Chapter 13 #2
I checked the desk drawers and searched under the bed, the pillow, and the sheets. I cast a cleaning charm on my gloves—one of the few spells still available in my dwindling supply. Everything I touched in the room made my skin crawl. “I don’t see anything.”
Gabriel was still staring in the cupboard.
“What is it?” I asked.
He turned to look at me. “Nothing.”
“What should we do?”
His eyes were focused on the open window. He didn’t respond.
“Gabriel, I know you don’t want to involve Dresden, but he will have to acknowledge at the very least that there are other suspects besides Kennen and Ferris.”
He stayed silent, not looking at me.
“We need Dresden’s support to get Kennen released.”
His eyes met mine. I was surprised to see anger there. Why would he be angry? What had I done now?
“Do you disagree?” I asked tentatively.
He looked back to the window. “We could take all of this with us, though it won’t look good if we are found with the lot.” He sounded as if he were talking to himself.
“Take it with us? Before showing it to Dresden? That will just point the finger more firmly to my family. Dresden needs to see it here.”
“He will start horning in on our investigation.”
“He thinks we are horning in on his already. Gabriel, we need Dresden. You know this better than I.”
“Do I?”
My breath hitched. He was saying no. I could read it in his eyes, in how he held himself.
Despair shot through me. Dresden would hold or arrest me eventually without Gabriel’s help. Both of my brothers would be tried and found guilty.
His gaze shuttered. “We will bring Dresden here.”
A downpour of relief spilled through me. Of course we would. It only made sense. Why would I think otherwise?
And yet, I would swear that had not been his intention a few seconds past.
“Might make a difference, might not,” he said. “But he will be forced to at least look at the evidence. That this is the man who most likely committed the crimes.”
“You think Dresden might believe we are lying?”
“Yes.” He fiddled with his cuff. I had a feeling he had no idea he was doing it. “But it may go a small way toward helping your brother. Brothers.”
Even with this evidence, Dresden might not change his mind. I stared blankly inside the cupboard.
Gabriel walked over and touched my chin. “We will take the chance,” he said grudgingly, as if making a major concession to me instead of just doing what made sense. “Let’s track down the inquisitor.”
Gabriel paid two men in the boarding house an exorbitant sum with strict instructions not to let anyone inside the room until he returned. If they did that, he would double their money. And if they saw and held the man who lived there, he would quadruple the sum.
We hailed a cab cart out front and set off for Command Street.
Dresden’s eyebrows shot halfway up his forehead when we walked inside.
I was surprised when, after he heard our story, he accompanied us to the boardinghouse with little fanfare.
However, with the numerous weighing looks he sent in Gabriel’s direction during the ride, perhaps he was keeping his enemy close.
For all of the inquisitor’s stubbornness, I was gratified to see his seriousness as he examined Worley’s room and cupboard. He cataloged everything, his expression shifting between grimness and irritation.
“Could have been you two all along, setting this up,” he said gruffly.
“Could have been. Up to you to ask the folks around here and discover the truth,” Gabriel replied coolly.
“I don’t like people mucking around in my investigation.”
Gabriel tipped his cap and turned. “I leave it to you to solve.”
“Noble, I will catch up with you eventually.”
“I’m sure you will.”
Gabriel led me out of the house and beyond the curious eyes of the boarders.
I clasped his arm. “We need to warn the other women in the pictures. That they will be next. How do we find them? Especially the lady in the veil? Should we circulate their pictures?” Eyes and hands and necks—it might cause even more panic, with every lady finding something of herself in the strokes.
He turned away, looking down the street. “The sketches are in Dresden’s hands. It will be his job to find them. The man is stubborn, but he is thorough when given a credible lead.”
“But—”
“No buts.” He started moving and I hurried to follow. “We will continue trying to find Thorne Worley. Leave the women to Dresden. Getting your brother released is our concern. Those women are not.”
His stride lengthened and I fell behind. How could he say something like that? “But they are vict—”
“Lady Second Winters? Marietta Winters?”
I missed a step. My body froze, my mind screamed at me to keep moving.
“Cousin Marietta?” A hand grabbed my arm and spun me to face the narrowed, gleeful eyes of Felicity Tercake. I should never have stopped trying to be a fern. “It is you.”
“Quite.” I kept myself from gripping my working skirt.
“Oh, this is too good,” Felicity crowed. “That I would find you down here on my way to discipline a maid. You’ve turned to trade, dear cousin? Walking to the poorhouse, are you? Saying a final prayer for that murdering brother of yours?”
“If you are quite finished.”
“Not for at least a quarter hour more.” She smirked. “You are the talk of the gilded, dear cousin. You and your brothers. Nasty little business there. You are making life difficult for the rest of us.”
“I see you are reveling in it.”
“Oh, indeed. I thought you simple, magicless scum, hanging on mother’s coattails, begging for invites to all the right functions. To find out that you sought dark magic to try and fit? How freeing to be able to tell you to your face how happy I am to see you cut loose.”
“Your beneficence will surely be rewarded.”
“Benton will be declaring for me any day now, so I’m sure it shall be.” She brushed her gloves together as if to get rid of my stench.
Unless other things had changed drastically in the past few weeks, I doubted that. “Lord Benton is the second in a prosperous line. He will hardly choose you. He could have a diamond, and you are anything but.”
Felicity’s eyes narrowed but she continued to smile. “As if you’d know a diamond from paste. How many offers have you had, Marietta? Oh, and how many invitations have graced your door of late?”
“None,” I said with a calm I didn’t feel. “As you are well aware.”
“I am,” she purred. “Have you read the papers lately? They say you’ve turned to whoring.” She looked me over. “I will be happy to confirm it.”
“Such crude words for a lady. If you are a lady at all.”
I jumped. I had forgotten Gabriel. He had been steps ahead of me when I’d been grabbed. Felicity startled as well, turning her bonneted head.
Her jaw dropped and I watched the cogs turn as her lips pulled into a brilliant smile. Gabriel was the most…well, just the most man I’d ever seen. I had little doubt the same was true for Felicity.
“Goodness. My apologies, unmet one. I’m Lady Felicity Tercake, and my acquaintance here does tend to bring out the worst in me.”
“Do you always blame your actions on others?”
Felicity’s mouth dropped again, but from a different kind of shock. “I beg your pardon?”
“You just said that you behaved poorly because your acquaintance brings out the worst in you.” He leaned toward her, and her cheeks reddened, from his proximity more than his words.
“Hardly taking responsibility for your own actions, are you, Lady Felicity? It sounds to me like perhaps you just behave badly in general and then make excuses for it.”
“I do not!” She smoothed her hands down her skirt and looked up with a new smile. “I am a high-ranking member of society. I assure you my manners are perfectly acceptable.”
“To whom?”
Her smile dropped and her eyes widened. “Marietta, cousin, if you’d be so kind as to introduce us?” I’d never seen Felicity so flustered.
I shrugged. “I can’t help you there, Felicity. I don’t know him.”
“Weren’t you walking with a man?” She looked Gabriel over. “Oh. Must have been a different man.”
“Are you calling her a whore again? Are you sure you are a lady?”
“My father’s Lord First Tercake!”
“I’m not familiar with the name. Is he in the trade?”
“No!”
Gabriel rocked on his heels. “Then why would I care?”
“Why am I bothering! You are nothing.” She seemed to have gotten past his face and looked at his clothes, his dock worker apparel. Unfortunately, her cheeks were still bright and she’d made a fool of herself over him already.
“And you.” She pointed at me. “Don’t show your face at our door asking for help.”
She marched away. Gabriel watched her go. I watched Gabriel.
“Cousin? I see why you picked a stranger to help.” He looked back to me, his eyes unreadable. “Come. Let’s go home.”