“I don’t suppose so.” He squared up the edges of the papers. “You were immensely capable, even as a child. I found you impressive.”
“I’m not feeling all that capable lately.” She watched him lay those pages of Arabic aside, thriftily, in the box of scrap paper. She folded her hands up, one inside the other, and set the pair of them against the edge of his desk. “This business with Papa . . . It’s not a problem I can solve. Not like filling up a hold with cargo. It’s slippery. I keep adding seven and twenty-two and coming up with the color red.”
“Can I help?”
“You are. You’re one of about three people I’ve talked to in the last week who isn’t lying to me all the time.” She chewed on a strand of hair. “Reverend.” There was one more thing she had to ask. It was hard to put it in words. “I came here . . . I do have a problem. I wanted to ask you . . .” She stuck there.
“Yes.” He had some papers on his desk that needed rearranging all of a sudden. It kept his eyes busy.
“What do you do if you like somebody and you’re afraid he’s done something real bad?” She hadn’t known she was going to ask it that way, till she did.
“What do you think you do?”
She’d never been able to fool the Reverend. “I guess I know what to do.” She switched her hands around and put the left inside right this time. “It hurts a lot. Hurts every way I play it. I really . . . I like him.”
He picked up his glasses and unfolded them, then folded them back up. “I’m sorry, Jessie.”
“That’s all I get from you, isn’t it? Just, ‘I’m sorry it hurts.’ All these years, you never once told me everything’s going to turn out right.” Her lips twitched, not making the smile she was trying for. “I may have to peach on him, Rev. You can guess how I feel about that.”
“I think you’ll find it hard. Is he a good man, this friend of yours?”
“Not very. About like me, that way. And I don’t think we’re friends, actually. I’m fibbing about the friend part.” She felt discouraged, thinking how profoundly impossible it was. “Doesn’t matter much. It’s not something that could have worked out, whatever happened.”
“Then I’m very sorry indeed. I always hoped you’d meet a fine man someday, someone who was a proper match for you. I’d like to see you happy.”
“I don’t think I get happy out of this particular consignment. ” She lifted her eyes and let him see all the misery inside her for a minute. He was maybe the only one in the world she could show it to. The Reverend wasn’t going to talk about happy endings. Seen a lot, had the Reverend.
She looked away and shrugged. “Maybe he’s pure as a spring lamb gamboling on the green, and I’m just being unnecessarily suspicious. He keeps telling me to trust him.”
"Do you?”
“Sometimes. I catch myself doing it and try to stop.”
“Or you could listen to yourself.”
“That’s not such a good idea. I’m . . . stupid about him.” It was too late, really, to tell herself not to love the Captain. “It’s funny, innit, what folks do for some idea in a book. It’s not like there’s a paradise over in France. I been there, and I know. Secret police, for one thing, and the bribes get higher every year. More paperwork, too.”
“You have a way of seeing very clearly, Jess.” Raucous laughter came from the main room. The Reverend ignored it.
“I should know the difference between a good man and a bad one. I seen sterling examples of both.” She stood up. “Why is it you never tell me what to do, and I always end up doing it?”
“I’m not sure. What did I not tell you to do?”
“Get to work. Prove he’s not guilty.”
“Sounds like I’m giving good advice these days. Do you need any more of it?”
“That should hold me for a while. Lead me to this safe, reliable escort of yours, Reverend. You would not believe how much work I have to do today.”
“You always do.” Palmer took her untouched cup of tea, lifted the lid off the teapot, and poured it back in. “Are you safe in that house, with Bastard Kennett? He’s a grim-looking man, from the glimpses I’ve had of him.”
"He’s that.” A piece of her hair had come loose. She stood, twirling it around and around her finger.
Palmer sloshed the teapot around thoughtfully. “I’ve heard he’s a man of his word. An honorable man.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“I didn’t think it would be, with you. I’ll send you out of here with Mrs. Trimble. Nobody in his right mind would attack Mrs. Trimble. Even I’m afraid of Mrs. Trimble.”
He opened the door for her, and they were back in the noise and confusion of the crowded dining room, with kids squalling and women talking loudly. One man rolled on the bench, shouting about the imaginary bugs crawling on him. The Reverend looked it over calmly and turned back to her. “God keep you in the hollow of his hand, Jess.”
“God’s got better things to do with his hands, I’d say, looking at this crew.”
SHE’D do what she had to, to get Papa free. She didn’t have the luxury of being a coward.
The Russian teacup with jasmine flowers on it was at her elbow. Every time she set it down, it left a little cup-sized circle marked on the blotter. There were dozens of little circles.
The first time she went on a roof, she’d hung onto the chimney, whimpering, telling Lazarus she couldn’t do this. Wouldn’t do this. And since Lazarus wasn’t a man you said “wouldn’t” to, he pried her fingers off the bricks and kicked her loose to roll down the slates till she hit a gable and stopped.
When she inched her way back up to him again she wasn’t inclined to snivel quite so much. Eventually, she got over being scared. He’d been right about that.
I can do this. She tucked a sugar cube in her cheek and drank some tea. Then she wrote,I will see the list and assure myself that it is exactly as promised. I will examine the details of one instance of theft. An instance of my choosing.
Russian samovar. Russian tea. Russian way of drinking it. And she liked the cheap brown Barbados sugar, the kind Mama bought when they were flush with money.
What was the point of being rich if you couldn’t drink your tea just as you liked it.
Clerks were putting on their coats and hats, getting ready to end the day. She’d told the messenger boy to wait, though. He was sitting on one of the high stools, playing the game with the little ball and cup.
And there was the clerk Buchanan, peering through the window into her office. He was beginning to get on her nerves.You will produce this document the night before any contract is signed. There can be no compromise on this.
Pitney was going down the line of windows in the outer office, closing them up and locking them. There was no job in this warehouse he wouldn’t put his hand to. He took care of Whitby’s like it was his own. Pitney would stay till she left and put her in the hackney himself and stand on the front steps of Whitby’s, watching, till she was out of sight.
She drank another sip of tea. Her nib was drying up. She took more ink.I would suggest you bring the paper to the meeting at Kennett House tonight. The ceremony, if you wish, can be scheduled for tomorrow. The settlements are ready to sign.
Lies, lies, and more lies. But it would get that list out of the Horse Guards. It might not be a bird in the hand yet, but at least it was a bird in the bush instead of a bird locked up safe with a squad of marines guarding it.
Sebastian is not going to be happy when he finds out what I’m up to. Papa neither. And Pitney won’t be delighted. Then there’s the colonel. Reams is going to be poker-hot furious.
She signed the letter and sprinkled sand on it. She was displeasing men right and left today.
Nineteen
Kennett House, Mayfair
IT WAS EARLY YET, BUT VOICES BUBBLED UP from the salon downstairs like oatmeal boiling in a pot. Historians talked a lot, apparently. Every candle in the house was lit. The front hall smelled like baking and beeswax
and perfume. She walked down the curving stairs, checking the fiddly clasp on her necklace one last time. The crystals in the chandelier sparkled like a waterfall in sunlight.
They’d stationed suits of armor around the walls in the black and white entry hall, eight of them, at neat intervals, like footmen, but armed with sharp points. She’d attended scientific meetings in Paris and Vienna—Papa loved that kind of thing—but she’d never ventured among historians who took an interest in pikes and poniards. There was Colonel Reams to lie to. Later on, she’d sneak out and visit his house. A busy night. She should probably be more nervous than she was.
The Captain was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. He followed her with his eyes the whole way down.
Evening dress looked good on him. His breeches were the color of the desert in North Africa. His coat like night over that same desert, rich and black. He tied his cravat plain, the way they did in Paris. He’d put himself exactly where she’d have to walk right to him. A man who seized his opportunity, the Captain.
“Miss Whitby.” He was being polite. Of course, he would be polite in the open hall of his own house, with these scholarly nobs milling about. He had a different set of behavior at, say, four in the morning in the upstairs hall, or in her warehouse. Or on his ship, for that matter.
“Captain.” She stopped a step up from the bottom of the stairs to see if Sebastian Kennett looked less formidable when she met him level and eye-to-eye. Turned out it didn’t make any difference at all. “Eerie, all these blokes standing around in steel plate. I’ll be just as glad when they leave.”
“They’ll pack up and take off tomorrow morning. That dress is from Paris, isn’t it?”
“Madame Claudette, on the Rue de Rivoli.”
“I would have hated to go through life without seeing you in that particular dress. I don’t suppose there’s a stitch on you that isn’t smuggled.”
“The dress fabric’s from Lyon. Illegal as hell in England. I’m not going to talk about the rest of it, sparing your modesty and all.” Impossible to be distant and cool to the man. She never seemed to manage it past the first couple words. She touched the pearls. “You’ll be interested in this, since you trade in baubles.”
The Captain knew what he was looking at. She could tell from the way he slid his fingers under the pearls, reverent. But then, he’d seen them before. “Mushajjar. The veil of sunrise, pierced by ivory.”
“They’re a lyrical people, down on the Gulf.”
“I’ve seen pearls like this, once, at a reception in the palace of the doge in Venice.” He drew his fingers down the line of pearls, touching them above and her skin below, caressing both. “Not this fine. I admired these when I searched your bedroom yesterday.”
There he was, at it again, rolling the conversational wagon off a cliff.
“I like the way you have your hair up in those braids, all swirled together like that. It looks simple. Then you study it, and it gets more and more complex. Like you. Every time I think I have you sorted out, I pick up another line of complication. ”
He was the devious one. She was a pat of plain butter compared to him. “I admire a man who knows what these beads are and still has something nice to say about my hair. I was expecting to get your trading instinct roused up with the bauble, you dealing in decorative rarities and all.”
“Not rarities like that. Beyond my touch.”
“Mine, too, if we’re being candid about it. Every time I fasten them on, I think about the unholy amount of capital tied up and shudder. Anyway, you make your money on loose stones more than decorative pieces. Thirty percent net profit. I admire that.” She’d pulled that out of the ledgers at Eaton’s. Not that she’d gone looking for his profits, but she couldn’t help seeing. “Lightning-fast turnover, too.”
“Thank you. Jess, has it crossed your mind it’s not tactful to remind me you’ve been going through my ledgers?” But he was laughing at her. He did it entirely in his eyes, not twitching his lips at all.
“Roight you are, guv’nor. A flapping gob’s been the downfall of many a foine prig and ruffler.”
“And you will refrain from shocking my aunt’s guests with your mastery of the vernacular. Lean a little closer. Yes. Just there.” He traced the course of a braid around her head, following the path of it with his index finger.
“Am I coming apart? I have about a million pins in. Will you just stop playing with my hair? Crikey, what if someone comes by?”
“They’ll be shocked witless. Let’s draw you in a mite closer and we’ll truly astound them.” He nudged her down the last step, and she was looking up at him again. Inevitable, wasn’t it? He said, “I’m trying to figure out how it all works.” She felt his breath on her forehead. His finger brushed her earlobe.
“It’s magic. You’re not supposed to look too close.” I like it too much when he touches me. I’m getting used to it. Pretty soon, I won’t be able to do without it.
She set her hand in the center of his chest, but she didn’t get to the pushing-him-away part. She just stood with her fingers mixed up in his cravat, acting like they were standing on the edge of some cliffs in a desert with nobody to see but the camels. The house was crawling with historians and Sebastian’s family and there was a maid—the woman with the murderous pimp, actually—holding a tray and peering at them from a corner. The Captain didn’t let go.
Well, to be fair about it, neither did she. She was being stupid. He was probably being clever. Life was odd like that.
She looked past Sebastian’s shoulder. Colonel Reams had arrived. She could see him reflected in the black glass of the parlor windows. His regimentals made a broad, blurry-red pillar in the middle of the dark coats and pale dresses. Pretty soon she’d go tell lies to him. “It’s time I went off to snag myself a couple pastries.” Eunice had cakes and tarts laid out on the table in the dining room, next to a display of iron cod-pieces. “If I leave it too late there’ll be nothing left but liver and turnip.”
“I recommend the apricot ones.” He ran his fingers along the shoals and reefs of her elbow, and there was nothing else in the world she could think about. Perverse on his part, and a revelation to her of why her governesses said to keep a goodly distance away from men.
I don’t have time for this. I have to go cheat the colonel. She couldn’t think of a time she’d bargained in bad faith, but she was doing it with Reams. It didn’t make it any better that Reams was a pig and planned to cheat her, up, down, and sideways, the minute she signed a marriage contract.
Three men and a tiny, white-haired woman strolled out of the front parlor and across the hall, headed for the food, arguing about Greeks. And Claudia appeared out of nowhere.
“There you are, Sebastian.” Claudia must have been scouting along from column to column like a Mohawk slipping through the primeval forest. “You’re needed. They’ve mixed up the topknots on the suits and Coyning-Marsh is having fits. Eunice requires oil on the troubled waters.”
“I don’t know anything about plate armor.”
“You’re an expert on troubled waters. I want to talk to Jess. You’re in the way.”
He just grinned. In a good mood tonight, the Captain. “All right. Keep it above the belt. And you . . .” Right in front of Claudia, not caring what anybody thought, he reached out and trailed his index finger from her temple to where she’d been bruised on the cheek. “Behave yourself. I’ll find you later. Try not to draw blood with that tongue of yours.” Then he walked off, leaving her to Claudia’s tender mercies.
Claudia said, “My cousin can afford to make a spectacle of himself. You can’t. I advise you to be discreet in public.” She had to look up and up to Claudia. All these Ashtons managed to make her feel like a small dab of paint.
“Now you see . . . I agree with you. We probably have lots in common once we get to talking.”
“My brother tells me you were in the hall last night, outside Sebastian’s door. That was unwise.”
“T
hat’s another thing we agree about. Look, why don’t we go snabble a few of those pastries before this crowd goes through them like a flock of locusts. Somehow or other I missed dinner. It’s been a trying day and the number of sharp objects lying about just fills me with trepidation. I’ll just—”
“You’re out of your depth in this household, Miss Whitby, however clever you may be in the shop. I would tell you to leave, but I doubt you’d listen. You’re filled with the scrambling self-confidence of the parvenu class. It is sadly misplaced. ”
That was one of those veiled threats, very probably. Claudia was the kind to issue veiled threats. “I won’t say no to any of that. Especially not the part about being out of my depth. I feel like a shallow water craft tonight.”
Another pack of historians wandered by. A shabby man with a German accent and frayed cuffs limped along between a pair of dandies right out of Upper Brook Street. They were talking about disemboweling. Not in favor of it, as far as she could tell. Just talking.
Daunting, she’d call this lot. And she still had to deal with Claudia.
“Your pearls are a bit showy.” Claudia just went right on being critical. “They’re . . . yellow. Do you have a dozen sets, dyed to match your dresses? So very clever.”
Had to be on your toes with Claudia, didn’t you? “More pink than yellow, but I see your point. I do it the other way round, though. I buy the dress to match the pearls, being thrifty. This,” she pinched up a bit of her skirt, “is couleur d’aube from DeMile Frères in Lyon. We keep a few bolts of their silk in the warehouse in Broad Street, under the counter, for special customers.” She was letting herself get carried away, but nobody with ebony-black hair should wear the shade of blue Claudia had on. “You might go by and see. Give my name and tell them to show you the bronze lustring.”
“Always the shopkeeper,” Claudia said. “That’s admirable in its way.”
“It is when I’m picking out silk.”
The front door opened and closed while she was talking to Claudia. More historians. Three women, very stern-looking. And a man who came in alone. Sometime, as he was walking across the foyer, she realized who he was.
My Lord and Spymaster Page 20
