Chapter 10
GAbrIEL
I awakened abruptly to a vigorous knock on the front door. I glanced at the clock to see the hands indicating a hair past five in the morning. I hadn’t planned on rising for thirty more minutes. Sixty if I was feeling lazy.
A lock of brown hair slid along my arm. I was definitely feeling lazy.
Perhaps I would stay in bed all day. I looked over to see the brown head buried into a pillow at my side.
I lifted a hand to lightly touch her back.
I had never invited a woman to my bed, choosing other locations instead, but she looked natural here.
A heavy knock fell again, and I realized which house I was in, with no butler to answer the door. Off my game again.
I threw back the covers on my side and grabbed a dressing robe. As my brain started reasserting itself, I hoped whoever was at the door realized their days were numbered. I saw Marietta’s body shift in my peripheral vision as I stormed from the room. The knocking continued.
I opened the front door to see one of my footmen, Billy, standing on the stoop looking apoplectic. I motioned him inside and counted to ten.
“Master Charlie sent me. He said to put this in your hand immediately.”
I took the missive and opened it. “Why didn’t you just come inside and awaken me?”
“Forgot the key in my rush. Master Charlie said it was of the utmost importance that I get this to you. Sorry, Master Noble. Won’t do it again, Master Noble.”
I started to mutter something suitably terrifying, which would even have cowed Charlie, my butler with ogre in his line, when my brain caught up to the realization that Marietta had been in bed with me and the whole thing might have been awkward.
Billy was looking terrified already, and I decided to rib him instead, until my eyes caught the first paragraph.
The paper crinkled in my fingers. “Did you bring the carriage?”
“Yes, Master Noble. It’s out front.”
“Good, stay here.”
I took the steps two at a time. All remnants of sleep cleared from my head.
Another murder.
They would have to free Marietta’s brother now. That was the good news. That the real killer was still running around, and Marietta would be leaving me, was the bad.
I paused at the top of the steps. Should I awaken her or let her sleep? The scene would be gruesome. She didn’t need to see it. I aligned my steps so they went silent on the floor, as I’d been taught as a child.
My silence didn’t matter. She was sitting up in bed, looking rumpled and delicious, the sheets pulled around her.
“What is happening?” Her voice was husky but alert.
I hesitated.
“Gabriel?”
“There’s been another murder. I’m going to the scene. Go back to sleep and I will return by the time you rise.”
“Another murder? Like the others?” Her hand holding the sheet dropped and exposed part of her breast to my lovely view. “Go back to sleep? No, I’m coming with you.”
I wasn’t surprised. Her grit was one of my favorite qualities. Still…“It won’t be pretty. Think of what your brother described.”
She shivered, but shook her head. Her eyes were clear, her expression determined. “I’m coming.”
I nodded. “Get dressed. Call if you need help. We need to leave in ten minutes.”
We left in eight.
The streets were foggy and dark. The early morning shadows from the gaslights cast odd shapes against the buildings and stones.
I watched Marietta stare through the window at the passing streets. Last night had been… Indescribable. Taunting her, seducing her, bedding her—somehow falling into my own trap.
She made me laugh.
She made me want.
She didn’t hold her tongue. Most women bent over backward to please me.
Oh, there had been a few who hadn’t in the past, but none of them had produced a pull, a desire to continue a liaison for the pure joy of it.
And even if she went moon-eyed with want like so many others, I wanted to see that expression on her.
Strange.
My driver pulled up to the curb. A crowd was forming, the watchmen trying to keep them away from the corner. A daunting task with the two streets converging and four directions to oversee. Dresden was roaming the crowd, sharp eyes taking in each face.
“Dresden is here.” I tapped a finger against the window. “If we exit, he will know your identity without a doubt.”
“You said he probably already does.”
“He will hunt you.” I considered confining her to the carriage.
Her shoulders straightened. “Kennen will be exonerated. He will have nothing to hunt me for.”
Would she try to reenter society after her brother was freed? Retire to the country? Find a man to marry who didn’t mind that she would try to be the strong one in the relationship?
Would she consider continuing a liaison? I felt strangely unwilling to let her go.
I had worked with scores of women over the years. I had even been interested in a few. But the attraction fizzled quickly, every time.
This one was still going strong. I had known it before taking her to bed. Unnerving.
What was it about her? She clutched her hands as she looked out at the crowd, nervous and excited to see her brother freed. Not the prettiest or smartest or tallest or bravest. But she was all of those things wrapped together in a package that just seemed to fit me. How utterly terrifying.
I had never imagined Marietta Winters walking in and blowing a hole in my well-planned life.
I pushed open the door. I would see what happened. And if she didn’t come to me…I could bring her to me.
I helped her down and we walked toward the scene. Dresden’s gaze locked on us immediately. I snapped my fingers and Billy jumped down from his spot with the driver, falling in behind us.
We weaved into the center of the crowd. An outline of blood marked the ground, but no body.
“Cor. Where’s the gal? Anyone know her name?”
I sent a silent thanks to the older woman hovering nearby for asking the questions I wanted answered.
“Moved to Coroner’s Court already. Heard she was broken and unrecognizable.”
“Like the others. They caught the wrong man!”
A murmur went through the crowd, and Marietta wilted in relief at my side.
The inquisitor clapped his hands. “Not entirely true.”
Marietta stiffened and I fought against doing the same.
“Looks like an internal maneuver. We are bringing in the Vein Ripper’s brother for questioning.” Dresden looked directly at Marietta. “The whole family is suspect.”
Dresden was no fool. Cutting off the pleas of innocence and giving the crowd an alternative that would make them feel as if the problem were already under control would stave panic.
And if the savage look Dresden had leveled in our direction was anything to go by, now that he had an acknowledgment of who we were, he was taking our actions personally.
I turned and gave Billy swift instructions. The boy darted through the crowd, and I pulled Marietta closer.
“Ferris—”
“We need to get to Coroner’s Court.” I didn’t look away from Dresden. The inquisitor’s dark smile across the crowd boded ill.
“In fact, the sister of the Vein—”
I signaled my driver, and the edges of the crowd screamed as a spell erupted and three carriages careened forward, forcing all attention in that direction. My driver would be receiving an increased wage.
I tugged Marietta through the back of the crowd as people yelled and ran.
She remained silent as I pulled her around the corner—her eyes empty and unfocused.
I gripped her hand as we rounded another, turning back and moving parallel to the scene we’d just left.
My carriage was waiting at the end of the street in response to my clockwise signal.
Lifting her inside, I motioned to the driver. “Coroner’s Court. Quickly. We have less than twenty minutes to keep ahead.”
I was barely seated when the carriage took off.
“Ferris,” Marietta whispered.
“Will be fine. Billy is getting him out of your house. Focus.” I snapped my fingers in front of her glazed eyes. “I am going to run into the court to see what I can find.”
A bit of spirit returned. “I’m coming with you.”
“Fine.” Frankly, I would have been worried if she had simply agreed. “We need to be quick, though. I have a contact in the building who has already been alerted. We will work from there.”
She stood much taller when we entered—not like a woman who might lose both brothers to mob madness.
People were positioned around a body in the corner of the high-celinged court.
“Sorry, but you aren’t allowed in here,” a guard said.
I flashed a smile. “Assistant to Nathaniel Upholt. Rory Carney.” I shook the bemused guard’s hand. “He sent me ahead to gather the initial information. I see that you are doing a fine job maintaining order.”
The guard puffed up a bit. “We try our best.”
“Do you think we might have a look before the mob appears? It would be very helpful.” The guard looked to be above a bribe, but there was a tattered edge to his trousers. Taking a chance, I palmed a gold piece and shook the man’s hand again. “We will stay out of the way. Five minutes is all.”
The guard’s hand closed around the piece, but he looked around before nodding. “Five minutes.”
I flashed another smile. “Thank you, my good man.”
Members of the court, inquisitors, patrolmen, and watchmen—some looking a bit green—packed the crowd. Recognizing a few from our recent excursions and my previous cases, I kept my head bent.
Blood had soaked through most of the cloth covering the body. I tucked Marietta farther behind me. She could look if she wanted, or be spared.
A man was cleaning the victim’s battered face, which was bared above the cloth. Another man was making notes, and they were talking back and forth.
“Bruising on her wrists. Matches the second victim. The first and third were without. Blow to the head. Spiritual veins ripped completely free, just like all the others. Opened at the midsection in order to—”
I let the words wash over me. The wet cloth was moving along the victim’s cheek and something stirred inside me. A sliver of fear.