signs?”
“I’ve seen similar ones on old gravestones. I’m curious how they came to be carved into the side of that cliff.”
She hesitated. “You won’t find any information in here or anywhere else about those symbols. And I wouldn’t mention them again. People around here are funny about those things.”
“Superstitious, you mean?”
Her gaze darted away. “I just wouldn’t say anything if I were you.”
I was puzzled by her behavior, but I let the matter drop.
A door closed somewhere in the library, and she looked a bit alarmed. “Luna must be back. I’ll let her know you’re here.”
She hurried away, and I settled down at the table to work, but I’d barely had time to shuffle through the first stack of papers when Sidra returned with a couple of books. “Should be something in here about the cemetery,” she said. “It lists all the graveyards in the county.”
I glanced up. “You sure found that fast.”
“I know just about every book in this library. I’ve spent most of my life in here.”
“You must enjoy your work, then.” I smiled. “I love libraries, the older the better. Just like cemeteries.”
She said almost shyly, “I like cemeteries, too. I could help you go through some of this stuff if you’d like.”
“Luna wouldn’t mind?”
“I don’t have anything else to do,” she said and pulled out a chair. It had occurred to me while she’d been gone that she might know something about Freya. The girl had died before Sidra was born, but in a town this small, she was bound to have heard something. And she’d certainly reacted to the photograph in Luna’s office.
We worked in silence for a few minutes before I casually remarked, “I met your mother at Asher House the other night.”
“I heard.”
“She told you?”
“My mother never tells me anything, but I always manage to find out what I need to know.”
The hint of superiority sounded more like Ivy than Sidra. “After dinner, Thane and I went through some old boxes. I came across a photograph that reminded me of the one hanging in Luna’s office—that group photograph of her and your mother and Catrice. There was another girl in the background. Thane said her name was Freya Pattershaw.”
Sidra didn’t glance up, but I could sense a sudden tension and remembered her strong reaction that day in Luna’s office. I’d suspected then, as I did now, that she’d seen Freya’s ghost in that photograph.
“Have you ever heard that name?”
Her blue gaze lifted to mine, and something in those crystalline pools made me shiver. It was the dichotomy of light and dark, I realized. “I’ve heard the name,” she said. “She was the bird woman’s daughter.”
“The bird woman?” I asked in confusion.
“Tilly Pattershaw. That’s what we call her.”
“Shouldn’t that nickname belong to Catrice? She’s the ornithologist.”
“Catrice studies birds,” Sidra said. “Tilly takes care of them. She’s a rescuer. And she probably knows as much or more about birds than anyone around here, including Catrice. You should see her yard. Sometimes they flock to her by the hundreds.”
I had a sudden vision of all those crows staring down at me. “Do you go out to her house often?”
Sidra gave a wary glance over her shoulder. “I’m not supposed to go out there ever. But I like birds. The little ones especially and the songbirds. Catrice studies predators.”
I tried to keep my voice mildly curious. “Why aren’t you allowed to go out there?”
Another pause. “Tilly’s not one of us.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s not from Asher Falls.”
“But she’s lived here most of her life.”
“She’s still considered an outsider by people like my mother and Luna.”
Ironic, considering she’d probably lived here longer than they’d been alive. “Do you know what happened to Freya?” I asked.
“She died.”
“Yes, I know, but how?”
She hesitated with another cautious glance over her shoulder. “No one likes to talk about it, but…I’ve heard people say it was a fire. That’s how Tilly burned her hands. They say she tried to go in after her daughter.”
“That’s why she wears gloves,” I said.
“Always. I’ve never seen her without them even when she feeds the birds.”
“Where was the fire?”
“I don’t know. Some abandoned building in town. There was a party or something. That’s all I know. Except…” Her eyes were very cool and very blue but filled with something I couldn’t put a name to. Something that unsettled. “I don’t think they liked her much.”
“They?”
“My mother and Luna and Catrice.”
“Why didn’t they like her?”
“Maybe you should ask Luna.”
“Ask me what?”
My gaze shot to the end of the aisle where Luna stood holding her cat. She wore a deep purple dress the exact shade of a twilight sky. Silver cuffs circled her wrists and I could see the milky glow of the moonstone at her throat. She bent, and the tabby leaped from her arms to dart under one of the shelves, claws scratching at the hardwood floor.
“He’s after a mouse,” Sidra said.
“Yes, he’s a bloodthirsty little thing,” Luna said. “It’s a natural instinct, though, so one can hardly begrudge him. Besides, rodents are the bane of old libraries. Traps can only do so much.” She smiled as she leaned a shoulder against the shelf and folded her arms. “Now, what was it you wanted to ask me?”
Sidra had her back to Luna. Her head was bowed to the book, but her gaze was lifted to mine, and I saw an almost imperceptible shake of her head. For some reason, she didn’t want me to mention Freya, maybe because she wasn’t supposed to know anything about her.
I said evenly, “I’m trying to find a site map for the cemetery. Thane said there might be one at Asher House, but it never turned up. Have you seen one in the library archives?”
“Should be one somewhere in all those records.” She walked over to the table, her hand sliding up Sidra’s back to rest on her shoulder, and I saw the girl close her eyes, as if suppressing a shudder. “At least for the new section. But the site map for the original cemetery could very well be at Asher House. I’ll have a look myself next time I’m there.”
“Thank you.”
She stared down at me for a moment, and then before I could react, she reached out and grasped my chin, turning my face to the side, as if to study my profile. I jerked away in shock.
She smiled. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you. I thought I saw a spider in your hair.
And now it was I who suppressed a shudder. In that brief moment that we were so close, I noticed a fan of lines around her eyes, the crepey skin at her neck, the shimmer of gray hair in her dark mane. She didn’t seem quite so vital or lush as I’d first perceived her, and for some odd reason, I thought of that withering corpse in the Asher mausoleum.
She straightened. “Sidra, don’t forget you’re locking up tomorrow.”
The girl’s gaze was on me. “I won’t.”
To me Luna said, “Is there anything else I can do for you, Amelia?”
“No, thank you,” I said a little too quickly. “Sidra has been kind enough to help me sort through the records.”
