Chapter 5 #2
He peeked sideways at Greer as they both approached the bed. Greer’s expression shifted from grave to shocked. Penny couldn’t help but smile at his sister, though.
“This is Helen, my sister,” he said, sinking to sit on the bed by Helen’s curled form. He brushed a stray lock of hair away from her face, then leaned down to kiss her cheek.
“Your sister,” Greer said, staring at her.
So much could have been said, so many stories and explanations. Penny didn’t feel as if he owed any of them to anyone, let alone Greer. At the same time, he could see in the intelligent flicker of Greer’s eyes that he understood without an explanation.
“I cannot leave her,” Penny said, just above a whisper. “She is more like a child than not. She cannot fend for herself.”
Helen stirred and scooted closer to Penny, feeling his presence even in her sleep. An angelic smile spread across her sleeping face for a moment before it went slack again.
Penny’s throat constricted and his eyes stung.
“After our mother died, it took us years of moving in and out of boarding houses, not to mention more time than I want to think about living on the street, before we found Mrs. Hunt,” he explained.
“Even now, if it weren’t for me paying her three times what this filthy room is worth, she’d cast us out.
If I disappeared for more than a day or two, I’ve no doubt Helen would end up on the street.
“No,” he corrected himself right away. “She would not end up on the street. She would at first, but by nightfall, you know she would be snatched up and taken to an asylum. I cannot let that happen. It would kill me.”
He glanced up at Greer with pleading eyes. He despised feeling vulnerable in front of a man he wanted to impress, one he wanted to turn him over a barrel and fuck him silly. But there was no helping it. Helen came before everything else in his life.
Greer was still for a while before letting out a long breath and rubbing a hand over his face. He sank to sit in one of the chairs a few feet away, under a darkened window. “You cannot leave London,” he said. Penny couldn’t tell if he was frustrated or relieved.
“Your friends will have to employ someone else to rescue whoever is trapped in a castle in Cornwall,” Penny said.
“They want you,” Greer argued, still watching Helen.
“I cannot do anything that would cause me to leave Helen alone and unprotected here,” Penny insisted.
Greer dragged his eyes away from Helen and looked at Penny. “You put yourself at risk of being arrested on a daily basis,” he pointed out. “You could have been one of the unfortunate souls picked up tonight.”
“But I wasn’t,” Penny said. “And if I hadn’t been distracted by flirting, I wouldn’t have been anywhere near The Oyster when the coppers arrived.”
Greer frowned, like he resented being blamed for their situation. That frown didn’t last, though.
“I might not know much,” he said, “but I can see this situation is untenable.”
Penny huffed a humorless laugh. “Do you think I am unaware of that?” he snapped.
He shook his head. “I need to take Helen away from here. She wants to go to the country. I’ve heard…
.” He dropped his head, uncertain whether he wanted to make himself so vulnerable to Greer.
There didn’t seem to be another way to explain, so he sighed, glanced up at him, and said, “I’ve heard there are places in the country, farms and such, where people like Helen can live happily and be taken care of. ”
Greer shook his head. “I don’t know of—”
He was cut off as Helen stirred.
“Penny?” she asked groggily, turning to her back and reaching for Penny.
“I’m here, love,” Penny said, smiling at her and brushing a hand over her face.
Helen responded with a sweet smile that was filled with so much love it hurt Penny’s heart.
A moment later, that smile vanished and she moaned as she realized they weren’t alone. She sat up and threw her arms around Penny, hiding against him.
“Hey, hey, now, love,” Penny soothed her. “This is a friend. Would you like to meet my friend, Greer?”
Helen moaned again, then nodded and turned her face toward Greer.
“Hello,” Greer said with an uncertain smile.
It took a moment, but Helen smiled back at him. She half hid her face against Penny before saying, “You’re handsome.”
Penny laughed. “I think so, too.”
“I’m not very handsome,” Greer said, inching closer, “but I do think you’re beautiful.”
Helen giggled and hid her face fully against Penny’s shoulder. Penny laughed along with her.
“Tea party,” Helen mumbled into Penny’s shirt.
“You don’t have to host a tea party right now, love,” Penny said, hugging her. “It’s the middle of the night.”
“The middle of the night is time to sleep,” Helen repeated the words Penny had told her dozens of times before.
“That’s right, my sweet,” Penny said. He squeezed her again, then helped her to lie down and rest her head against the pillow. Once he’d tucked the covers up around her shoulders, he asked, “Do you want me to tell you a story to take you off to the land of dreams again?”
Helen nodded hazily and yawned.
Penny glanced to Greer, then smiled at his sister again. “Once upon a time, there was a brave and clever, red-headed thief who knew just how to escape the police.”
It only took a few minutes of recounting his and Greer’s adventures of the night as if they were a fairy story for Helen’s breathing to steady.
As soon as he was certain she was asleep, he kissed her cheek, stood, and walked over to the screened off area at the corner of the room so he could wash his hands and body more thoroughly.
“You see?” he asked Greer, glancing over his shoulder at the man before ducking behind the screen.
“I do see,” Greer said, getting up and following Penny to the screen. “I see far more than I thought I would see tonight.”
He might have meant Penny himself, since he slipped behind the screen with him just as Penny removed his shirt. Penny had a feeling it was more than that, though.
The two of them were silent for a bit. Greer took advantage of the wash water and sponge Penny offered him to clean himself up as much as he could. Penny wanted to offer him a spare pair of drawers, but he didn’t have any, and Greer was likely too big for anything that fit him.
Once they were relatively clean, the thoughts that had been fomenting in Greer’s expression finally made it out into the open.
“My friends who want you to do this job with me might be able to make arrangements for your sister,” he said.
Penny finished pulling a reasonably clean shirt over his head, then glanced at Greer in surprise. “Surely not,” he said. The sort of people he figured wanted him to accompany Greer to Cornwall were almost certainly not the sort who would shelter an innocent woman in his absence.
“They might,” Greer repeated, scrubbing his face with clean water. “They’re…different from the ordinary criminal gang.”
A shiver shot down Penny’s spine. He wasn’t keen on handing his sister over to any criminal gang, even a different one. “I can’t take that risk,” he said.
Greer grunted and frowned. “You could always ask them,” he said.
Penny snorted. “Ask them how? You still haven’t identified them to me. How am I supposed to ask them for a favor in order to work for them?”
“I could take you to them,” Greer said. “Tonight. Right now. I could introduce you, and you could ask whatever questions you have.”
“At this time of night?” Penny gaped at him.
“They keep odd hours,” Greer said with a wry grin.
More understanding dawned over Penny. A criminal gang who operated in the shadows at night.
Greer wanted to drag him under. But if there was even a slight chance someone other than Mrs. Hunt might have been able to help Helen, did he not owe it to himself and her to investigate?
Selling his soul just might be worth it if these people could guarantee Helen’s safety.
“Alright,” he said at last, though he wasn’t pleased with his answer. “Take me to your friends. I’ll ask them everything I need to ask, and if I like their answers, only if I like their answers, I’ll think about going with you to Cornwall.”
Greer let out a breath that might have been relief. “Alright, then,” he said. “Come with me.”