His Lordship Possessed

by Lynn Viehl

Page 6

 

  To my surprise, seeing the destruction of my wardrobe hurt most. I’d never been much of a fancy dresser, but because I’d left Middy with only the clothes on my back, it had taken me years to put together a decent, serviceable supply of skirts, bodices, and cloaks. Some I’d taken in trade for my services; others I had saved for months to afford. And there, dangling from beneath the pile, a torn strip of pink from the gown Rina had lent me, the gown I’d not had the chance to return.

  My friends had dressed me in their finery; my foolishness had now cost two gowns, my virtue, my office, and my home. What did I have left?

  “Kit?”

  “The main shutoff valve for the pipes is out by the boiler,” I told Doyle. My voice sounded flat and hollow, echoing in my own ears. “Or whatever is left of it. ”

  “Kit. ” He put a hand under my elbow. “Come away now. ”

  I pulled my arm away. “Go and shut off the water before the place floods out. Please, Inspector. ”

  As soon as he left I went to my cashsafe to see if I did have anything left. The door had been badly dented, but it had not been opened; the locks had held. Quickly I used the combination to release them and clean out the safe, putting all the cash I had to my name in my reticule. Happily I’d never trusted banks, and kept only a small amount of funds in my business account, to which Walsh had likely already helped himself. Then I went upstairs to see what more he’d done.

  Doyle stood waiting at the bottom of the stairs when I came back down. “Did they get at the rest?”

  I nodded. “He must have sent in a whole gang. By the look of things they were well paid, too. ”

  “I’ll have my men question the neighbors,” he assured me. “We’ll find them, Kit. ”

  “Don’t bother. ” My heart felt like a stone in my chest. “If you would post a beater outside to watch the place, I’ll have someone over before nightfall to board up the windows and doors. ” I walked out.

  “Where are you going?” Before I could answer, he said, “Wherever it is, he’ll find you. ”

  I didn’t look back at him. “Not this time, he won’t. ”

  Wrecker met me on the street halfway to the Eagle’s Nest; he removed his cap and held it between his hands but couldn’t seem to get any words out.

  “I’ve seen it,” I told him. “I need someone to board up the place. ”

  “Already on his way. ” He scuffled his heels round the snow a bit. “I’m real sorry, Miss Kit. No call to be doing such things to a lady like you. Carri’s over here. ”

  Wrecker drove me the rest of the way to Rina’s house, where I found her wrapped in furs and pacing back and forth in the alley. As soon as she spotted us she ran to the carri and practically dragged me out of it.

  “Bugger all, Kit. Someone said you’d nearly been shot outside court. I nearly worried myself into the vapors. ” She smothered me with her furry collar before holding me at arm’s length. “Inside. Now. ”

  I followed her inside, up the stairs and into her chambers, where she divested me of my cloak and used her fingers to loosen the icy tresses round my face.

  “I’ve put a tray upstairs, madam,” Almira said as she came out of the kitchen. “Miss Kit. ” She folded me into her arms and gave me a tight hug. “Go on with you. ”

  Rina guided me upstairs to her chambers and forced me to drink a cup of tea so hot it scalded me into silence. Which was handy, as she had a great deal to get off her chest.

  “Bleeding Walsh’s going to pay for this, I swear on the cross. ” She threw her furs over a chair and kicked a tuffet across the room. “Having you tossed out your office, then taken into court like some two-pence alley-tart—and then, while you’re ducking bullets, razing your place? It’s too much, even for a nobheaded, tightassed son of a poxbox like him. ”

  “No, it wasn’t. ” For some reason I couldn’t stop thinking about Dredmore, and how quickly he had killed the snuffmage outside court. Why had he come there? To see me convicted, and applaud as I was sent off to prison? Or to bribe someone to place me in his custody? Why had he bothered to defend me?

  “Wrecker’ll do him in a minute,” Rina was still ranting. “No, I think he’ll do him in hours and hours, while we have a bottle of wine and watch and make useful suggestions. ”

  “Rina. ” I waited until she looked at me. “Wrecker will do no such thing. ”

  “But after what old blueballs did to you—”

  “No killing, no torture,” I told her flatly. “The same goes for Dredmore. He saved my life. ” I set down the cup before rising and reaching for my cloak.

  She positioned herself in front of the door. “You’re not going back out there. ”

  “I have to. ” Even if I had nowhere else to go. “If Walsh learns that I’m here, he’ll come after you and your gels. ”

  “Oh, please, God. ” Her smile was a dreadful thing to behold. “Let him. ”

  “Let him do things to you that make my misfortunes look like a spring stroll down the prommy?” I shook my head.

  “Then we’ll call on Bridget’s Charles. He’ll squash Walsh like a gnat. ” She went to her desk. “I’ll have him come round and you can tell him—”

  “Carina. Stop. ” I joined her at the desk and took the pen and foolscap out of her hands. “Just stop now. It’s done. It can’t be undone, none of it. ”

  Tears filled her eyes. “Do you even know what you look like, Kit? You’re as white as bone. There are marks on your wrists from the shackles and glass all over your bodice. You’re shaking. ” She held out trembling hands. “God blind me. I’m shaking. ”

  “We’re angry, and hurt, and frightened. ” I touched her cheek. “But one thing we’re not, the one thing we will never be, is daft. We need to take some time now to think and to plan. ” I put my reticule in her hands. “This is every pence I have left in the world. I need you to hold it safe for me. ”

  “You’re staying here. ”

  “I can’t risk—”

  “Shut up. I needed a new gel—and so I hired one. ” She tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear. “Name of Connie. A bit dark and on the skinny side, but some gents like that. ”

  I sighed. “Walsh knows my middle name. ”

  “Then Rosie, or Lucy, or . . . ” She stopped and suddenly smiled. “Prudence. ”

  Chapter Four

  “If I like the looks of someone, can I give him a free one?” I asked my new employer, and then hissed as a hairpin dug into my scalp. “You’re hurting!”

  “You’re not selling or bartering or giving anything to anyone under my roof,” Rina told my reflection. She pinned the new switch in several more places. “You’re a good gel, and you’re going to stay that way. ”

  I tucked my bottom lip under my top teeth to keep from correcting her.

  “Don’t do that; you’ll scrape off the tint. ” She sprayed my switch with a light mist of her perfume and stepped back. “You make a pretty hothead. ”

  I studied my reflection in Rina’s vanity glass, turning my head this way and that. The elegant scarlet curls of the expensive hair switch should have made my tanned skin appear yellow, but instead they brought out the pinkish tones and gave me a rosy look.

  “Bridget has freckles,” I mentioned. “I always wanted freckles. ”

  “You always wanted to be a man, a firebrigader, a pilot, and seven feet tall. Let us be grateful that heaven has remained stone-deaf to your prayers. ” She went to her working-hours armoire. “Take off everything, including your drawers. ”

  I didn’t mind the switch or the lip tint, but I couldn’t imagine myself parading about in one of Rina’s filmy business garms. “Couldn’t I be Prudence the new scullery, or Prudence the apprentice cook?”

  She began pushing hangers back and forth as she searched through a rainbow of cutout velvets, thin silks, and spangled nettings. “He’ll be expecting that. ”

  I got up a
nd joined her. “But my posing as a working strumpet would be a complete stunner. ”

  “You may stir up trouble on the Hill, poke your nose in the wrong corners, and have all the worst sort of friends”—she turned and held a bronze satin corset against my front before replacing it in the armoire—” but you’re still a decent woman with a business and your own home. You’re regarded as such by all who know you. Women like you would rather starve, go to prison, jump a cliff, or embrace a blade than give it up for money. ” An odd look came over her face. “No matter how desperate you lot become. ”

  She was only repeating the words her father had hurled at her the one time she had tried to see him. I knew because I had taken her. “Rina. ”

  The side of her mouth curled. “No worries. We’ll need a nudie. Be right back. ” She hurried out.

  I didn’t know what a nudie was, so I went to refill my tea and sat down on the window seat. Fingers of icy air poked at me from where they crept under the sill, and I saw drifts piling up on the street below. The temperature was still dropping, which would keep trade light tonight.

  It had been a bright and sunny day two years ago when I’d taken Rina on the shopping expedition. She’d hated the proper bodice and skirts I’d lent her for the excursion, and had refused to take off her hat and veil, even when we stopped for tea and cakes. I hadn’t understood until after I made her come with me into the glove shop.

  “You paid for tea, and you need a new pair for church,” I’d argued as I dragged her in through the entry. “Besides, I can’t afford anything grander than kid, so they’ll be warm and serviceable. ”

  “Aye. ” She looked at the proprietor, who was coming round from behind the counter to wait on us. “I’m certain that you’ll find that here. ”