Chapter Nineteen
“MRS. TUFFINS!” I burst through the door after Miss Chen, the others close behind us. “Are you here? Mrs. Tuffins!”
My panic was in full force. With Mr. Kent and Sebastian captive, there was no doubt Captain Goode knew our hiding place. And with so many Society of Aberrations members already gathered with him, an attack was likely minutes away. It was one thing to put ourselves in danger, but now we’d put the lives of Mrs. Tuffins and her people at risk. More innocents with the unfortunate luck of simply knowing us.
“Dears?” She shuffled out of the parlor, her face wreathed in concern. “What’s happened? Is something the matter? Let me get you some tea—”
“No! No time! I am so sorry, this is very, ah…”
I looked at the others, suddenly realizing this was going to be impossible to explain quickly. Miss Chen’s wide eyes and swift head shake made it clear she did not want the responsibility. Catherine opened her mouth a few times and shrugged.
“We all possess strange powers. Except Miss Harding and Miss Kent,” Emily announced, floating a ribbon in the air as proof. “And Captain Goode is an evil man who very much wants to kill us.”
She gave a nod, as if the matter was very much settled. I stared between her and Mrs. Tuffins’s puzzled face. This was rather a lot to take in. There was a part of me that hoped she might faint.
But Mrs. Tuffins seemed to be puzzled for an entirely different reason. “Why I know that, my dears. Was that a secret?”
“Oh, um, a little?” I said.
“Well, goodness me, I don’t believe I have told anyone—I always keep my guests’ affairs private—but it would be a little hard not to have noticed!”
A very good point.
“Thank you, you are such a wonderful, understanding hostess,” I said, taking her hand. “But I am afraid everyone here needs to leave. At once.”
This time she took in Laura’s tear-stained face and looked completely bewildered. “Leave? The house? Oh heavens, did Mr. Braddock’s trial not go well?”
She paid much more attention than I thought. I really should have expected that from a Tuffins.
“It did not. And Captain Goode and other members of the Society will be here any moment, and I do not think they would hesitate to kill everyone in the house,” I said, adopting Emily’s blunt manner. I gestured for the others to go and pack up their things. “Is there somewhere you can stay for some time?”
“Well, my sister’s, but…” Mrs. Tuffins looked terribly distressed, and I felt like the worst possible person.
“I am so very sorry for this. We will find a way to make it up to you,” I said. “But we need to get everyone out of here. Our lives depend on it.”
I gave her hand one more squeeze and ran upstairs to grab whatever I could stuff into a small bag. Rose was in our room, lips white as she hurriedly packed up her borrowed medical supplies.
“We will find a way through—”
“It will be all ri—”
We both spoke at once, and I threw her a rueful smile. It was not all right, and both of us knew it. But thinking that helped nothing. We had to make do with what we had. Which at least helped with the packing. It took our group no more than a minute to finish—one of the few advantages to already losing everything we had.
Back downstairs, the house was full of commotion. The cook was running out the front door, her face full of terror. In the middle of it all stood Tuffins, directing the chaos with the efficiency and grace of a general in battle.
“Everyone else is out front,” he said, picking up a small suitcase. “The carriages are ready.”
“Carriages?”
“I know a coachman nearby, and he is lending us his. We will not all fit in one.”
“You are extraordinary. I think you should run England.”
“I will consider it.”
Outside, the sun was setting, a wound bleeding across the sky. Gas lamps were being lit and the streets were crowded with people headed home, eagerly discussing the latest news of Captain Goode and Sebastian. Miss Chen and Miss Rao waited in the first carriage, while Rose and Catherine climbed up. Laura and Emily hurried down the stairs to the other with Mr. Adeoti behind, clutching his notebooks tightly to his chest.
Finally Tuffins and his mother exited, descending the stairs behind me. She looked troubled but composed, and Tuffins simply looked like he always did. He handed his mother and me up and climbed up to the driver’s seat in front. The borrowed carriage took off and we were about to follow when Laura banged the roof.
“Oh no! Soot!” she yelped.
“Oh dear.” Mrs. Tuffins looked truly panicked for the first time since I had met her.
Laura scrambled for the door. “I have to get him!”
Emily stayed her with her hand, already peering out the window. “He’s coming,” she said calmly.
She pointed up to the rooftops, where she held the black cat floating in the air. Gently, he drifted across the street, curled up and unbothered, looking like an errant plume of smoke from a chimney. As Soot made his descent, Tuffins opened the carriage door for him and Emily safely landed him in Mrs. Tuffins’s lap. She clutched him to her bosom, while Laura burst into tears again and the carriage rumbled forward.
Thank goodness. We were all out. Everything was all right, for the time being.
But as we reached the main thoroughfare, a loud crackling and a boom erupted from behind us. Our carriage turned to join the traffic and our heads turned with it, out the right side window, upon the street we’d left.
The boarding house was on fire.
The street glowed and flickered as lightning struck it repeatedly. But it didn’t come from the clear, twilight sky. It came from below, from the electric woman in front of the house. Sparks leaped from her fingers and ignited the house, the fire spreading so quickly, I would have thought the roof was doused in spirits.
“Oh heavens!”
Mrs. Tuffins was clutching the drapery of the carriage, knuckles white as she stared, even when we rolled along and the house was no longer in sight. Black smoke billowed up from the roof. I tried to find some words, but they all died by the time they reached my lips, a heavy guilt crushing them down.
“I will find you another house,” Emily said into the shocked silence. “I will move Buckingham Palace wherever you want it. We’ll help you decorate it exactly like yours. This isn’t fair.”
Mrs. Tuffins shook her head and held Laura to her. “It will be all right, dears. It will be all right.”
This was our fault. We should have never come here to bring this chaos to good people’s lives. Mrs. Tuffins had saved wages her entire life for that boarding house and only ever wanted to help us, far past the point of kindness.
As the carriage rolled to a stop at her sister’s home and we said our good-byes, I silently promised myself to make this up to her. I would heal her every day. I would ask George to grow her the most beautiful garden. I had no idea how, but we would find a way to un-ruin this charitable woman’s entire life and give her back a home.
The driver’s hatch opened, and Tuffins’s voice floated down. “Where to now, Miss Wyndham?”
I gave him the directions and instructed everyone to stay in the carriage once we reached our destination until I gave the word. We were off again, the horses trotting swiftly through the evening traffic that Tuffins navigated with ease. When we arrived, I opened the carriage door but did not get out. Instead, I spoke softly through the crack.
“Arthur? It’s Miss Wyndham. If you can hear me, please, we need your help.”
I opened the curtain on the window and gave a wave up to the dark roof where I’d last met them—in case William was looking out and on duty. Emily and Laura gave me curious looks but said nothing. Only Mr. Adeoti’s eyes went wide. He would have heard of my friends before—fringe Society members who ran a gambling hall.
The minutes stretched on, my mind spinning through the other places we could h
ide, acquaintances we could call on. Nothing seemed safe. Sebastian and Mr. Kent knew me too well. Every idea I could think of was an idea they would have and tell Captain Goode. I knew Arthur and William would probably be on that list, too, but maybe they knew a place that Sebastian and Mr. Kent didn’t. Our best hope was to catch them first. But it seemed we were too late.
I was ready to tap the roof to send us to an inn when a rough voice sounded outside the carriage, speaking to Tuffins.
“’Round through ’ere.”
Arthur. He’d heard me.
We slowly rolled around the corner, pulling into a dead-end alleyway. I cautiously opened the door to see Arthur’s wide, bearded face. He smiled and helped me down.
“Why, Miss Wyndham. Nice to see you’re still safe.”
“You too, Arthur. Is William here, too?”
“I am!” William peered around a door cunningly hidden in the wall of the gambling house. “You brought friends.” His keen eyes took in the two carriages.
“I hate to bother you, but I am afraid we have nowhere else to go. Captain Goode has Sebastian.” I didn’t try to disguise the heartbreak I felt at the thought. They would hear it in my voice and see it on my face.
Instantly their mood changed at the mention of the man who had saved them from Dr. Beck years before. “Aye, we’ve been followin’ the news. Come on, inside, all of youse.”
“He has Mr. Kent, too,” I said. “Which means they could be on their way here next.”
Arthur cocked an eyebrow at me. “Don’t worry, we’d ’ear them long before they get ’ere.”
“And we’re a gamblin’ hall,” William added. “We ’ave more secret exits than regular ones.”
I turned back to the carriages and nodded, finding it strange that brothels and gambling halls filled me with more confidence than the police and courts. “We can trust them, I promise,” I said to the others.
My friends all filed out reluctantly, belongings in hand. Arthur and William ushered them inside, making introductions.
Laura gave Tuffins an extremely long hug. “Tuffins, please be safe. Don’t do anything dangerous.”
“I’ll try to resist the temptation,” Tuffins said, hugging her back, “as long as you’re safe as well.”
She finally let go with a watery sob, and Emily took her inside.
“Thank you, Tuffins, for today and every other day,” I told him. “You are remarkable, and I am sorry to have put you through so much. Please be assured that we will find another house, something to repay you and your mother.”
I thought it a testament to him that he did not protest, just nodded solemnly.
“You will find them,” Tuffins said with a simple certainty. “Please call on me at my aunt’s when you do.”
“I will,” I said and gave the best steward in possibly the whole world a small wave as he hopped back up on the carriage and led his neighbor off. The steady clacking of hooves faded away down the street.
Arthur and William waited patiently for me by the small side door.
“Thank you for taking us in,” I told them as we ducked inside. “I know it’s a risk since you’re still part of the Society.”
William led us through the winding and cramped back halls and stairs. “We’d been ’oping you’d stop by since Braddock’s been in the papers.”
“Wanted to ’elp, but didn’t know where to find ya,” Arthur said.
“Arthur wanted to walk down every street listening for you,” William put in.
“Still better than your balloon idea.”
“Hey, that Kent fellow’s balloon worked, I heard,” William argued, looking to me for confirmation.
“Yes, it was brilliant and foolish,” I said. “Like most things Mr. Kent does.”
“Well, it’s confused a lot of people, from the chatter I hear,” Arthur said. “Some think Goode’s been lying; others think Braddock’s even more of a villain; some think they’re working together.”
“I hope everyone comes to their senses soon,” I said.
They let us into their office and stopped at a seemingly ordinary bookshelf.
“You lot can hide in here tonight. Best stay out of the way of the customers.”
With that ominous pronouncement, William pulled out a book and the wall creaked open.
“Oh my!” Emily said. “A secret room!”
“Not only that,” Arthur ducked in and motioned for the rest of us to follow.
The room was barely large enough for all of us to stand in, and I wondered how we could stay the night.
“Through here.” He was suddenly opening up yet another wall with a lever I couldn’t see.
“A secret room inside a secret room!” Emily said, nudging her friend. Laura wiped her tears and looked up, curious.
Miss Rao pinned me with a look. “This is a proper shelter,” she said, as if England and I had failed her to this point.
This room was larger than the last and filled with threadbare couches and a couple of camp beds covered with fraying fabric. It wasn’t the coziest room, but it also wasn’t on fire, which was our main criterion at the moment.
“Sorry there ain’t much,” William said. “We’ll have more for you in the morning.”
“’Til then, try to get rest,” Arthur said. “If you need anything, tap this wall. I’ll ’ear you.”
“But don’t tap this wall,” William said, pointing to one displaying several seascape prints. “That drops you into the sewers.”
With that, the two men left, the wall clicking shut behind them.
Our ragtag group ambled around the space, looking lost and uncomfortable. Rose and Catherine settled onto one couch, taking up the old newspapers on the side tables for some distraction. Laura curled up with a pillow on another couch, while Emily squeezed in next to her and floated a blanket onto the both of them. Mr. Adeoti wandered around the room, pausing at some of the objects, reading their pasts. Miss Rao took a seat in front of a chess board, and Miss Chen took the opposite place.
“I hope those two remembered to tell us all the secret traps.” Miss Chen said, warily glancing at her chair.
“It should please you to know that no one has died in here,” Mr. Adeoti declared. “In the past week, at least.”
“Oh, good,” Miss Chen replied. “Now I’m going to worry about every room where you don’t tell me that.”
I took a place on the couch, feeling as helpless as I did that awful night in the church. As tired as I was, it was impossible to sleep a wink, even as the candles around the room went out one by one, and everyone else dozed off. My mind whirled with fretful thoughts, and after sitting wide awake for hours, coming up with fourteen more painful ways to kill Captain Goode, I gave up on that list.
Instead, I thought about all the ways I might help Sebastian. And soon, I was dreaming of them.
Chapter Twenty
EARLY THE NEXT MORNING, Arthur and William led us into the main gambling hall, the sunlight pouring into the room through the high windows. There was something strange about seeing such a rowdy, chaotic place so vacant and lifeless. The sound of our footsteps bounced across the room. The absence was almost palpable with the pungent stench of cigars, alcohol, and sweat lingering in the air.
“This is, ah … pleasant,” Miss Chen said.
“It smells like a dragon that got very sad and lonely,” Emily put in.
“That … actually describes it rather well,” I admitted, glad I didn’t have an enhanced power of smell.
Fortunately, our hosts had ways of countering the scent: freshly baked bread and fragrant tea waited for us on the bar. Starving, I practically inhaled the food. But the momentary pleasure gave way to suspicion. Mrs. Tuffins had a habit of bringing us delicious pastries on the worst of mornings.
“What’s happened?” I asked.
Arthur and William looked sheepish.
“Did someone from the Society come by last night?” I asked.
“No one, surprisingly,” Willi
am replied. “It was like any other night.”
“’Cept the conversation,” Arthur said. “Everyone going on about the trial, about the balloon, about where Captain Goode’s gone. Some of ’em wanted to make bets about the verdict.”
“There’s a verdict?” I asked.
“It’s not good.” William sighed and reached behind the bar. He pulled out an assortment of morning newspapers, all with the same bold word in the headlines.
EXECUTION.
My heart twisted upon itself. The bread tasted like sawdust, impossible to swallow. My sight blurred.
“The jury reconvened last evening after the interruption,” Catherine read. “They found him guilty. The execution is set for tomorrow morning in public at Tower Hill. What utter nonsense! How is this allowed?”
“Evelyn,” Rose said, holding me from behind. She gently took the bread from me and set it on a plate. “We will get him back.”
“Captain Goode’s scared. That’s why he’s doing this,” Miss Chen added, skimming the newspapers. “Some of these columnists aren’t happy about his confessions.”
“It’ll be an illusion,” Catherine insisted. “He wouldn’t kill Mr. Braddock. It doesn’t make sense otherwise. Captain Goode wanted all the powers.”
I shook my head, which felt light as air. “He doesn’t need Sebastian’s power. He has plenty of other ways of hurting people. This is to bring an end to any doubts the trial stirred up.”
“Mr. Adeoti, do you have any more ideas for where they are?” Laura asked, her eyes red-rimmed from the difficult night. “Maybe you can find out where Captain Goode bought his clothing, and you can go touch the tailor’s suit and find out something bad he did and make him bring Captain Goode in for a fitting, and we catch him.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t have the tailor information,” Mr. Adeoti said and gave an uncomfortable laugh. “I also don’t believe I have the constitution for blackmail.”
“I’ll do it,” Emily said. “I’ll blackmail everyone.”
“Wait a moment.” Arthur froze, tilting his head up. The room fell silent. “I ’ear something. Willy, check the roof, to the north.”
These Vengeful Souls Page 20
