Oliver Twisted (An Ivy Meadows Mystery Book 3) by Cindy Brown Page A

we talk a minute?”
    I took the hand he offered. It was warm and strong and comforting.
    “Timothy told me about your brother going missing. You doing all right?” He kept my hand in his.
    “Yeah,” I said, as much to convince myself as anything. “There are a lot of people in Phoenix working to find Cody, and there’s nothing I can do right now anyway. It’s good to have something else to think about.”
    “You sure?” I nodded and he smiled at me, one side of his mouth tipped up like a mischievous boy. “Well then, I could give you something else to think about.”
    Was Jonas flirting with me? First he said I had a delicious ass, and now…
    “How about dinner tonight? At the captain’s table?”
    He was flirting with me. Hmm. Jonas was handsome and he seemed nice enough, but I didn’t think I was into him. And there was another thing. “Don’t we have silk rehearsal for the magic show?”
    “Dinner is at the early seating. We’d be done in plenty of time.”
    “I didn’t think crew members could eat at Delmonico’s.”
    “We can eat in the dining room when we have family onboard. And you get to sit at the captain’s table when your family is Theo Pushwright.”
    That decided for me. I didn’t have anything solid on the theft ring or Harley’s death yet, but I could find out more about Theo and Harley at dinner. Besides, I really wanted to dine at the captain’s table. “Sure,” I said. Visions of a fancy dinner danced in my head, with silent waiters and crystal goblets and men in tails and women in…Oh. “Um, I hate to sound like a girly girl, but I don’t have anything to wear. Aren’t we supposed to dress for dinner in the dining room?”
    “More than you know. We dress in period clothing when we’re at the captain’s table. But don’t worry. There are several onboard costume shops. Go to the one on the Upper Pickwick Promenade and tell them I sent you.”

CHAPTER 21
    All the Treasures of the World

      
    I popped into Mrs. Chickenstalker’s Sundries Shoppe on my way to the costume shop. I’d run out of Tums and needed more before dinner. My stomach hadn’t felt exactly right for days, and Cody and Stu’s disappearance sat heavy and queasy in my gut like slightly off Mexican food.
    Or maybe it was slightly off Mexican food.
    Like everywhere else, the store was done up Dickens-style, the walls lined with floor-to-ceiling dark wooden shelves.
    Signs with fancy lettering announced the goods for sale, though if you looked carefully, you’d see iPod accessories among the aspirin and deodorant.
    I took my purchase up to the counter and handed it to the shopkeeper. “We have better stuff than that for seasickness, you know.” The shopkeeper wore a white shirt and brown vest, a sort of string tie around his neck, and a long white apron over the whole outfit. “Would you like to try some Dramamine?”
    “Sure.” I slid my packet of chewable Tums toward him too, just for good measure.
    He turned and picked up a packet of Dramamine from a mirrored shelf behind him, which in a very un-Dickensian manner was filled with vaping supplies and cold and allergy meds.
    “Why do you keep the Dramamine back there?” I asked. “Seems like it’d be pretty popular.”
    “Kids.” The clerk sniffed. “They can abuse anything if they put their minds to it. I guess it has some hallucinogenic properties.” He rang up my purchase.
    I thought about asking him if Dramamine might also help with that dizzy feeling you got when you were twirling on a flimsy piece of fabric forty feet in the air, but figured I could find that out on my own.
    I walked the few feet from Mrs. Chickenstalker’s Sundries to the costume shop next door. Each Get Lit! cruise featured a fancy costume ball, so every ship had several shops full of outfits that fit its literary theme. A bell jingled as I opened the door to Madame Mantalini’s Temple of Fashion.
    Oh my. I’d reached heaven. Actors’ heaven, at least. I