

She doesn’t matter. She never has. “Either way, between the spy and the minister trying to shut down this house, we’re running out of time.

We’ll do the distraction in the afternoon. And I figured out how.”

Arrow frowns. “When did you figure it out?”

“When you were scared because the door was open and Nimbus might have gotten out. It’s nearly happened before, so no one will suspect us if it actually happens.”

“You want to send Nimbus outside?” Arrow looks genuinely horrified.

“No!” Birdie holds her hands up. “No, I would never put him in harm’s way.

We’ll bring him upstairs to the maids’ hall.

We can put him in one of the empty rooms. No one will think to look there, since the stairs are always locked and those rooms are locked, too.

Dawn will be the one to discover he isn’t in his room when she visits him for story time after lunch.

And then we just have to make certain the secret pantry door is cracked open.

Someone will notice it eventually during the search and think he went outside.

That will bring the House Wife out of her room. I know it will.”

Arrow shakes her head. “But if we make everyone think Nimbus got outside, they’ll go into the bog to look for him. That’s too dangerous. Someone will end up dead.”

Someone else . Rabbit’s already out there. Birdie thinks of her, floating frozen just beneath the surface, glowing pale and freckled and alone. She won’t let that happen to anyone else.

“Not if you’re with them,” Birdie says. “Can you safely lead them around for an hour?”

Arrow hesitates, conflicted feelings warring across her face.

Birdie puts a hand on Arrow’s. “I promise I won’t just look for where Magpie is. I’ll look for them all.”

Arrow swallows, then nods, reluctant but resigned. “It’s a good plan. I think it will work.”

“It means you’ll lose access to the pantry exit, though. Doubtless it will be locked and barred afterward. No more walks with River.”

Arrow raises an eyebrow in surprise, and Birdie almost smiles at the innocence of Arrow’s shock at being caught.

“The greenhouse is all windows,” Birdie says.

“Ah. Well, it’s for the best anyway.”

“What’s for the best?” River asks, leaning in the doorway.