Following his nose to the kitchen, he found it empty. Lady Luck wasn’t with him today. Though a bubbling pot of soup on the stove bore evidence of Blade’s housekeeper, Esme, there was no sign of the actual woman.
A light touch fumbled at his wrist. The smooth silk of her elbow-length gloves. “Here,” Lena said, tugging his hand toward one of the low stools by the hearth. “Sit. I’ll fetch you some soup.”
She let him go, but the feel of her touch remained, like phantom fingerprints. Will sank slowly onto the stool, watching as she bustled about the kitchen.
Lena looked out of place. The hearth dominated the room and emitted a constant blanket of heat. Soot stained the ceiling, and the workbenches were heavy and scarred from frequent use. Strings of onions and herbs dangled over the main bench, along with a row of copper pots strung from metal hooks. It was homey and inviting. Precisely everything that Lena was not.
Her red velvet skirts were hooked up just enough to reveal a flirtatious froth of underskirt, and her corset narrowed an already slender waist to a size he could span with his hands. Black bands of lace decorated her bodice and the panels of her skirts. As she reached up to try and fetch a bowl, the creamy mounds of her breasts threatened to tumble from her bodice. A hint of black lace edged against her creamy skin.
Will’s fingers itched.
He could remember the first time he’d ever seen her, bustling along Petticoat Lane with her gray Serge skirts swishing around her ankles and her battered bonnet barely protecting her from the rain. Clutching a sodden newspaper over her head, she’d slipped on the edge of the gutter and the newspaper had torn in two, disintegrating in Lena’s hands. With a helpless laugh at a pair of street urchins, she’d given a shrug, then tossed the newspaper aside. The sound of her laughter went straight through him; it was the type of sound that always made Will feel like an outsider looking in. Joy radiated off her, like warmth from the fire on a cold winter’s night, and Will felt an almost envious stirring, as if he wanted to stretch his hands out and catch some of her effervescent happiness. Dragging her bonnet off her head, she’d tilted her face up to the rain as it wet her lips, her eyelashes fluttering against her pale cheeks, and Will had almost fallen off the roof as he strained to look.
Women made him uncomfortable at the best of times. His own mother had sold him once it became clear he was verwulfen, and the only other woman in his life had been Esme. After a year or so of her presence at the warren, he’d started to relax around her, but everything about Lena set his hackles on edge. A curious, uncomfortable feeling that he didn’t understand. With a vampire stalking the rookeries, he’d been in charge of keeping an eye on the younger Todd siblings and protecting the house at night. Every day he’d followed Lena to work and then home again, without her even knowing. He complained about it to everyone he knew, but the truth of it was that he began to relish the moments when she’d appear at the door of the clockmaker’s, giving a cheery little wave back into the shop. In the grim reality of Will’s life, Lena became the one bright spark, a yearning for something he’d never had or felt before.
It was safe for him to feel that way. She was a stranger still, no threat to him, nor he to her. It wasn’t until he came face to face with her that he’d realized how different reality might be. Stepping out onto the roof one night in her nightgown, of all things, Lena had stared at him as if he were some hulking brute, darting a swift glance at the window she’d come through.
With his palms sweating and his throat tight, Will had been unable to speak. Then suddenly the words had come, blunt and awkward. “You wouldn’t make it in time,” he’d said. “And if you couldn’t avoid me, then you couldn’t avoid it either. Are you stupid, girl, to come out here with the creature on the loose? Or just wantin’ to die?”
The worst thing he could have said, for her eyes had narrowed and she’d drawn herself up as if she were a queen and he the lowest of street scum.
She made him feel like the small, helpless boy that nobody had wanted—nobody but Sturrett, who’d seen a way to make coin off him. Will had sworn he’d never feel that helpless again, but seeing her always threw him into a maelstrom of emotion, and even now the hungry, angry part of him was restless. His beast, prowling like a caged wolf inside his chest.
Can’t let it out.
Can’t ever let it out.
“You don’t need to do this,” he said bluntly, as she bustled around the kitchen. “I can manage by meself.”
Lena unpinned her hat and tossed it carelessly on the bench, followed by her gloves. The hint of smooth skin and manicured nails drew his eye. She’d touched him once with those hands and he’d never forget it.
“You always need food after one of your episodes.” Humming under her breath, she began to ladle soup into a bowl.
“It weren’t an episode.” His tone was far sharper than he’d intended and she stilled. Cursing himself, he continued, “I only get shaky when I’ve exerted meself, or lost too much blood. It’s just the virus, healin’ me. This is different.”
“Honoria told me to feed you.” Despite her studied nonchalance, she was nervous. Of him. He could smell it. “You can argue with her if you want. I’m not going to waste my breath.”
When he said nothing, she went back to ladling the soup.
“Didn’t know you knew your way around a kitchen,” he said, simply to chase the uneasy silence from the room. “They teach that in them fancy drawin’ rooms?”
Dark eyes looked up over the bowl. She seemed genuinely surprised he’d asked a question. After spending the last three years trying to ignore her, there was little doubt why.
“I used to prepare most of the meals after Father died and we first came to Whitechapel,” she replied, her lashes lowering again as she concentrated on the bowl. “Honoria was always home from work later than I.”
“You cooked?” He took the bowl from her and reached for the spoon. Her hand was tiny next to his, and very pale. Different worlds, the pair of them.
“Badly.” She shot him a sudden smile that lit her whole face.
Bloody hell. He stared at the soup. Six months since he’d seen her last—a deliberate act on his behalf—and he’d almost forgotten the way she could heat his blood with a smile, a look.
A careless kiss.
“And now you go to balls.” He put the sneer in his voice, but the effort felt hollow. Taking refuge in the soup, he almost burned the roof of his mouth.
“I like dancing.” Her eyes narrowed dangerously. “And balls. The men there behave like gentlemen. It’s a pleasant surprise.”
“You ain’t got a thrall contract yet.” He’d been waiting to hear word of it. Imagining one of those blue blood bastards with his mouth and hands all over her as he drank her sweet blood.
Color flooded her cheeks. “No. I haven’t made my mind up. And there’s no rush.”
“No rush? Ain’t you gettin’ perilously close to bein’ on the shelf?”
“I’m barely twenty,” she snapped.
“I see. You’d prefer to keep ’em danglin’?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Seems like the sort of games you’d play.”
A dangerous look in those eyes. Lena swished on her heel, snatching at her gloves. “I hope you choke on your soup, you big, hairy lummox. You don’t know anything about me. Anything!”
A piece of paper tumbled from her sleeve as she turned, fluttering to the floor like a dying moth.
“Ah, we’re back to that, are we?” he asked, putting the soup aside to cool. Stooping, he plucked up the piece of paper. “You dropped something.”
Lena froze in the doorway. Her hand went immediately to her sleeve, and then she spun around, her eyes widening. “Give it to me!”
Will stood, breaking the seal and unrolling the small furl of paper. He caught just a glimpse of thick black letters before Le
na tried to tug it out of his grip.
“A love letter, I’ll bet.” He turned around and pretended to read it.
A whoosh of scent enveloped him, her skirts swishing against his legs. She clutched at his shoulder, trying to drag his arm lower, her breasts crushed against the broad expanse of his back. Any attempt at reading went straight out of his head.
“What would you know of love letters?” She climbed on the stool and reached for the piece of paper. The step put her on eye level with him. Dangerously intimate. “The type of woman as would have you isn’t the type to be writing poems.”
“Don’t be so sure,” he shot back. “You’d be surprised at the type of poems they whisper in me ear.”
“Urgh. You’re despicable.”
The stool teetered and their gazes clashed. Lena shrieked and clutched at him as she fell. Will found himself with an armful of soft velvet and warm flesh, and the sound of two racing hearts.
The world slowed down. Became nothing more than the feel of her in his arms. Will stared into her eyes, then his gaze dropped, unbidden, to her lips.
Lena’s eyes widened and she made a choking noise. “Put me down.”
He could barely breathe. The hunger inside him was suddenly choking him, desperate to get out and rule his body. He knew the burning amber of his gaze was intensifying; he could almost feel the molten heat of it run through his irises as the color changed.
“Will,” she whispered. “Your eyes.”
Her breath was warm on his lips. She’d been chewing something with apple and cinnamon in it. He could scent it on her breath and suddenly he wanted to taste it.
Don’t.
Shoving her away, he turned, the paper crumpling in his fist. He had to get out of here. Away from the scent of her. Away from the temptation to do something she’d never forgive him for.
Maybe Blade and Honoria were right. Maybe he couldn’t be trusted?
“Will,” she whispered. “You’re shaking.”
He looked down at his hands. The tremble started there, swept all the way through him. “You were right,” he said hoarsely. “Maybe I did exert meself.”
“Perhaps I’d best go?”
It seemed some sense of self-preservation had come over her.
He nodded, struggling to hold onto himself. What the hell was wrong with him? What did it matter if she’d found…someone? Instantly the anger was back, thick and choking, a red haze threatening his vision.
“You shouldn’t have come. This ain’t your world now.” The words were harsh and he’d meant them to be.
Silence. “I know. I thought you wouldn’t be here. You’re never here at midday.”
Which was why she only visited at those times.
“Then why don’t you go?”
“My letter?”
Soft footsteps shuffled behind him. Her skirts brushed against his legs and then her hand slid down his arm, closing over the letter in his grip. A letter she was so desperate to regain.
There was only one reason she wouldn’t want him to see it.
Suddenly he couldn’t stop himself. He had to know, even if the answer was one he wouldn’t particularly like. Lena cried out, fighting him for it.
It tore in half and both of them staggered apart, left with a piece each. Will unrolled it, his gaze darting over the piece of paper. Not letters. Not writing. His gaze sharpened. He’d seen this before. The same bloody cipher he’d found on the men who’d fired the draining factories.
His stomach dropped. “What the hell are you doin’ with this?” he whispered, his voice filled with a cold, inexplicable dread.
Lena gave a strangled cry and darted for the door. Will grabbed her skirts almost as an aside, shock running its icy fingers down his spine. “Don’t think you’re goin’ anywhere. Not until you tell me where the bloody hell you found this!”
“I picked it up,” she lied, the bitter smell of it all over her.
Will grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her toward the stool she’d almost toppled. “Sit,” he growled, shoving her into the seat. “And explain. And if I were you, I wouldn’t dare tell me another lie.”
Four
Will towered over her with a glower. All nearly seven feet of him.
“Explain,” he demanded.
His eyes glowed that eerie amber color that showed he wasn’t quite human. Lena fell back, holding onto the bench to keep herself upright. She didn’t dare move, even as the stool teetered beneath her.
But she didn’t dare tell him.
“Or?” she asked, tipping her chin up and meeting his furious gaze. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears. He wouldn’t hurt her. Yet her gaze dropped to the quiver in his hands. Maybe it was exertion. Maybe not. She’d never seen him like this before.
His nostrils flared and he turned and slammed both hands on the bench. Head bowed, he sucked in a deep breath. Then another.
“I—”
“Don’t speak.” A gravely rasp. “Give me a moment.”
Lena swallowed. What was wrong with him? She eased herself upright, setting all four legs of the stool on the ground. The clock on the wall ticked out the seconds. Each tick seemed to stretch out, time slowing as the tension settled in the room. She could hardly stand it.
As suddenly as he’d turned, Will lifted his head and pushed away from the bench. His golden-brown hair was long enough now to touch his collar, and he raked it out of his eyes with a sharp gesture.
“No lies,” he warned, pointing a finger at her. The piece of letter was still crushed in his other fist. “Where did you get this?”
“I can’t tell you.”
Will put both hands on the bench behind her and leaned closer. Trapping her. “Don’t make me tell Blade.”
If Will talked to Blade, he would talk to Honoria and then Honoria…well, she would probably scream at Lena about how stupid she’d been, getting involved in such a thing.
“You’d run along and tattle on me?” She ignored the angry flare of molten-gold in his eyes. Will would never understand what she was trying to do, and she was very well aware of the dangers of involving other people.
Will caught her chin in his fingers. His lip curled back off his teeth. “This ain’t a game. I’d tell Blade because it’s clear you’re in over your ’ead. I seen somewhat like this before. On a man who burned the drainin’ factories down. Lena, they’re government owned! The Echelon will destroy whoever did this.” He waved the letter at her. “If it kept you from gettin’ your head cut off, then I’ll take a bloody full page out in the Times!”
“That almost sounds as if you gave a damn.”
Thought flickered through his hooded gaze. Indecipherable. She found she was holding her breath, which was ridiculous.
“I don’t want to see you hurt,” he said finally. “And your sister’d skin me alive if anythin’ happened to you and I’d known about it.”
Foolish, to think that he might have cared, even a little. Her shoulders slumped. “I promised a friend I’d deliver it for him. I had no idea what was inside it. I still don’t. That could be a laundry list, for all you know.”
“Let’s pretend I can’t smell it every time you lie to me.”
“That is the truth!” This was the hardest part of her cause—lying to her friends and family. But if she involved them now, who knew what might happen? Will was right. The Echelon would kill anyone they even suspected of being involved in this. She glanced uneasily at the letter. Mandeville had told her she was only dropping off meeting points and times to one of the other spies who worked within the Echelon.
She sent the letters by crow to some mysterious conspirator and received them for Mr. Mandeville. What if one of those letters had been instructions to burn the factories? She desperately needed to be alone, to think.
Suddenly, the world had become a far more dangerous
place.
“Lena.” The growl that came out of his throat was almost primordial. The kind of sound you expected to hear in a snowy forest, late at night, alone. The kind of growl that sent shivers down her spine because she knew it meant she was the prey.
Run, a little voice whispered.
“I—I—”
No longer content to play games, he gripped her chin and stared at her, his amber eyes burning right through her. Lena stopped breathing. She had nothing to fear—this was Will—but something in her, some unconscious part of her body, recognized danger when she saw it. The little hairs along her arms rose, her stomach turning to lead.
“I’m not—”
Laughter sounded on the stairs. Lena looked toward the door in relief as Blade’s housekeeper Esme and her husband Rip came through it.
Instantly Will straightened, his fingers slipping from her chin. He glanced away in order to hide his eyes from the newcomers and give himself a chance to leash the beast inside him. It rode close to the surface of his skin today, a predator beneath all those sleek muscles and powerful brawn.
“Lena!” Esme greeted, her black hair knotted back into a simple chignon. She took Lena’s hands and kissed her on the cheek. “I didn’t know you were visiting today.”
“It was a momentary decision,” Lena replied quickly. “You look well. Married life suits you.”
Esme smiled over her shoulder at Rip. The menacing giant had frightened Lena in the beginning, with his heavy mechanical arm and dark expression. In the first few months she’d lived at the warren with her sister and Blade, Rip had been suffering through the initial stirrings of the craving virus. She could remember his screams and the way he tore through his room in a rage. Not even Blade had been able to manage him and only Esme could calm him.
“And Will,” Esme said, with a faint note of scold in her voice. “I see you’ve been at my soup.”
“Honoria’s suggestion, I’m afraid,” Lena replied. She smiled sweetly as Will turned around. “He had an episode involving a fit of the vapors.”
Bec McMaster - [London Steampunk 02] Page 5
