by C. J. Archer
"You'll miss." Hogarth smirked. "You're shaking like a leaf."
"You're a gambling man, are you?"
Hogarth swallowed. His gaze darted between me and Matt, unsure where to look or who to point the gun at. In that moment, he looked so young, so innocent and scared. Yet this man had murdered McArdle, and perhaps Daniel, too.
"You'll either die or go to jail, Mr. Hogarth. It's your choice." I glanced at Matt, hoping to see some advice in his expression. But he still had not caught his breath. He labored for every one, sucking in great gasps that barely made his chest rise.
The watch…it must have broken under the force of the kick. The thing that kept him alive had stopped, and that meant Matt's heart had stopped too. Please, no.
"Matt?" My voice squeaked. My hands trembled more. I had to get to him. And do what? "I'm coming down. Don't shoot. Our driver is outside and if we don't return, he'll fetch the police. You can't kill everyone, Mr. Hogarth."
"Stay there, India," Matt rasped. Then he doubled over, hands on his knees.
I stepped through the trapdoor and descended the narrow steps, the gun trained on Hogarth. He swiveled and pointed his weapon at me. Apparently he deemed me the greater threat, with Matt struggling to breathe.
"Don't move, Mrs. Prescott. I will kill you. The world needs to be rid of people like you anyway."
"You mean magicians," I said.
Behind him, Matt continued to wheeze loudly, but he also straightened. His face looked normal. Tired, but not pale. Was he pretending to be winded? He made a circling motion with his hand, a signal to me to keep Hogarth talking, perhaps.
"You overheard our conversation with McArdle," I said. "Is that why you killed him? Because he's a magician?"
"I didn't plan on shooting him. That was an accident. I came in here looking for you and him, but he startled me. The gun went off. Not that it matters. As you say, one less magician." He lifted the gun higher, aiming at my head.
Matt crept forward, his footsteps silent.
"What about Daniel?" I asked, although I already knew the answer.
"Buried in the pit over there, waiting to be sealed up forever beneath the new floor."
Oh no. Poor Daniel. Poor Miss and Mr. Gibbons, and Commissioner Munro. They'd lost something a parent should never have to lose. My heart weighed heavily for them. If we'd found him sooner, could we have saved him?
I had to know. "When did you kill him?"
"The day after he was kidnapped and brought here. I shot him." He made a gun with the fingers of his spare hand and placed it against his temple. "They'll never find him, and good riddance, too."
I frowned. "You didn't kidnap him?"
"Duffield did."
My gasp filled the thick silence. "Duffield! Why?"
"Because Daniel was a danger to us. He could ruin every mapmaker in the city. Duffield saw it. He knew what would happen if men like him were allowed to start their own businesses. They'd ruin us, and every last legitimate member of the guild. He couldn't let it happen."
"Duffield ordered you to kill him?"
"No, I did it because Duffield wouldn't. I overheard him planning the abduction with another man."
"Who? Abercrombie?"
"I don't know the man's name. I never saw his face. He urged Duffield to kidnap Daniel, and to try to reason with Daniel and stop him using his magic." He snorted. "You can't reason with an unreasonable braggart. So I followed Duffield here and killed Daniel, since he lacked the spine for it."
I clutched the gun tighter. The youth's cold retelling of the story chilled me further. He had no qualms about killing Daniel, and would have no qualms about killing Matt or me either.
"Daniel deserved it," Hogarth went on.
"Why?" I didn't dare glance at Matt, although I knew he was still too far away from Hogarth to disarm him.
"He was the worst kind of magician. Cocky. Arrogant. He thought he was better than us, but he wasn't. You want to know why?"
"Yes."
"Because he never had to work for his craft. It came easily to him, he was born with it. I, and every other hard-working cartographer, pour time and effort into the maps we create." He shook his head and bared his teeth. "Yet all the accolades, all the money, were showered on him. He hadn't even worked as an apprentice for a month when commissions came to him like kittens led to milk. He didn't have to do anything to earn his reputation."
"He had to create wonderful maps."
"You call those vile things wonderful? They're evil. Magicians are evil, ungodly freaks." Spittle flew from his mouth and landed on his lower lip. "You're dangerous people, unpredictable."
"There's no danger from a map magician, Mr. Hogarth. How can a map or globe harm you?"
"I've heard the tales of how maps used to come to life. How rivers flowed off map edges and drowned entire villages. How the tentacles of monsters drawn in the oceans reached out of the paper and pulled real ships under the waves."
"Those are just stories."
"My father told them to me, as his father told him, and his father before that. Not all stories are lost in the mists of time, Mrs. Prescott. What about your magic? What does it do?"
"Does Mr. Duffield know what you did?" I asked, not daring to head down the path he wanted to take. If I riled him, or frightened him, he would want to rid the world of me too. At the moment, he seemed a little reluctant. Because I was a woman? Or was it that I wasn't a cartographer?
"After I told him, yes. He didn't appreciate my efforts to protect him and the guild members." He shrugged, as if that didn't matter.
"Yet he employed you as his new apprentice."
"A happy outcome. I did have to work hard to secure the position, by reminding him that he would be in a great deal of trouble with the police if I spoke to them. He did, after all, kidnap Daniel. Now, any more delaying questions?" His lip lifted in a sneer, baring his teeth.
Matt was so close now I expected him to leap the remaining distance. He continued to breathe heavily, coughing and wheezing so that Hogarth would think him incapacitated.
"Just one more," I said. "Why here?"
"Duffield brought Daniel here upon that other fellow's urging. Apparently he'd heard from some East End roughs that it was a good place to hide people."
"You had nothing to do with Matt's—Mr. Prescott's—kidnapping earlier today?"
"My my, what a busy day you've had. No, that wasn't me."
Another thought occurred to me. "Did you hire a thug to warn me outside church last Sunday?"
"How would I know which church you attend?" No, Mrs. Prescott, that wasn't me either. You do seem to have quite a few enemies."
So it had been Abercrombie too, after we'd confronted him over his knowledge of Daniel's disappearance.
Hogarth glanced toward Matt and, seeing him near, swore and swiveled the gun in his direction. Matt dove low. The gun went off.
My heart stopped.
But Matt was unharmed. He tackled Hogarth just as I was about to squeeze the trigger. I lowered the weapon, afraid I'd hit Matt if I fired. I watched them rolling on the dirt, locked together. Hogarth circled his legs around Matt's waist but Matt caught Hogarth's wrist and forced the gun to point harmlessly away.
I scrambled down the remaining steps to the cellar floor and aimed the gun at Hogarth's head. "Surrender," I ordered. "And I assure you, I'm feeling much more willing to shoot you after your confession. At this distance, I won't miss."
He stopped struggling and released his gun.
"Kick it away, India," Matt said.
I did and stepped back as Matt got to his feet, hauling Hogarth with him. He dragged Hogarth's hands behind his back and marched him up the steps.
I picked up Hogarth's gun and followed them upstairs and outside.
Bryce had returned, thank goodness. He reached into the box under his seat and tossed some rope to Matt, who bound Hogarth's wrists together. Matt bundled the apprentice inside, took one of the guns and trained it on him.
/>
"Vine Street Police Station," he ordered Bryce.
We spent too long at the police station. We were interviewed extensively, then had to wait for the detective inspector to send for Commissioner Munro, and for Munro to arrive with the Gibbons family in tow. By then, Mr. Duffield had also been arrested, and a constable returned with confirmation of what we already knew—they'd uncovered Daniel's body in the Bucklersbury Street cellar.
Miss Gibbons's distressed wail followed me out of the building and into our carriage. "Poor woman," I murmured to the inky black sky. "Her only child."
"At least Munro is supportive," Matt said. "More supportive than I expected, to be honest."
"Daniel was his son too. Perhaps he even loved Miss Gibbons, at one point."
"Perhaps he loves her still, but circumstances have precluded him from marrying her. Not every couple can be together, no matter how much they want to wed."
"Being already married is something of an impediment."
He leaned his elbow on the window sill and rubbed his temple. "India…" He sighed heavily.
"I know."
He stopped rubbing and frowned at me. "You do?"
"Of course. This evening's adventure proved to me that you were entirely correct all along. I should have listened to you."
He lowered his hand and half shook his head. "While I like that you've admitted I'm right, I think we're talking at cross purposes. What am I right about, by the way?"
"Me keeping my magic a secret. I thought your warnings were simply a matter of you being overly cautious, but after seeing the lengths Duffield and Hogarth went to to protect their business and reputation…I find that I am more inclined to keep my magic to myself, in future."
"I'm glad to hear it. I don't like that you have to stifle this part of yourself, when you've only just discovered it, but it's for the best." He rubbed his forehead where the grooves had deepened in the last hour. "Unfortunately it's too late to keep it a secret from Abercrombie and the other Watchmaker's Guild members. Even more troubling is his apparent link to this sorry saga."
"Hopefully Munro can convince Duffield to reveal who urged him to kidnap Daniel." I shivered at the thought of Abercrombie going to the lengths that Duffield and Hogarth went to. Would he do that to me?
Matt removed his jacket. "You're cold."
I leaned forward and he draped the jacket around my shoulders. It smelled of his scent, a mixture of spices I couldn't name that were uniquely his. He lifted the collar, stroking the underside of my jaw with his gloved thumbs. Then he sat back, all the way on the other side of the cabin.
I drew in a fortifying breath, but my nerves remained frayed. "Cross purposes," I muttered. "What were you talking about?"
He stared down at his hands and stretched his fingers apart. "I was mistaken. I did want to discuss magic with you." He cleared his throat.
"Oh."
He looked up. The shadows smudging his eyes had darkened, the lines radiating from their corners multiplied. It was almost midnight, and he must be exhausted. "McArdle said magic provides what everyone wants most from the object. So gold multiplies, a mapmaker wants to locate something, and a watchmaker wants accuracy in timekeeping. The combining of two types of magic means two things are wanted."
"Giving you back your life for a longer time," I said quietly. "It's not quite what the horology magic is supposed to do."
"Nor does it explain how your watch saved you against the Dark Rider."
The watch still hung around my neck. I removed it and rubbed my thumb over the silver case. It grew warmer. "No, it doesn't."
"It's not just your watch either—the clock in the Jermyn Street gambling den hit Dennison."
I dropped my watch into my reticule and pulled the drawstring tight. "It doesn't make sense."
"It does if your magic is strong, as Mr. Gibbons suggested. Stronger than any other we've encountered so far."
I made a scoffing sound. "How can that be? I didn't know I was a magician until very recently. How could I have passed twenty-seven years unaware of something like that?"
He shrugged. "You've only just begun using it. Perhaps using it makes it grow in strength. The more you practice your magic, the stronger it becomes."
It was an interesting theory, but I didn't think I'd practiced my magic all that much. Certainly no more than Mr. Gibbons or Mr. Onslow, and neither had mentioned being saved by their maps. Their maps only did one thing—reveal locations.
I opened my mouth to tell Matt but shut it again. He'd closed his eyes and leaned his head back. His shoulders had lost some of their tension too, and his body rocked to the motion of the carriage. It was good to see him get some much needed rest.
I closed my eyes, only to open them upon his muttered, "You were remarkable tonight, India."
"Oh. Thank you."
He blinked sleepily back at me. "You're the bravest woman I've ever met."
"Now you're flattering me. Willie is a brave woman. She would have held the gun steady, whereas it shook like an autumn leaf in a strong breeze in my hand. I was utterly terrified." I wanted to tell him I was afraid I wouldn't be able to stop Hogarth from shooting him, but decided against it. I already felt raw, exposed, and didn't need to add fuel to the fire burning within me by admitting that.
"And yet you didn't run off. That's what makes you brave." One corner of his mouth lifted and he closed his eyes again. "We make a formidable team."
"Does that mean you'll no longer order me to remain behind when you hare off and endanger your life like you did tonight?"
He grunted. "It means I should stop introducing you as my assistant and start calling you my partner."
"That would be quite a promotion, but no one will believe I'm your equal."
His smile widened, but he kept his eyes shut. "They will once they get to know you."
Matt slept late, or so Miss Glass and I thought. Her first batch of callers, Mrs. and Miss Haviland, came and went without seeing him, much to their disappointment. It wasn't until he strolled in at midday sporting a fierce expression tinged with tiredness that I wondered if he really had been asleep the entire time.
"There you are!" his aunt cried. "No leaving the house today. You're all mine." She patted his cheek as she passed him on her way out of the drawing room.
"Why?" he asked darkly.
"You have new visitors this afternoon, Lady Abbington among them."
"With her unwed daughter, I assume. Or is it daughters, plural?" He threw himself into the chair and loosened his tie.
His aunt clicked her tongue. "You look like a vagabond."
"Aunt…" He sighed. "Never mind." He stretched out his legs and crossed them at the ankles.
"Lady Abbington doesn't have any daughters, as it happens, and she's coming alone."
"Then why do you want me to meet her? Am I off the marriage market already? Or are there nieces?"
"Your mocking does you no credit, Matthew."
"You're right. I'm sorry. Tell me about Mrs. Abbington and why you want me here for her visit."
"It's Lady Abbington. She's the widow of Lord Abbington—"
"Aha. So she is eligible after all."
Willie, Duke and Cyclops entered. They'd given up on waiting for DuPont to reappear at Worthey's factory. I'd apprised them of the investigation into Daniel's disappearance earlier, but I didn't know where they'd gone after that. They certainly hadn't remained at the house to greet Miss Glass's guests.
"Lady Abbington is twenty-six and widowed almost a year," Miss Glass said, peering down her nose at her nephew. "She's sensible, clever, pretty, and not at all like the other girls I've introduced to you. I suspected she might be more your type since…" She lowered her gaze to the floor. "She seems like the sort of woman who could catch your interest."
He drew in his legs and stood. He clasped her elbows gently. "Aunt Letitia, I know you mean well," he said gently. "But I've already told you I can't wed, and I'll tell each and every woman you bring he
re the same thing. I am not on the market. I am not eligible. I am not going to marry, no matter how wonderful the lady in question is."
"Not even if you fall in love with one of them?" Her voice changed from dramatic to thin, frail. She blinked up into Matt's face, so far above her own.
"Especially then. You see, Aunt, I've been ill. Nothing for you to worry about, but it means I get tired a lot. I couldn't tie a woman I love to a sick man."
She touched his cheek where the gray pall made the hollows appear starker. Her wistful, sad smile made my heart trip. "When you're cured, then." I suspected she'd already guessed that he wasn't well.
He kissed her forehead. "When I am cured."
She pressed her palms to his chest, as if wanting to be reassured by the steady rhythm of his heart. "Have Bristow send lunch to my rooms. You ought to do the same, Matthew. You look like you need a rest."
He did indeed, but I wouldn't tell him until after he told me where he'd been. I asked him as soon as his aunt left.
He crossed his arms over his chest and stood by the fire, his feet a little apart. The defensive stance piqued my curiosity, and I arched my brows. "We paid Abercrombie a visit," he said.
My mouth fell open. I glanced at the others, but none met my gaze. "You went without with me!"
"You do recall our discussion about not putting you in danger."
"Yes, and I also recall our discussion about you treating me as an equal partner."
"Abercrombie can't be trusted."
"What could he possibly do to me with all of you around?"
Willie marched up to me and poked me in the shoulder. I blinked at her, surprised. "Matt did what he thought was right, so stop arguing with him."
Damn her logic. I pressed my lips together, but it cost me to remain quiet.
"Hush, Willie," Duke snapped. "This ain't nothing to do with you."
"Course it is," Willie snapped back, hands on hips. "He's my cousin."
"I can fight my own battles, thank you, Willie." Matt took her by the elbows and steered her to the sofa. "Now listen." He may have been addressing everyone but he looked directly at me.
I bristled. "I am on tenterhooks since no one has yet told me what you learned from Abercrombie."