The Cheater's Game: Glass and Steele, #7

by C. J. Archer

  The arrival of two men at the entrance to the alley set my heart racing. One wore a suit with a tie, the other a neckerchief and no jacket. His sleeves were rolled up and he carried a toolbox. They walked toward me, talking quietly, and hadn't yet seen me.

  I had to warn Matt. They might be going to one of the other houses, but I didn't dare rely on that. I banged on the back door then raced to the gate again, where I affected a limp. The men didn't see me until I was mere feet away from them.

  "Are you all right, madam?" asked the gentleman in the suit.

  "My foot slipped on the cobbles," I said, wincing.

  I hobbled past them and both men turned, as I hoped they would. Their backs were to the gate.

  "Oh," I whimpered, stopping. "It hurts like the devil."

  "Here, take my arm," said the gentleman. "Can I assist you to your destination?"

  I glanced past him but Matt did not appear in the alley. Where was he? "Perhaps your man can find a hack and you could help me to it. Slowly." I winced again for good measure.

  The second man returned the way he'd come, leaving me with the gentleman.

  "Are you alone?" he asked.

  "Quite alone." Too late, I realized that was the wrong thing to say to a stranger in an alley with no one else in sight. He might dress like a gentleman but that didn't mean he was. "Although my fiancé should be along soon."

  He began to turn to look over his shoulder, just as Matt emerged through the gate. "Ohhhh!" I cried out.

  The gentleman gave me his full attention, wrapping his arm around my back to support me. "Your fiancé should not have abandoned you."

  "I didn't," Matt said, coming up behind the gentleman. "She wandered off. She does that sometimes. What have you done, darling?"

  "I slipped on the cobbles," I said. "My ankle hurts. This kind gentleman is helping me to a waiting hack."

  "So I see." Matt gave a pointed glare at the man's arm.

  The gentleman withdrew and stepped away. He cleared his throat. "Well then, I'll leave you in the hands of your fiancé. Good day, sir, madam." He touched his hat brim and continued on down the alley. He stopped at the gate to Emmett's lodgings, nodded at us again, and disappeared into the courtyard beyond the fence.

  I pressed a hand to my chest. That had been close. Too close. I thumped Matt on the arm. "Why did you take so long?"

  "I wanted to have a good look around. Well done, back there. I'll make an actress of you yet."

  He took my hand and led me along the alley. I resumed my limp as we passed the second man with the toolbox, and thanked him for his assistance. Back on Childs Street, I dismissed the waiting hack and climbed into our carriage. Matt ordered the coachman to return home.

  "It shouldn't have taken you that long to search one room," I said huffily.

  A slow, crooked smile lent a wickedness to his handsome features. "You were worried about me."

  "I was bored." I crossed my arms and sniffed. "Until those two showed up."

  He leaned forward and placed both hands on my knees. That smile didn't waver. "How many times did you check your watch?"

  "Five minutes, Matt. That's how long it should take to check one room. Perhaps ten. Honestly, the police have already searched it. What else did you expect to find?"

  "I looked through the other rooms too."

  I gasped. "You can't do that!"

  "Why not? The Drapers are suspects. Why waste a perfectly good opportunity?"

  I narrowed my gaze at him. "You're thinking like a criminal."

  "And you're adorable when you're cross." He rose off the seat and kissed me on the lips. I leaned into him, eager to deepen it, but he drew back and sat down again.

  "You're vibrating with excitement," I said. "Breaking and entering seems to give you joy."

  "It's your presence that does that to me."

  I rolled my eyes. "I no longer fall for your smooth words."

  "The sparkle in your eyes would imply otherwise."

  "That's not a sparkle, that's soot. The air is smoky today."

  He laughed. "Don't you want to know what I found?"

  "Go on then. What did you find in Emmett's room?"

  "Nothing. I did, however, find something in the Drapers'. They're in debt. A lot of debt. I found letters of demand from creditors both in the States and here. Some were threatening."

  "Danny has gambled away their wages," I said. "Poor May."

  "May might not be too innocent. She was probably aware of the scheme Emmett was running and Danny's part in it."

  "It seems the scheme wasn't enough to get them out of their debt," I said.

  "Not yet, but it might have been enough, given more time."

  "Emmett's death ended those hopes. Killing Emmett wasn't in their best interests."

  "We can't assume that," Matt said. "Not yet. For one thing, the stairs creak with every step, and their room was close to the staircase. Nobody could have crept up them without the Drapers hearing."

  "I don't understand."

  "We know someone returned the gun to Emmett's room the night he died. Either the Drapers lied, and they weren't at home, or they returned the gun themselves. I don't believe they didn't hear someone going up the stairs."

  "I see your point. But the other resident also heard nothing."

  "So he told Brockwell. I want to question him again."

  "Brockwell won't like it. He'll think you're overstepping."

  "Then we won't inform him until afterward. I'll return to Childs Street tonight, after the show. If the lodger isn't there, I'll wait. He has to return eventually."

  Matt left again a few hours later, slipping out of the house before dinner, much to his aunt's annoyance.

  "He ought to dine with us," she said, toying with the string of black jet beads around her neck. "He's an engaged man now. He must behave as such."

  "This isn't a formal dinner," I said. "It's just us."

  "His friends are here." She indicated Duke and Cyclops, taking their seats opposite. "As are we. He is no longer free to do as he pleases."

  "He ain't in jail," Cyclops drawled. "We don't care if he ain't here. He's investigating, not out drinking."

  Miss Glass's lips flattened. "I expected you to agree with me, Cyclops. You always agree."

  "Willie ain't here either," Duke chimed in. "Why aren't you cross with her?"

  "She's a unique force." She watched as Peter filled her wine glass and picked it up. "One doesn't expect Willie to do the conventional thing."

  "Amen," Duke muttered.

  We'd hardly begun our soup course when Bristow entered and informed me of a visitor.

  "Did you advise him that Matt's not here?" I asked.

  "He asked for you," Bristow said.

  "Who is it?"

  "Mr. Gideon Steele."

  Chronos!

  Chapter 7

  My grandfather had not visited for some weeks. Although I knew where he lived, I had not visited him since announcing my engagement to Matt, so I supposed I couldn't be cross with him. Even so, it was difficult not to be. He irritated me in a way that no one else did. He was selfish, putting his own magical ambitions above all else, including familial ties.

  And yet I loved him, in a way. He was family.

  "Your timing is impeccable, as always," I said, meeting him in the entrance hall. "We've just sat down to dinner. Shall I have Bristow set another place?"

  "I'm not staying." Chronos looked past me to Bristow. "You can go. I wish to speak to my granddaughter alone. And don't tell Glass."

  "Matt isn't here," I said. "Otherwise he would have come down to see you. Thank you, Bristow, I'll see him out myself."

  Chronos watched the shadows until Bristow had retreated completely. Chronos's eyes danced in the lamplight, reminding me of Matt after he'd snuck into the Childs Street house, all youthful mischief and confidence.

  "You look different," I said. "Have you cut your hair?"

  Chronos touched the white strands floating above
his head like weeds in a stream. "I don't have time to visit the barber."

  "Why not? What could you possibly be doing these days?"

  He took my arm and moved me away from the stairs, even though we were alone. "Come with me, India," he whispered.

  "No. I'm in the middle of dinner."

  "You can eat later. This is important." He strode across the tiles and removed my hat from the hat stand. "It's warm. You won't need a coat."

  "I can't just leave. The others will wonder where I went."

  He shoved the hat at me. "Leave them a message. Come on, I haven't got all night. Neither has he."

  "Who?"

  He grabbed my elbow. "I'll explain on the way."

  "No!" I pulled free. "Stop it, this instance. I'm not going anywhere with you until you explain what this is about."

  He studied me, hands on hips, and gave an exasperated sigh. "I have the paperwork for the shop. You need to go through it before you sign it."

  "Oh. I see."

  The shop once again belonged to my family after Eddie Hardacre had been found guilty of fraud and my grandfather found alive. Chronos had said he'd give it to me, but now that the moment had come, I realized I hadn't quite expected it. I didn't need a shop. I couldn't sell timepieces as the Watchmaker's Guild would never grant me a license to do so.

  Chronos was hopeless when it came to business matters. He'd wanted to be a shopkeeper, and left it in the hands of his wife and son, my father. He'd been more interested in finding a magical doctor to help him pursue his experiments. Experiments that had given Matt back his life, twice. For that reason, I couldn't bring myself to resent Chronos. I owed him so much.

  I took the hat. "I'll fetch my gloves."

  "You don't need gloves." He took my hand and led me outside.

  "Bristow, I'll be back soon," I called.

  I caught sight of the butler racing down the stairs just as Chronos shut the front door. We headed down the steps to the waiting hansom, its door already open.

  "Why didn't you bring the papers with you?" I asked.

  "I didn't plan on coming here." Chronos assisted me onto the seat. "I was in the area and just decided to drop in."

  "Are we meeting the lawyer at your place? Is he a friend?"

  He shooed me over and sat next to me. He gave the driver his address through the hatch above and shut the door. "I have a confession to make, India. The shop papers are not my main reason for getting you to come with me."

  I sighed. I should have known he was lying. "Why the ruse?"

  "Because I knew you wouldn't come if I told you the truth." He grabbed my arm as if he suspected I'd leap out when the cab slowed. "I didn't wait for Glass to leave the house, I swear. That is pure coincidence, but a fortunate one."

  If he didn't want Matt to know, it could only mean one thing. Magic.

  "You'd better tell me everything," I said.

  He let me go and patted my hand. He also did not wear gloves and his skin felt cool, dry. "There's a man waiting for you at my lodgings. He's French, but that's not his fault."

  I pressed my lips together to suppress my smile. "Is he a magician?"

  He nodded. "He heard about a powerful magician here in London and wanted to meet her—you."

  "How did he hear about me? And who says I'm powerful?"

  "Your reputation is advancing beyond this city, this country. The story of your watch saving you is well known among certain circles."

  "Who's blabbing?"

  "It's gossip. It spreads. And no, it wasn't me." We stopped beneath a street lamp at an intersection. Light and shadows carved out Chronos's cheeks and deepened his eyes, making him seem every bit his age of seventy-one. He patted my hand again. "Just hear what he has to say before you get cross."

  "I'm not cross." I sighed. "I am cross. You should have been honest with me."

  "If I had, would you have come?"

  I withdrew my hand. "So he knows about me and about my connection to you. How did he find you?"

  "You can ask him that. We're nearly there."

  My grandfather lived in a row house not far from Crouch End Station. His neighbors were mostly clerks and bank employees who commuted to their offices in the financial district of London. It didn't seem like the most likely place to find Chronos, except when one considered that he wouldn't want to be near craftsmen or anyone belonging to a guild. Ever since Oscar Barratt and Mr. Force's articles, Chronos was not in favor with the artless who felt threatened by magic.

  His landlady greeted us, but Chronos brushed her off with a quick introduction then led me up to his rooms on the first floor. A man rose from a chair in the small parlor where he'd been reading a newspaper by the light of a lamp. For some reason I couldn't now fathom, I'd expected someone like Chronos; old, a little disheveled with a mad gleam in his eye.

  Fabian Charbonneau was nothing like Chronos. He had more in common with the debonair Mr. Hendry. He was dressed in a tailored slate gray suit with shiny black shoes and dark hair, glossy with Makassar oil. His chin and jawline sported a day's worth of stubble. I guessed him to be only a little older than me, although it was difficult to tell. There was something quite serious about him, something earnest, and that was the only similarity to Chronos.

  He stepped forward and touched my hand in greeting. Without gloves, the intimate gesture made me blush.

  "Sit, sit," Chronos said, waving both hands toward the sofa. "We don't have long to talk, so let's begin."

  "Why don't we have long?" I asked.

  "If your fiancé arrives home before you do, he'll come straight here. Your butler can't be trusted to keep a secret. Don't pretend Glass is a modern man, India. We both know he wants to keep a tight rein on you."

  "He does not! He's quite happy for me to do as I please."

  "Unless it involves magic." He indicated Fabian, who'd so far said nothing beyond a polite greeting. "Fabian, tell her why you're here."

  "Firstly, tell me how you came to find me," I said. "Chronos wouldn't say."

  "Chronos?" Fabian prompted. "You call your grandfather by this name?" He spoke English very well, with a lilting French accent.

  Chronos laughed. "She prefers it."

  "We were strangers to one another until recently," I told Fabian. I was determined that Chronos shouldn't get off lightly for the years of abandonment. "I do prefer to call him by his nickname. Grandpapa doesn't ring true."

  Chronos grunted in what I suspected was agreement.

  Fabian smiled politely. "I heard about you through a friend, India."

  "What friend?"

  "I am not at liberty to say."

  That only made me even more curious.

  "What sort of things did your friend say about me?"

  "That you fix watches and clocks without a spell. That your watch will act to save you, again without a spell. This is not normal, India. You are not normal."

  "He means you are extraordinary," Chronos cut in, as if he thought being labeled abnormal would offend me.

  "My friend did not know where to find you, alas," Fabian went on. "Except that you are in London and related to the famed Gideon Steele. So I come here today and find him, and then he fetches you."

  "Today? You didn't waste time, Chronos." I glared at him, trying to drill in the importance of getting to know this man before he brought me here to meet him. Fabian could have been lying. He could be anyone, working for anyone. Trusting him without question was a mistake.

  "Let him finish, India," Chronos said. So he had understood the meaning behind my glare. I was glad I didn't have to spell it out in front of his guest. "Fabian asked Oscar Barratt where to find me and Oscar sent him here."

  "Barratt did not know I sought you," Fabian said. "Your grandfather informed me that Barratt could have told me where to find you if I had given your name. But I am glad to meet Chronos first. He says your husband would not like me so it is wise I do not go to you."

  "Fiancé," I said with another glare for Chronos. "We'r
e getting married in ten days."

  "Ten!" Chronos cried. "Why didn't you tell me?"

  "I have."

  His spine straightened. "I haven't received an invitation."

  I sighed. "You will shortly. Fabian, I still don't understand something. You live in France and yet Oscar's articles were published in a London paper. How did you come to read them?"

  "My friend sent them."

  "The same friend who told you about me?"

  He gave a non-committal shrug.

  "Tell me your friend's name," I said.

  "I cannot." He smiled apologetically. "I am happy to meet you, India. May I call you India?"

  "Please do. I'm happy to meet you too, but you've come a long way, and I'm afraid it's all for nothing. I can't help you."

  I rose, but Chronos grasped my hand. "We haven't told you what Fabian wants yet."

  "I can guess. He wants me to extend someone's life with their watch and a doctor's magic." I sounded heartless, cruel even, and I immediately regretted my tone. "I'm sorry, Fabian. Truly I am. But what you ask me to do is—"

  "It's not that," Chronos said, casting a secretive smile in Fabian's direction.

  Fabian studied me with eyes the color of honey. His undisguised interest sent heat spreading across my skin, prickling my scalp, warming my face. It was unnerving yet thrilling at the same time. I wanted to toss his attentions back at him but couldn't think of anything bold enough to say. So I looked away. I had not felt this out of sorts by a man's attentions since meeting Matt for the first time.

  "I am not here to ask you to extend my magic," Fabian said. "Or anyone's magic. I do not wish to take from you, only to give."

  "Give what?"

  "Knowledge."

  I barked a laugh.

  "Listen to him, India," Chronos said from the drinks table by the window where he poured a spirit the color of Fabian's eyes into three glasses. "You'll want to hear what he has to say. Trust me."