Of Dubious Intent
Page 28
Clanton sighed and raised the bottle to drink again. “Put the word out on the other, as well. That there’ll be no more of the … special work done.”
Cat started to nod, then stopped. That special work had been Roffe’s main source of income. How much did he have on account? Enough to keep the households, even small as they were, going for … how long? He’d been a profligate spender, always at his club.
She frowned.
Moreover, there was Emma to consider. She’d need a quiet, warm place. And doctors … they would not be cheap.
Cat swallowed. “No.”
Clanton’s eyebrows rose to hitherto unknown heights. “You’re certain.”
“Not certain, no. But … best to leave the option, yes?”
“Best?”
Cat took a deep breath. The money would be needed — she couldn’t hope to support the two houses and the servants through thieving alone. Attempting that would mean taking things of such value that they couldn’t be easily sold — and that way led to capture.
She supposed she could consolidate — sell one or both of the properties — but how would that work until she reached her majority and Roffe was officially dead? Until then, any significant change would be looked at more closely.
No, she needed the funds.
And she owed it to Clanton for his help, didn’t she, to provide him with the same place and comforts he’d grown used to? What of Singley and Skiff back at the manor? Where would they go if she closed that place? Skiff, for certain, could not come to the city — he’d have to stay forever in the townhouse for fear of being recognized and taken up on the years-old warrant.
She toyed with her cup, running a finger around its rim.
It wasn’t just for her and not only that she liked the manor and townhouse both. Not for her ease alone, either, to lack for nothing. She could be said to owe it to those who’d helped her. And to Emma, for certain, who would do far better in her recovery to be housed at the manor with its fresh air and gardens.
Cat took a long drink of wine, stared at Roffe’s body for a moment, then met Clanton’s eye.
“If a man’s name finds its way to my ear, Clanton, there must be a reason, don’t you think?”
Author’s Note
Thank you for reading Of Dubious Intent, I hope you enjoyed it and it will come along on more of Cat’s story in the Dark Artifice novels to come.
If you did and would like to help support the series, the best thing you can do is leave a review at Amazon, Goodreads, or even your personal blog — reviews help other readers determine if a series is to their liking and authors, especially indie authors, rely on such word of mouth to get our books in front of new readers.
You can also join my email mailing list at:
www.jasutherlandbooks.com/list
The list receives no more than one or two emails a month, with updates on my next books, as well as recommendations of other authors you might like. You’ll also receive some free short works in the Alexis Carew series — my space opera with a very Age of Sail feel to it.
The lullaby Emma sings to ease Cat’s mind, and which Cat sings to her later in the story, is Ar Hyd y Nos (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ar_Hyd_y_Nos), a Welsh tune first recorded in 1784.
The lyrics do not include the words fy nghariad (my love) in the final couplet, as Emma sings them, but it is not, certainly, unthinkable that first Emma, and then Cat, would add such a thing to those words.
In starting a slightly more traditional Steampunk series, I struggled with the question of why. Why would, in my new world, steam become the predominant power source, rather than electricity?
And so, we have the notion of an alternate history, where Halley’s Comet arrived early for some unobserved reason and part of it, or part of what caused it to arrive early, even, collided with our Moon to create Halley’s Crevasse — a large deposit of something on the Moon’s surface, likely magnetic, given its interaction with pigeons, compasses, and “electricals.” With those “electricals” behaving so erratically for the days around the Moon’s perigee, it is entirely probable that steam would become and remain the dominant power — who wants to trust something that will spark and spit at you for a week every month?
Of Dubious Intent takes place earlier than most Steampunk, with the series beginning in the early 1800s, still in the Georgian era and only a few years before the Regency.
Bethlem Royal Hospital, Bedlam, is still at its Moorsfield location, in the old building built over the rubbish dump of the “Town Ditch” and buckling under the strain of that foundation being unable to support a building whose span measured nearly 500 feet. It will not be moved to its Southwork location until 1810, or perhaps later in the Dark Artifice timeline.
Access to the wards was generally open to the public until 1770, when it was changed to require a ticket signed by one of the hospital’s board of governors. It was actually during this period, with far less in the way of public scrutiny, that the very worst of the patient abuses occurred. While in the “real” Bedlam men and women were housed in separate wings, I’ve mixed them at least in the “viewing” areas.
Homosexuality was illegal in Britain well into the 20th century — and the beginning of the 19th century saw a wave of prosecutions against homosexual men, including a raid on The White Swan, a pub on Drury lane with an exclusively gay clientle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vere_Street_Coterie). Most of those caught up in the raid were sentenced to pillory, but two, John Hepburn and Thomas White, were sentenced to hang at Newgate Prison on March 7, 1811. This is later than the hanging Roffe uses to threaten Cat, but Dark Artifice does have its own timeline, so perhaps the raid happened earlier in this world.
For those of you coming to Of Dubious Intent from my Alexis Carew series, you’ll have found Cat to be a very different sort of character than Alexis. You might be interested to know, though, that the idea for Cat came from a question about Alexis and how much of her personality was nature versus nurture? What would someone with Alexis’ drive, determination, and ability become if she did not grow up in an environment that taught her about duty, honor, leadership, and the responsibility owed to others that Alexis did?
Cat’s childhood was very, very different than Alexis’, with only the barest memory of her mother, her first years spent with an aged servant more intent on teaching her how to stay alive than the niceties of affection, having to hide her true self from a gang who’d sell her off into virtual slavery if they found out she was a girl, and then to find her “father” in the form of the despicable Edward Roffe.
Her entire drive, everything she threw her most capable self into, has to do with protecting herself from being left in that state ever again — achieving the security of never being hungry again and never being vulnerable to others. Save Emma, the one person she loves and who loves her in return.
Should you ever find yourself between Catherine Roffe and her Emma, dear Reader, I suggest you run far and fast — and even then, sleep with one ear open to the snicker-snack of your window’s latch being thrown.
J.A. Sutherland
October 22, 2017
Burnsville, NC
Also by J.A. Sutherland
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Alexis Carew
Into the Dark
Mutineer
The Little Ships
HMS Nightingale
Privateer
Dark Artifice
Of Dubious Intent
Spacer, Smuggler, Pirate, Spy
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About the Author
J.A. Sutherland spends his time sailing the Bahamas on a 43' 1925 John G. Alden sailboat called Little Bit ...
Yeah ... no. In his dreams.
Reality is a townhouse in Orlando with a 90 pound huski
e-wolf mix who won't let him take naps.
When not reading or writing, he spends his time on roadtrips around the Southeast US searching for good barbeque.
Mailing List: http://www.alexiscarew.com/list
To contact the author:
www.alexiscarew.com
sutherland@alexiscarew.com