Lady Golden Hand

by Nix Whittaker

  The river was the catch all of everything in the city. The water wasn’t drinkable as all human waste eventually ended up in the water. Where the severed head went into the water was anyone’s guess, that it ended up in the refuse barge was no surprise.

  These enterprising men scavenged off the river interesting flotsam that found its way to the water. Their occupation had its disadvantages. One being they smelt as bad as the river. Thankfully it was not summer. The river could make a person faint in the middle of the summer. One of the reasons her family escaped to the country when they could. Her job had taught her the true torture of the warmer seasons in the city.

  The two tall men stood with the officer from the Yard. The men looked nervous while the officer chatted up a local woman, oblivious to the witnesses he was supposed to be watching. The scavengers, too scared to make an attempt to escape, left the officer to find his own amusement while they waited for them to arrive. She didn’t approve of the officer’s lax attitude towards his work but he was not alone in his lackadaisical work ethic.

  Rayne sent the officer on his way and turned to the scavengers to ask, “Want to show me your prize?”

  The taller of the men ignored her question and instead asked, “Is that a dragon?” He motioned with a short nod of his head towards Victor. Considering they had made a very dramatic entrance she had expected them to make some reference to the dragon.

  Victor, who had managed to change after transporting them, flashed his teeth in an attempt at charm. “Why, yes, I am. Did you see me fly in? I’m fantastic, aren’t I?” Humility was not Victor’s failing.

  “Are you going to eat us?” the other shorter man asked.

  “No, you are way too odorous for that,” Victor assured them.

  The other man smacked the taller man in the arm. “I told you the dragon wasn’t gonna be interested in the likes of us.”

  Rayne prompted, “The head?” They waved to the cart they had brought in from their boat. Rags, and other odds and ends; disguised the head. Rayne used a handkerchief with her real hand. There was no way she wanted to have anything from the river in the creases of her hand. There was a line she wouldn’t cross. Twisting the head she turned the bloated mass so the features were visible. She kept her peripheral vision on Victor to see his reaction.

  He looked pale and said in a soft voice, “It’s him. Sebastian.” She knew it would be. Londinium was large but they were not at a stage where heads floating in the Thames was an everyday occurrence. But why did Sebastian who was supposed to be Eleanor’s killer have her wedding ring?

  Larkin asked, “Did you kill him?” Larkin was a good partner even if he still insisted she be ladylike.

  Victor shook his head. “I didn’t kill him years ago when he first escaped, there is no reason for me to kill him now.”

  Rayne straightened, folding the handkerchief so none of the soiled part would touch her pocket when she returned it there. “He killed your wife. I thought dragons looked after their collections.”

  “It is more complicated than that.” It must be that secret embarrassment he hadn’t wanted to speak about when she was interrogating him.

  “You can ‘uncomplicate’ it and tell us everything you know.” She wasn’t about to make it easy for him. She wasn’t a fan of lies and she knew he was keeping something from her.

  “I’ll reveal all I know to others in my collection.” She knew what the offer meant. She would have to be his mistress before he would let her in to his confidence.

  “Then I will have to ferret out your secrets in another way.” Rayne wasn’t going to allow him to manipulate her. Her mother was the only one who had that right.

  ___

  Rayne looked at the case notes she had made. Twirling, the now clean, gold ring in her fingers as she contemplated what she already knew about this case. She could chase down the dragon’s or Sebastian’s secrets. At least Sebastian’s were easier to obtain. Her boss wouldn’t be very pleased she was still on the case. The death of a suspected murderer would be very low on Maynes’ list. She already had another case on her desk to investigate.

  Before Rayne could decide on a path her mother swept into the office. “What an abysmal place, has no one heard of wallpaper?”

  “Mother?” Rayne half rose from her seat.

  “Yes, dear?” Lady Ancaster replied sarcastically as if she didn’t know why Rayne was so astonished to see her in Rayne’s workplace when her mother had never visited before.

  “No, I mean, what are you doing here, mother? You never come in to my work.” Rayne returned to her seat, keeping her eyes on her. There must be a strategy her mother was employing here and that meant Lady Ancaster wanted something.

  Lady Ancaster gazed around the room, studying the minimum of furniture with a wrinkle of her nose. “I should have before. There is a real need for a woman’s touch on this place. I don’t know how you can come here every day and not get the urge to decorate. At least put up a painting or tapestry to hide those horrific walls.” Her eyes stopped on the articles from the cases she had solved that had managed to get into a newspaper. Most were penny dreadful quality as she didn’t often deal with important cases.

  “You haven’t answered me,” Rayne urged her to get to the favour she wanted as there was no other reason her mother would visit her at work.

  Lady Ancaster snapped her fan closed and put it away in her reticule before she answered, “I came bearing good news. You have a marriage offer.”

  Rayne laid her face down in her hands. She mumbled into her hands, “Kill me now.”

  Before she had managed to convince her mother not to worry about her marriage prospects because they didn’t exist. With an offer, even an unsuitable one, she would never be able to stop her mother from turning predatory in gaining her a mate.

  Her mother, oblivious to her distress, continued, “A lovely gentleman. His name is Victor.”

  That last part had Rayne shooting up to her feet. “Don’t tell me he talked to Papa.”

  “Yes, he did. A charming fellow.” Lady Ancaster ignored Rayne’s dramatic reaction to finding out the dragon had offered for her.

  “He is a dragon,” Rayne said dead panned. She was aware her mother probably knew but Rayne wanted to make sure her mother knew she wasn’t interested in marrying a dragon even if most of the ton thought they were the ideal match. Anyone married to a dragon were instantly rich, healthy as a horse and could live for centuries instead of decades. Rayne wasn’t sure the cost was worth it.

  “I know that. Why do you think we even entertained him? Only the best for our little flower.” Her mother’s cheeks were bright with her excitement.

  “I am not a flower.” Rayne gritted her teeth.

  “To us you are. I take it you are familiar with Victor.”

  Rayne flopped back into her chair. She had to find a way to discourage her mother. “Yes, he is a suspect in my murder case.”

  “Oh dear, that will not do. We can’t have a murderer in the family. The scandal would be terrible to bear… I know.” She clapped her hands, excited by her plan. “You get to work and solve the case and prove that he isn’t the killer and then you can marry him.” Clearly her mother didn’t think Victor was the killer. Rayne had to agree but she couldn’t let her feelings keep her from investigating.

  “Mother, I thought we had come to an agreement on this. I’m not going to marry.” Rayne was desperate by this stage.

  “No, you decided you were unlikely to marry because of your little imperfection. We humoured you and allowed you to pursue your career. There is no harm in a woman having a purpose. That doesn’t mean it precludes marriage and babies.” The last was said with outright glee from her mother.

  “Pester Everett for babies. He is old enough to marry.” Rayne had no qualms of throwing her brother in front of their mother as cannon fodder.

  “He’s nineteen. Way too young. Besides, he is off to Oxford later in the year. He is going to educate himself.” The emphas
is on educate made Rayne sigh. Everett was smart. He didn’t need any coddling from their mother but as the only boy he was destined to be wrapped in cotton wool at any opportunity. Though she doubted Everett would go to Oxford. Despite his good grades he hadn’t made friends with any of his teachers or class mates with his liberal views.

  Rayne’s voice was just a little sharp as she stated to her mother, “Well, if you’re going to play messenger then you can go back to Papa and tell him the dragon is not suitable.”

  Lady Ancaster wasn’t immune to Rayne’s tone and she frowned. “Let us not be hasty.”

  “Mother.” Rayne wasn’t going to back down from this.

  “Fine, we’ll make him go on his way but you know dragons. They are persistent.”

  Her mother left with a dramatic flourish of her skirt. Larkin said from the door, “I see where you get your skill with interrogating people. Your mother is persistent herself.”

  “Only because she loves us.” Rayne quickly defended her mother. Though at that moment she could wish her mother loved her just a little less.

  “You keep telling yourself that. What are our plans for the day?” Larkin wasn’t about to let domestic dramas get between him and the case, an aspect of his personality that allowed him to work with her in the early days when no one else would.

  “We’re going to the Maiden’s Hare. See why the place was so popular with Sebastian. Maybe they can tell us more about Sebastian.”

  Chapter Eight

  The Maiden’s Hare was busy for daylight hours. Not that Rayne thought any of the current clientele actually knew it was during the day. The windows were non-existent, a common thing in poor areas of town. The poor had found ingenious ways to avoid the tax but it did put the poorer folk into uninhabitable situations. The inn was one of these. Her boots squelched on soaked floors as she made her way to the back of the public house where the owner cleaned chipped mugs with a rag. He grunted in greeting as they approached.

  “Sir, do you know who Sebastian Karmel is. You might have known him as Head Basher.”

  He put away a mug as he answered, “I know him.”

  “Was he here recently?” People were still suspicious of bobbies but compared to previous years they begrudgingly cooperated with the police force.

  “A couple of days ago but before that I have nah seen him in years. He just showed up out of nowhere along with that peeler.”

  “Peeler?” This was interesting.

  “Yeah, he sat over there.” He motioned with the rag in his hand to a table in the corner of the room.

  “A peeler came in. Seen him in the newspapers, I have. Well, he sat down with the Basher and they got into an argument. Basher left and the peeler stayed for a bit then left as well. That was the day they found the bits of person out back.” He picked up another mug. This one in worse shape than the one he had just cleaned. Rayne was amazed that his customers didn’t bleed to death every time they drank.

  “Could the peeler have been his killer?” She mused more to herself than to the publican.

  The owner snorted. “Hardly. Peelers don’t go around killing people like Basher. Besides Basher was a pug, he wouldn’t have let some measly peeler take him down, no matter the bobby knocker.” Strange to see someone so naïve in this neighbourhood. Anyone could be taken by surprise, even the best fighter.

  “Do you remember the name of the peeler?” Rayne asked more hopeful than anything else. The owner shrugged. The implication had Rayne frowning as she thanked the owner. Larkin had been at her back but he watched the rest of the crowd. She wasn’t sure if he had been listening or not.

  She asked, “Did you hear?” her tone speculative as she pondered on who the mysterious peeler was, to firstly be placed in the newspapers then appear here. There weren’t many of them who had managed that notoriety or fame. She knew her godfather Sir Rowan Charles had graced a page or two of the newspaper but she was sure it wasn’t him. He couldn’t be the only peeler to be in the newspapers.

  “Yeah, one of us has gone rogue.” Larkin was more cavalier with the information so she knew he hadn’t thought it all the way through. It wasn’t unheard of for officers to do the wrong thing but she doubted any of them had managed to get into the papers.

  “There could be another explanation,” she hoped wistfully.

  “Doubtful. Not all of us are saints. You keep yourself safe when talking about this with the others, though.” Maybe he did understand the implications. Which reminded her about Lady Beechworth and her blackmailer.

  “Has there been a peeler that was fired before I came on board? Someone who was willing to break the rules?”

  “There have been a few.”

  He was cautious with his words so she added, “A peeler willing to blackmail people.”

  Larkin grunted. “That’d be Markim. Slippery bugger. He was barely on the job for a year before his true colours shone. Is he still up to his ways?”

  “It seems like it. Will there be backlash if I bring him in?” She was still concerned about her standing with the other officers.

  “Unlikely. They might grumble about looking after our own but he was a blackguard before he joined and he didn’t change. They’d thank you if you put an end to his ways if they had the guts for it. But when you do, make sure you stick by me. Wouldn’t want anyone to think they are upholding his honour or nothing.”

  “You break my heart, Larkin, I never knew you felt that way.” Larkin frowned in confusion and then his face darkened when he realised she was teasing him. He didn’t like it when she teased him but sometimes it was too easy. She motioned for them to leave the pub. “Come I have some other leads for us to follow. We’ll leave Markim, the blackmailer, for another day. At the moment we have to hunt down Basher’s story.”

  “I know Basher,” The man leaning back on a chair by the door announced. “I knew his girl to.” Larkin made an aborted protest and it was more squeak than grunt, as she took a seat at the man’s table. Unlike the owner who would help because he wanted the crime to be lower around his business this man wouldn’t be so altruistic.

  “Tell me.” She put a coin on the table.

  The man’s eyes followed the coin as he spoke, “Basher was a clever fella, had a good set up. His girl would do all the work and he would protect her back when the mark got mad. They’d sell off everything together and go to a small village on the coast to lie low for a while. Basher’s Pop had a cottage out there.”

  Another coin joined the other. “You know about the girl?” she encouraged.

  “Eleanor? She was a looker. Knew how to sway her hips but wasn’t the kind to flip her skirts casually. A classy girl that one. Pity that she died. That bastard dragon didn’t need to kill her.”

  The revelation of the Eleanor as a con artist was hard to keep off her face. This was the secret Victor had been keeping from her. Instead of clearing him it only gave him motivation to have killed her. “You mean the dragon killed her?”

  “Well, yeah. Basher loved that girl. He wouldn’t have knocked her off not matter what they said.” So why did Victor and the courts think that Sebastian had killed Eleanor? The notes she had found in the archive backed him up as Sebastian was convicted even if he was later pardoned. What if the outcome of the trial was wrong? That could explain why he had been pardoned by the Governor if he had known something others didn’t.

  Another coin was added and she asked, “You know the name of that village?”

  “Something that starts with Haven. Haven Blue or Haven Sand I can’t remember.”

  Rayne beamed a charming smile. “Thank you.” That was all the man had to give.

  “I have stories about the other crooked people here.” He rubbed one of the coins thoughtfully.

  “I’m sure you do, but I only needed to know about Basher. I’ll come to you for my next case. You might have something to tell me then.”

  His disappointment was short lived as he rolled the coins in his hand. “Sure, Lady Golden Hand
.” Unlike the ton there was no derision in his tone. Maybe her brother and the dragon were right. Maybe she could take the name back.

  ___

  When Rayne dragged herself home she was surprised by the small family gathering. Her family all had their own lives so they rarely gathered together like this. She joined them and flopped into the couch next to her sister, Katherine.

  Rayne asked, “This isn’t some ambush to get me to marry the dragon.” She sat up and eyed them all suspiciously. When they looked confused she accepted that wasn’t the point of the gathering and returned to a more casual pose on the chair.

  “The dragon offered for you? Should we be forcing you to marry him?” This came from Everett. He was the only one shocked though. Her sister had known about it. A little surprising since Katherine hardly ever raised her head for rumours, even family rumours.

  Her mother said, “No, if anything we want you guys to marry who you wish. The last thing we would like for you all is to be trapped in a marriage. That is a lifetime of torture. We do think you need to have a good person by your side.”

  “So, if you aren’t all here to pressure me into marrying the dragon then what is this family gathering about?” Rayne waved her hand to indicate the family. Everyone except their sister who was on the continent.

  Her father said, “We got a letter from your sister and were reading it.”

  “How is she doing?” There was only four years between her and her oldest sister, and their interests were so different that they had never really been able to see eye to eye. That didn’t preclude her love for her sister. A condition that wouldn’t change despite distance or interests.

  “Bored,” Her father announced. “She is finally figuring out that chasing an arrangement with a dragon isn’t what she wants.”

  “What does she want?” Rayne thought someone amongst the horde would understand their sister even if Rayne didn’t.

  Her mother answered with a slight snort, “Children, of course. She wants to have little ones. Everything else in her life is icing. She’ll figure it out.” Rayne was glad her parents understood their children and allowed them to follow what they needed. There was no way Rayne would be where she was now without them.