Chapter 6 #3
Noble tensed, hand brushing his pocket, and turned. The door opened behind me.
I pivoted sideways, following Noble’s lead. How had he known someone was there?
“Here now, what’s going on?” The man at the door demanded. He was older and larger than Hackenstay, and dressed better.
“Master Tannett. Thank the spirits.” The negotiant pulled his scrawny frame up to his full height. “These folks are trying to cheat us.”
Noble took a step away and shot me a look so intense that I stepped back as well. I had stopped carrying my runelock pistol, no longer fighting jeering crowds. Perhaps that hadn’t been a smart decision.
Tannett’s eyes narrowed. “Are they now?”
“Your trainee is trying to swindle the Winters family out of two hundred gold,” Noble said. “Hardly the type that can call someone else a cheat.”
“I’m not a swindler!” Hackenstay shouted. “Or a...trainee.”
But the last bit was said with a wince, the utter swindler!
“Give her back the two hundred gold, and we’ll judge it as a miscommunication due to your trainee status. The contract is illegal. As a negotiant, Master Tannett should know there is no other recourse but to return the money. Otherwise, we’ll have to call an inquisitor here.”
Tannett’s expression shifted into calculation. “Two hundred...the Winters family. I see. I think not, Master…?”
Noble stared at the man without blinking.
Tannett’s mouth tightened before continuing without a necessary address. “The Third Winters is in dire straits. I doubt the First will want us broadcasting that to the public, now will he? One can only imagine the compounded scandal.”
Ferris would sooner wipe his hands of the money than cause further scandal. I bit my lower lip.
“Do I sense a note of blackmail in your voice, Master Tannett?” Noble asked, as if only half interested in a response.
“You may.” Tannett quirked an eye, as if especially clever.
“I see. I think it only fair to tell you how I feel about blackmailers. I rather hate them, truth to tell.” Noble’s voice turned dark and ominous.
Something snapped in the air as he strode forward—a protection ward?
—causing Tannett’s hand to fly to his coat pocket and Hackenstay to yelp.
Noble gripped Tannett’s wrist before it slid inside the fold.
“If your junior doesn’t stop trying to retrieve the gun from that drawer, I’m liable to accidentally shoot you. ”
I blinked to see a five-shot pistol in the hand Noble had pressed against Tannett’s side.
“Hackenstay!” Tannett’s voice was high and tight.
The trainee froze, caught between curling one electrocuted hand into his chest and trying to reach for the drawer again. “The wards have turned against—”
“Stop,” Tannett hissed.
“Marietta, be a dear and remove Master Hackenstay’s assuredly shoddy oneshot from that drawer.
” I started to step forward, but stopped when Noble’s even voice continued.
“Oh, and Hackenstay, make a move toward her, and I will put Tannett out of his misery and then start working on you. I won’t be quick about it either. ”
Hackenstay pressed himself against the wall, as far from the drawer as he could get. I walked around the desk, eyes darting between all of them, and removed the single shot pistol. Unlike Hackenstay, I was able to reach in without harm. What had Noble done, and how?
A quick head jerk took me back to my corner.
Noble twisted Tannett’s hand and wrenched his arm behind him. “I was willing to negotiate, but now that I see how willing you are to take advantage of the vulnerable, to use blackmail… I have to say that my method for dealing with you has changed in scope.”
“Five-shots are illegal for anyone but law enforcement. You will be hunted down!”
“I’m trembling. But telling me I should fear your tattle-telling gives little reason to keep you alive.”
Tannett eeped.
“Shoddy work. You obviously have never gone up against the best. Once a top-notch blackmailer has his way with you, you’ll never fall for second-rate.”
There was an odd pause in the last sentence, but I had little time to process it.
“Who are you?” Tannett asked between his teeth, obviously in pain.
“That isn’t what you should be asking. What should matter is what I can do to you.
” He leaned forward and whispered something in Tannett’s ear.
The man’s skin turned to chalk. “Think that over. We are going to take the two hundred gold you owe the Winters. Then I’ll be back to check on you, Tannett. Rest assured.”
Tannett gave a swift nod to Hackenstay. “Make out a draft.” When the scrawny man didn’t move, he shouted, “Now!”
Hackenstay grabbed the tin box and removed a paper with trembling hands. He scribbled on it quickly.
“Marietta, if you please.”
I grabbed the draft and shoved it in my purse. It felt very strange to be carrying two hundred gold.
“And with that, gentlemen, we bid you a good afternoon. Perhaps you will find that it is time to start a new business or to read through your law texts again.”
Noble motioned to me and I scampered out of the office—my purse pressed against my chest in a parody of Hackenstay’s clutched globe, and the man’s pistol gripped tightly in my fist.
I didn’t know how Noble removed himself from the office without leaving himself open to retaliation, but he emerged with his five-shot in one hand and Tannett’s one-shot in the other, and nudged me toward the door.
As soon as we stepped onto the sidewalk, he stowed the three pistols and set a brisk pace.
He didn’t slow until we were five docks and a bridge past. He checked the spellglass and glanced behind, but my mind was frozen.
As soon as he shortened his steps, the bustling streets and busier areas near the river snapped into view again.
We stepped past Blackened Bridge and a wave of emotion rocketed through me.
“You just threatened them with a five-shot pistol. I think I just threatened them with one. We got the money back. They returned it.” One shaking step tipped me into the next. “I feel so…vibrant.”
His gaze was cynical. “Delayed reaction. Don’t do anything stupid because of it.”
But not even his words could bring me down. I barely noticed as we cashed the draft and made our way back home.
Home. As if I would ever have a real one again. But this one at least had rosemary and dill bread, incredible stews, and a man who could right our wrongs. My wrist throbbed the tiniest bit.
And that was well more than I’d had a week past.
~*~
My calves twinged a bit as we made our way to another section of town after a quick stop to eat. I was used to a lot of walking, but we’d briskly strode the entire midsection of Gildon today.
I followed Noble into a plain building and down a hall to a door labeled records. Noble pushed inside and a lanky man with large glasses looked up.
“Master Noble!”
“Good afternoon, Phineas. Are you busy?”
Phineas pushed aside his papers and spread his hands. “What can I do for you?”
“I’m looking for information on the Vein Ripper case.”
Phineas’s sharp gaze swung to me, then back to Noble. “I see. There’s not much. The case has confounded all the branches. Was a relief to most that they might have the culprit in custody.”
“I figured as much. What do you have? Any previous suspects?”
Phineas motioned to the two chairs in front of his desk and tapped his pen on the oak surface.
“There were three. The first victim’s husband was the main suspect in that one, until he was accounted for by twenty different witnesses—attended some business function during the time of the murder.
The blame quickly moved to his business partner, who was not at the function.
That thread of inquiry got destroyed when there was a second victim.
The business partner was in Cornwall when the second was murdered—his story solid.
There were two men in the parish area around the second murder, Orly Dawkins and a sweep—questioned but not held.
The sweep checked out clean, but Dawkins is one you might want to revisit.
The inquisitors were leery of him, even though he passed inquiry. Behavior described as ‘suspicious.’”
“Why did they not get thrown straight into Montranc, the same treatment as my—as Kennen Winters?” I blurted.
Noble didn’t glare this time, but I detected something close to a sigh in his expression. Phineas gave me a measuring glance, though his eyes were still friendly, projecting a quick mind hidden behind a non-threatening air.
“The inquisitors were much more desperate by the third victim. The second victim, anonymous, had no identifiable links to the first victim or identifiable things on her at all. The parish patrollers who found her body quit the next day. Heard what was done to her was nothing short of gruesome.”
“Which is why the second victim hasn’t been identified?” Noble clarified.
Phineas nodded. “There are artist sketches at Coroner’s Court of both the first and second victims after they were cleaned. May want to have a look or see if you can obtain copies.”
“And the third?”
“Possibly. Though I heard they rushed the body through.”
“Suspicious.”
My throat tightened at Noble’s tone. Kennen. I wished we could make everything disappear.
“Or frightened.” Phineas stopped looking between us, attention suddenly solely focused on Noble.
“Who was the first victim?”
“Iris Sinclair. Lord Tenth’s Lady Sinclair.”
The names and title were vaguely familiar. “Weren’t they just married? It was sudden? No announcements at all? She was someone from the countryside returned to Gildon?”
Phineas glanced at me in surprise, as if he had forgotten I was there in the scant minute since I last spoke. “Yes. Part of that investigation took place in Hergashire.” His brow furrowed as he scanned my face. “Interesting. Favors, too, then, with that ability?”
What?
“What was her natal name?” Noble tapped the paper on Phineas’s desk, gaze sharp as he looked between us.
Phineas shook his head. “They only listed the one on the report. But that’s easy enough to find out. I’ll send a post when I do.”
“Arthur Dresden still assigned?”
“Yes. May you have a fae’s luck when dealing with him.”
“I’ve not had the pleasure yet, though his reputation precedes him.”
“Even as the newest inquisitor, he has wreaked havoc in the ranks. Hungry. He doesn’t get on well with the patrollers or watch. Thinks they are useless.”
“Sometimes they are, but it’s never a good idea to let them know.”
“Which tells you something about Dresden.”
“Indeed.”
Noble rose, and I rose with him. “Thank you, Phineas. Consider this and the victim’s natal name as first payment.”
Like with Edgar, Noble removed his glove and drew a finger across his own bare wrist. Phineas uncovered his own and three visible stars became two.
Phineas nodded, smiling at his wrist as the remaining stars faded from my view, then looked up at me while shaking his sleeve back into place. “Good luck to you, Lady Second Winters. I’m sure that Master Noble will have your brother out of jail in no time.”
I gaped at him. Noble took hold of my elbow and guided me into the hall. He dropped his hand, but the imprint lingered.
“How did he know?”
“Phineas is smart. And you weren’t being coy at the beginning. Though he lost track of you for a few moments, which was interesting with how sharp he is.”
I shrugged. I’d stayed still, listening, and he’d simply...forgotten I was there. It happened often enough at parties.
“You did something for him at some point?”
“Yes.”
“Your favors don’t seem so bad.” And neither man had acted like any emotion was attached to their marks, so the odd throb I had felt in my own must be a product of my imagination.
A slow smile spread over his face. “I’m glad you think so. But Marietta…” He leaned toward me and smoothed a lock of hair behind my ear, leaving tingles everywhere he brushed. “You have no idea what I have in store for you.”