by Ginn Hale
The Counterfeit Viscount
Ginn Hale
The Counterfeit Viscount
by Ginn Hale
Published by Blind Eye Books
1141 Grant Street
Bellingham WA 98225
blindeyebooks.com
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission of the publisher, except for the purpose of reviews.
Edited by Nicole Kimberling
Cover Design by Dawn Kimberling
This book is a work of fiction and as such all characters and situations are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual people, places or events is coincidental.
Copyright 2018 Ginn Hale
Chapter One: The Counterfeit Viscount
Chapter Two: A Ruffian and a Gentleman
Chapter Three: A Terribly Beautiful Place
Chapter Five: Shots in the Dark
Chapter Six: Fever Ship
Chapter Seven: Deep Water
Chapter Eight: Decent People
Epilogue: Leave-Taking
About the Author
Also by Ginn Hale
Chapter One: The Counterfeit Viscount
The vast majority of days came and went for Archibald Lycrugus Granville, Viscount Fallmont, with the genteel luxuries of fresh-cut flowers, boots polished to a razor gleam, and suppers served on gilded plates. Nights he roved between charming lovers and card games, at which he never lost more than he won.
Butter upon bacon, as Nimble described it.
Archibald owned a stable of high-strung racehorses and retained a vast staff at each of his estates—though he rarely strayed from his elegant townhouse to visit either. From time to time, he pretended to woo the latest foreign heiress released into the staid waters of the peerage, and on occasion he indulged the expenses of a handsome artist or pretty actress.
Aside from the wide red shrapnel scar hidden beneath the snowy breast of his shirt, he appeared wholly unmarked by hardship. Fair, tan, and slim, he passed for a blithe youth even now at twenty-five.
His could’ve been a carefree life, except for the one day every third month when he descended to the pits of Hells Below and paid his devil.
March 21st, he woke before daybreak and slipped away from his attentive staff and current houseguests. He walked through the wan blue light, alongside herb girls and the last of the night patrolmen. Somewhere to the west, men called out the wonders of their coffee carts, and Archibald imagined that he could smell the aroma of the bitter black stuff rising on the clouds of steam that drifted from the river and blanketed the streets.
Sunlight burned through the fog by the time he reached the cold, clean room he rented at the Briar Hotel. There he exchanged his fashionable sable coat, his glossy top hat, and his silver pocket watch for the oilcloth cloak and worn cap common to the multitude of vagrant war veterans he’d once numbered among. He took up his bludgeon of an ironwood walking cane and traded his calfskin shoes for the battered army boots that had been far too big for him when he’d first been issued them at fifteen.
The brass mirror on the dresser door cast him in golden tones, but he certainly didn’t cut the figure of Viscount Fallmont anymore. Just plain old Archie now, and not so important that it would do anyone any good to mind where he went or what company he kept.
He departed the Briar by a back door and clipped through the bustling streets, leaving the realm of marble facades and large green parks far behind as he passed through blocks of modest brick businesses, and tramped on across the Crown Tower Bridge. Out in the less seemly section of the city, he picked his way through narrow alleys of cramped tenements, roaring factories, and sparkling gin palaces already filling up with shadows of human beings seeking bright oblivion. Here a few people knew him as Archie—an apple seller and a cat’s-meat man. They exchanged friendly greetings and a little news, then went their separate ways.
At last he reached the towering granite arch that rose over the worn stone stairs leading down to Hopetown—much more commonly known as Hells Below. Archie descended into the humid shadows slowly, admiring the ornate, soot-stained beauty of the mosaics decorating the walls on either side of him. Even through the ages of dirt and in the dim light, he made out bright shards of color and fantastically graceful figures. The mosaics supposedly chronicled the glorious day, hundreds of years ago, when the terrifying and beautiful armies of Hell had ascended to accept salvation and conversion at the hands of the church. Gleaming serpents and winged lions numbered among the burnished gold figures of fallen angels and towering warriors. Satanel, Leviathon, Sariel, Rimmon. Archie traced his finger over the surface of the inlaid metal-and-glass tiles, admiring the magnificence of those beings who’d once claimed dominion over lightning, raging seas, and the souls of the dead.
Not that anyone like them persisted in the vast ghetto beneath the sprawling city of Crowncross nowadays. Their descendants were called Prodigals, and most labored in dark, hard, and hazardous industries, where their natures supposedly lent them resistance to poisons, smoke, and exhaustion. Many weren’t too easy to recognize at a distance, though up close their yellow eyes, black fingernails, and jagged teeth tended to give them away, as did the citric scent of their sweat. But beyond those superficial traits, most Prodigals had as much in common with their preternatural ancestors as Archie had in common with Lord Bottham’s pet macaque. There were the exceptions, however.
As had become his habit, Archie paused, studying the mosaic. One devil’s familiar figure always held his attention. Broad and bronzed, with black hair and eyes as yellow as lemon drops. Even obscured within a procession of infernal dukes and damned princes, that single devil seemed to gaze back at Archie with an unreasonably amused and assured smirk. That was the face of a devil who knew he possessed rare and wondrous powers.
Archie could have sworn it was his own Nimble Hobbs, just about to say, “One day every three months, you’ve sworn to be mine, body and soul. So, haul your pampered ass down these dirty stairs and pay me what you owe me, Archie.”
There were far worse ways to pay a debt than in Nimble’s arms.
Archie took the steps by twos and soon reached the vast cavernous catacomb that spilled out beneath the city. It seemed to burrow deeper yearly, as more and more sewer pipes and gas lines invaded from the city above. Churches and storefronts leered out of the stone faces of the walls, and chipped gravel studded the tracks of mud that passed for streets. Yellow gaslight flickered from the occasional streetlight, and oily droplets of condensation dribbled from the pitted stone ceilings high overhead. The air smelled like grapefruit, piss, and burning shoes.
Archie drew his kerchief up over his nose and mouth before they started to burn. A pair of goggles offered his eyes some protection as he strolled along the wooden walkways, greeting crews of miners, dyers, tanners, and hatters as they passed on their way back from working long night shifts.
A gray-haired, legless Prodigal soldier on a street corner hailed him, and Archie stopped to hear a little of his story; he’d defended Sollum Hill as Archie had, but hadn’t been lucky enough to have Nimble stand over his bloody body, safeguarding him through the last night of cannon fire and cavalry charges.
“We held that damn hill, though, didn’t we?” The soldier’s yellow eyes looked as faded as old newsprint. He gazed past Archie into a remembered distance.
Archie nodded and shuddered as a droplet of condensation from the cave ceiling spat down the back of his neck. “You fellows in the Prodigal battalions won us the hill and the war,” he said, and that was the truth. The Nornians had possessed better steel, more deadly bombs, and enormous cavalries, but hadn’t had Prodigals. They’d been utterly unprepared for the mons
trous ferocity and inhuman endurance of those few Prodigal forces.
“If it hadn’t been for your lot, we’d all be speaking Nornic, using paper for money, and eating dry fish for every meal,” Archie added.
A flush colored the old soldier’s sallow cheeks. He studied Archie. “You must have been one of them infants they conscripted to drive the guns and carry the silver crosses. You kiddies did right by us, hauling up fresh water and ammunition.”
“Third Children’s Brigade.” Archie managed a smile, though the memories made his skin feel cold as clay slip. He’d not been called up in a lottery, like so many of the Prodigal children who’d been taken from their weeping parents. No, his uncle had handed him and his brother over, like pennies proudly tossed into a collection plate.
“Rifleman in the Fifth, me.” The soldier scratched at the stump of his left leg, then glanced away to glower at a fat black rat. He picked up a pebble and flung it hard enough to stun the rodent.
While the soldier appeared distracted, Archie slipped a generous contribution into his beggar’s canteen—enough to keep him through this year at least. Then he wished the man a good day and went on his way, up the wooden walkways and over the slate roof of the Blessed Medicine Distillery and through the doors of Mrs. Mary Molly’s Boarding House.
Inside the warm, well-lit establishment, Nimble stood strangling a plump little man dressed in a priest’s frock coat.
Chapter Two: A Ruffian and a Gentleman
Nimble glared over his shoulder but, seeing that it was only Archie who’d walked in on him, gave a nod and returned his snarling attention to the flushed, gasping pastor.
“You tell Reverend Eligos that I don’t abide trespassers on my turf. He sends you around here to poach my kiddies, and it won’t just be Tillie Pistol and Bastard Jack busting up his services. Nimble Knife will cut him right out of the living business, yeah?”
The plump man made a jerking motion that passed for a nod, and Nimble all but tossed him to the floor. The pastor struggled up to his feet, swaying and gasping. The purple color faded from his face, but his eyes still bulged like he’d spent too many afternoons playing dickey games with a noose.
Archie moved away from the door.
“Off with you, you letchwater toad!” Nimble’s voice was always rough and rumbling, but now his words came out like a mastiff’s growl. The sharp teeth he bared would have done a dog proud as well.
The pastor bolted past Archie and raced down the wooden stairs like a teakettle bumping and bouncing off every corner. Archie half expected to hear the planks crack and then shouts as the man crashed through the distillery roof. Nimble strode to one of the three circular windows and studied the pastor’s descent while glaring murder down on the man. Then, all at once, he let the yellow curtain fall back over the green glass window and turned to Archie. He offered a broad theatric smile that seemed to light his yellow eyes to gold.
“Archie, what a pleasure to see you here so early. I wasn’t expecting you before ten. And certainly not looking so clean as this. Don’t tell me you’ve found an honest trade, my bantling.”
“Still employed in the family business of doing nothing for no one at no particular hour, I’ll have you know.” Archie pulled the kerchief down from his mouth and pushed the goggles up to better see his surroundings. The entryway and small parlor appeared as tidy and colorful as ever. Bright wallpaper spilled a riot of floral patterns across the walls. Mismatched chairs stood around the hearth, and gold light glowed from two gaudy orange lamps.
Archie expected Nimble to throw his arms around him and pull him close, as was his habit. Then he would offer Archie a tot of blue gin, or some other alcoholic paint thinner, to ease him up for the inevitable backgammon they’d get up to in Nimble’s private room. But this morning Nimble stood a little too straight, with his big hands jammed into the pockets of his red corduroy jacket. He wore the heavy canvas trousers and tall black boots that he preferred for tramping through muddy streets, instead of the dog-velvet dressing gown he normally donned on the days Archie came calling. His broad, handsome smile looked like it had been slapped on with wallpaper paste and tasted bitter.
At once Archie knew they weren’t alone. He noticed a shadow flitting back and forth where the door to the kitchen stood slightly ajar. Alarm shot through Archie, but he held his nerve.
“And I’m hardly early. The clock on the mantle says ten after, old boot.” Archie sauntered past Nimble and dropped down into one of the worn chairs next to the small fireplace. He held his hands out to the flames. It wasn’t ever biting cold down in Hells Below, but the constant damp made him feel the healed seams that webbed across his ribs and shoulder blade. If it came to a brawl, he wanted his joints loose and ready to move.
“Right you are.” Nimble laughed, and it almost sounded natural. “I suppose I lost track of time, being so caught up in the joy of the moment.”
Archie smiled inanely and watched the kitchen door. If there were Inquisitors there, he and Nimble were both of them likely to end up swinging from nooses. Sodomy had been largely decriminalized, but demonic conjury was still punishable by death. The Queen’s Inquisition might have turned a blind eye to the practices during the war, but they were years past that now. Recently they’d made a very public show of policing trade in magics as seriously as they investigated thefts and murders.
It occurred to him that he should have turned right around and slipped away, instead of sitting his ass down. But if Inquisitors lurked behind that door, then he couldn’t leave Nimble alone to face them and their torture chambers of prayer engines. He’d take as many of them down as he could.
Even as the thought occurred to Archie, he discounted it. Not only would Inquisitors have frowned on Nimble strangling a brother pastor in their presence, but Nimble would never have allowed one of their number so deep into his home, not unless he’d already chopped them up into pie filling.
So that left the options of new client or a Prodigal tough attempting to strong-arm or sweet-talk Nimble into joining a crew. Archie wasn’t particularly taken with either possibility.
“It’s all clear,” Nimble called.
The kitchen door opened slowly. White-haired and stooped, Mrs. Mary Molly poked her deeply wrinkled face out like a shy owl. She gave Archie a craggy smile, and he offered her a friendly wave. He’d only spent a few months in her company, and that had been seven years ago, but Archie had liked her sense of humor and appreciated the small kindnesses she’d done for him while he’d still been recovering the use of his right arm.
As far as Archie could tell, she left it to Nimble to secure the rent for her property and didn’t question his methods or means so long as he was prompt with the payments. All her energies and income went to running a charity school for orphaned Prodigals. The school taught them the manners and skills to land work as clerks, secretaries, and servants in noble houses.
Mrs. Molly snaked her hand back and seized someone on the other side of the door. Then she yanked a gangly redheaded Prodigal boy out. He looked all of thirteen, clutched a half-eaten sausage roll in one hand, and wore the satin livery and silk stockings of a nobleman’s page. From the emblem on his jacket, Archie realized the boy hailed from Lord Umberry’s house. And from the startled expression on his gob, Archie suspected the lad was halfway to realizing where he knew Archie from.
Archie wasn’t close with Umberry, in part because Archie’s uncle, Silas Granville, was. However, Archie had seen a good deal of the man and his household while half-heartedly courting Umberry’s glacier of a sister, Agatha Wedmoor. Archie and Lord Umberry also frequented three of the same clubs and had sat across from each other many times at card tables.
“This is Archie. He’s a friend of mine from the army. Not a Proddie, but you can trust him.” Nimble indicated Archie with his thumb, then flicked a long forefinger in the boy’s direction as he glanced to Archie. “The lad is Thom Chax. He comes to us by way of Mrs. Molly’s Improving School. And as I understand it
, two years back Reverend Eligos arranged a post for Thom with some toff. But now, I’m guessing from the pastor coming after him, there’s been tribulation that’s obliged our boy to hightail it back to Mrs. Molly’s protection. Yeah?”
The boy nodded. His gaze shifted to Archie, but then returned almost worshipfully to Nimble. “It’s true, Mr. Nimble, sir. I’ve come into real trouble.”
“Oh! If there’s trouble in your life, the man you need is Nimble the Knife.” Mrs. Molly said it like a proverb. “That’s what it says on your card, isn’t it, Nimble, dear?”
“The old card, my love. Nowadays it reads ‘Reliable and Discreet. Nimble Solutions to Intractable Problems.’ Sepia ink on the prettiest cream paper. But I digress.” Nimble’s grin relaxed, and he gestured to the seats near the fire. “Why don’t you both have a sit-down?”
“That would be a relief.” Mrs. Molly steered the boy to a footstool and took the seat nearest the bright coals herself.
Nimble glanced to the remaining empty chairs but stayed on his feet. “I’ll bitch the tea for you all like a proper host, shall I?” he offered, and his language made the boy grin in delight. Then Nimble sauntered into the kitchen, and the three of them sat in silence. Archie pointedly kept his head down as if his mud-caked bootlaces were the most engaging sight. He considered making an excuse and taking his leave.
But he had a bargain to keep if he wanted to retain his title and the power it gave him to have his revenge. The terms of the conjury had to be met. And—though he’d die before he admitted it aloud—he’d been anticipating and waiting for this day all the last three months. There was an ache in him like a drunkard’s hunger for gin, or an ophorium addict’s longing for the needle. The whole of his body trembled with an almost feverish anticipation. Archie clenched his hands together and scowled at his ugly boots.
