Page 41 of Stalk the Dark
“So he’s responsible for all the vampires? And how? How did he just come to be?”
“No one knows,” Merry said. “But, yeah, he spawned the race, either by blood or by bite, and then they carried it forward, I guess.”
Ezekiel had children…a bloodline of his own? I made a note to ask him about it. It could be one of our bonding topics, unless it was a sore topic with him, in which case I’d need to tread carefully. The whole sleep for ninety-nine years out of a hundred was also super weird. Another topic of conversation or probing, depending on how he received it.
The timbre of the clatter of wheels altered as we entered the heart of Old Town. The street widened slightly, bordered by tall three-story houses squished together as if the architect had been desperate to fit as many dwellings into one space as possible. I couldn’t imagine living in such cramped quarters. The doors looked too low and the windows too small.
“How do people live here?”
“The insides are quite spacious,” Merry said. “The houses go back quite far.”
It looked confined and dismal to me. We clip-clopped past iron lampposts and women and men dressed in long double-breasted coats and ankle boots, and the hats, so many hats that left ears uncovered. I tugged my woolly hat down over mine, grateful I didn’t have to dress like them.
The houses were soon replaced by store fronts with pretty letter work on the glass. Milliner, tailor, dressmaker, and a butcher next to a fishmonger. I spotted a bakery and a couple of smaller stores, the entrances clustered together, dark and dingy.
Edwin finally brought the carriage to a halt outside a glass window with gold lettering that saidAgatha’s Emporium.
“I have a few errands to run,” Padma said. “Edwin will drive me. We’ll be back to pick you up in an hour.”
“It won’t take me an hour to pick out a dress.”
Merry giggled. “I doubt she’ll have something appropriate ready. You’ll have to pick out fabric and discuss a design. Agatha will have to make the dress.”
“In three days?” I stared at her in shock.
“She’s a genius.”
We clambered out of the carriage and across the street, weaving between eager shoppers to get to the dressmaker’s doors.
It was blissfully quiet inside after the hubbub of the street. Rolls of fabric leaned against one wall, and lace and ribbon were arranged neatly on shelves along another. A woman stood behind a counter lit by an electric overhead light. I guessed the parade was connected to the grid.
She looked up from her sketching with a welcoming smile that broadened at the site of Merry. “Merry! It’s so good to see you.”
“I’m sorry it’s been so long,” Merry said. “I’ve not been myself.”
Something crossed Agatha’s features, a flicker of understanding, that told me that she probably knew about Merry’s memory issues.
“You don’t need to apologize to me, sweets. I’m just happy to see you and your friend.” She looked me over, and I understood what being sized up felt like now. But it wasn’t in an unpleasant way. She was probably trying to decide if I was a customer or not, and if I was, then what she could sell me. Exactly what a good businesswoman and salesperson would do.
I decided to make her job easier. “I need a dress for the Exciatio. Nothing too showy, but good enough to be seen on Tepes’s arm.”
Her brows shot up. “Well…wow. You must be the new watcher, then.”
“Yep. Can you help me?”
She grinned. “I most certainly can.”
The next halfhour was taken up looking at fabrics and taking my measurements. I had no clue on design, so Agatha offered to come up with something suitable and surprise me. I wasn’t keen on surprises, but in this case it would have to do.
“I assume he’s footing the bill?” Agatha said, tucking a tendril of dark hair behind her ear.
“That’s what he said.”
“I’ll open a tab in his name, then.” She pressed back a smile. “And add a few extra flourishes to bump up the cost. If he takes you to any more events, then I might get to New Town sooner than expected.”
“You’re leaving Old Town?” Merry asked.
Agatha blushed. “I plan to. You remember I met someone? Henry?”
