To be fair, it wasn’t a bad move, but it left him in close enough for any number of swift counterstrikes and Chaff, despite his slender appearance, could take more hits without flinching than it took to topple a brick wall. Before Ash could retreat, Chaff punched him twice in the ribs, yanked his arm free, and swept out with one leg.
Maeko cringed. That wasn’t going to end well.
A voice rose up above the increasing din enough to catch her attention and she turned as Ash hit the ground with a grunt.
“That’s the one, right there!”
A Literati officer was pushing his way through the gawking crowd. The man she’d nicked the wallet from flanked him, pointing at her. A chill swept through her when she recognized Mr. Jacard following along behind them, the gray coachman hat shadowing his eyes. He smirked when he caught her looking and tipped his hat to her.
“My employer tips his fine hat to you.” She shuddered at Hatchet-face’s voice in her head.
Jacard was showing up too often. Twice might be coincidence, a third times suggested something more deliberate. Right now, however, she couldn’t waste time investigating or she would wind up in Literati hands again.
Ash got to his feet and shook his head to clear it. Chaff watched him with the casual indifference of someone watching a fly buzz past. The omnibus driver was maneuvering his horses out through the press of people, snarling curses at all of them.
Maeko bolted between the two boys. “Time to go.”
She threaded her way through the crowd. Squeals of surprise and indignant shouts behind her let her know someone, probably several someones, followed. She couldn’t afford the luxury of looking back to find out who. She shoved onward until she burst free of the crowd and sprinted, ducking down the nearest side street.
This part of town was a cinch. This was where she learned her trade. After seven more turns down the streets and alleys, using an ashbin to scale a fence in one, she dared a glance over her shoulder. Ash followed, a trickle of red drying in one corner of his mouth. Benny panted along close behind him, his short legs pounding out a desperate pace. She saw no sign of Chaff, but also no sign of the toff, the officer, or Mr. Jacard.
She turned down another trash-lined alley and slammed through a door that hung crooked on its hinges. She stopped at the foot of some stairs inside the dingy, deserted building, the musty smell of mildew and stink of old waste thick in her nostrils. She grimaced, turning to the door when Ash and Benny stormed in. Ash shoved the door shut as far as it would go and leaned against it, breathing hard and choking on the rancid air. Benny slumped on the bottom step to catch his breath.
Ash looked up at her, anger still raging in his eyes even after the run. Then his gaze moved up to the top of the stairs and his scowl deepened. Turning, she looked up at Chaff who stood there grinning down at her, a faint darkening over one high cheekbone where Ash had made contact.
“I see you took the slow route, eh Pigeon.”
“I was trying not to lose the pups,” she countered.
Ash made rude noise in his throat and Chaff glared down at him.
“Your taste in mates has gotten sorry and sad.” Chaff sauntered down the steps and continued past her.
“Apparently so.” She turned her back on the wounded look in Ash’s gorgeous eyes and followed Chaff through a doorway.
Bloody boys. Frustration welled. No amount of handsome excused their reckless behavior, even if Chaff was just being protective.
Benny trotted past to walk with Chaff and she heard the creak of the door as Ash pushed away from it to follow. They slipped out a side door into another alley and went in search of transportation. When they reached an omnibus stop, Chaff turned and scowled at Ash before giving her a stern look.
“You sure you want to do this?”
Maeko nodded.
The conductor accepted their money and ushered them aboard. Chaff offered Maeko a hand up, something he’d never done before. She would normally brush off such an offer anyway, maintaining the fierce independence he claimed to admire so much, but this time she took advantage of the chance to poke at Ash for his earlier criticism. Chaff climbed up behind her. Ash, scowling and refusing to meet her eyes, climbed in third and slumped down in a spot at the far end of the opposite seat. Benny squeezed into the last spot next to him.
Chaff leaned close. “So who was the other bloke?”
“What other bloke?”
“The well-dressed toff behind the Lit and your mark who looked at you like a hound that just found the fox he’s been tracking.”
Her stomach turned. “I didn’t see him.”
“Don’t lie to me, Pigeon. You know I can tell.” While he talked, he stretched his arm and let it come to rest around her shoulders.
She looked down the omnibus catching the pained look on Ash’s face. He turned away to stare off in the other direction, his reaction adding weight to the growing suspicion that he might be attracted to her, as crazy as that was. Guilt twisted in her chest. She stared at someone’s feet on the floor across from them and let Chaff ramble on. They were almost to Tyburn when she noticed he had stopped talking.
“You’ve taken a fancy to that duffer, haven’t you?” he asked in a low voice when she met his eyes.
Something in his manner made her uneasy, a guarded remoteness that strained their usual easy camaraderie. She looked away, resorting to the familiar comfort of silence. He leaned in again and she cringed to think how they must look from where Ash sat.
“C’mon. You can’t hide it from me. You’ve never moped like this after dipping in a toff’s pocket before.”
His words grated on her. No, she hadn’t, and that only made it more frustrating. She shrugged his arm off.
“You could do better,” he commented, unwilling to let it go.
“Please stop.” She gave him a cutting look. His expression darkened and a nagging voice in her head reminded her that she had asked for his help. Snapping at him might not be the best way to express her gratitude. Besides, her frustration wasn’t his fault, not entirely at least. She swallowed her temper. “Sorry. It’s been a long few days.”
“That’s all right.” His words said one thing, his stilted tone and stiff posture said another.
She groped for something to win back his more congenial mood. “I ran into my mum.”
The distance evaporated. He winced. “Ouch. On top of your encounter with the Lits. I guess you have had a bit of hard luck.”
Should she tell him about her second escape?
No. He’d lecture her for being daft enough to get caught again and worse if she admitted to doing it on purpose so she could break Ash out.
“I’m chuffed you’re all right. I didn’t like leaving you at the Tower. You’re not mixed up in whatever got those folks killed, are you?”
“No.” Coward. But he would tell her to get out of it and he would be right. She couldn’t convince him she wasn’t in danger when she knew she was.
“Good.”
His arm slipped back over her shoulders and she let it stay. It was nice, soothing, though she couldn’t help wondering if this unusual physical affection was only a show to irritate Ash or if there were more to it.
Do I want there to be more?
She never used to worry about such things. It was Ash’s fault, him and his pretty eyes making her think about silly things. This wasn’t time to worry about who felt what toward her and how she felt in return. She had more important things to worry about.
“How’d your mum handle seeing you?”
That shut her momentary distraction down. “It was very…uncomfortable. I guess she figured me for dead. She seemed sad, mostly.”
“I’m sorry. That couldn’t have been easy.”
She nodded, the constriction in her throat discouraging speech.
He tightened his hold, pulling her in against his chest.
It was only for a few seconds, but in those few seconds, she wanted nothing more in the world than to cu
rl up in his embrace and unburden all the stress of the last few days, of a lifetime. This was Chaff, though. He was her mentor, her partner in crime. They didn’t have that kind of intimacy between them.
His arm relaxed.
The experience with her mother weighed on her, gaining potency as soon as she thought about it and his comforting made it more difficult to keep her jumbled emotions under control. Now she regretted bringing it up. Chaff allowed her to brood in silence and she dared to lean in to him, stealing comfort from the contact until they reached their stop.
Heavy clouds moved in, dropping early darkness in like a shroud upon the landscape and a drizzling rain came with it, drowning everything in dreary grayness. When the omnibus stopped about a quarter mile from the orphanage, Chaff stepped out into the aisle and let her off ahead of him, forcing Benny and Ash to follow. She considered kicking him for taking the opportunity to jamb another wedge between her and Ash, but that wasn’t going to make him any more sensitive to their cause.
Besides, it was her fault for not explaining things to Ash, for not realizing that she might need to explain something she took for granted. If you lived on the streets, there were only so many ways to survive, most of them less pleasant than the one she had chosen. She’d learned to steal, run fast, and hide in the shadows to avoid ending up in a Literati workhouse or reformatory. Most of those weren’t any better than the life of a street rat. In some cases, they were a sight worse. Ash didn’t understand that, and in a way, she was glad he didn’t have to.
She glanced back at Ash when he got off the bus behind Chaff, but he avoided her gaze. With a heavy exhale, she turned away and began to chew at her lip.
“Shall we walk?” Chaff clapped her on the back.
It was a gentle amiable pat, but her teeth bit into the inside of her lip, drawing blood from the healing sore where she had bitten it while making her escape with Hatchet-face. She started moving, picking up a swift pace for her short stature and licking at the blood on the inside of her lip, using the pain to take her mind off Ash. Perhaps, if this went well, he’d forget his anger.
They walked most of the way to a big four-storey red brick building, the newest of the Literati orphanages. It looked much like a prison, complete with bars over all the windows.
Chaff stopped them and turned to face the group. His gaze rested on her. “What’s the plan?”
An expected question that she’d already worked out the answer to, though she knew it would lead to more conflict. “You know how these places are laid out. You can lead. I’ll follow. These two will stay here out of sight.”
“Not bleeding likely,” Ash objected. “I’m going with you.”
Chaff started to speak and she gave him a stern look. Nothing he might say was going to help. In an uncommon show of self-restraint, he kept his commentary to himself.
She turned to Ash. He’d wiped the blood from his chin, but the lower lip swelled around a small split, another injury she’d led him to. “You don’t have the skills to get in and out of there without being seen.”
She hadn’t intended the words to be offensive, just factual, but his expression closed up, shutting her out. Closing her eyes to a burst of frustration, she exhaled again.
“You don’t know Samuel,” he muttered, the words lacking the necessary conviction to sway her.
Not caring what the others thought of her deliberation, she took a few slow breaths to collect her thoughts, focusing on the task ahead of them rather than the emotions tied up in the current situation. When she felt calm and collected, she opened her eyes and looked at Ash, or through him really. It was easier to keep her composure that way.
“I know what he looks like,” she said. “You stay out here with Benny. Keep out of sight and make sure neither of you is spotted. We’ll nip in and back out quick as we can.”
When he didn’t argue, she spun on her heel and gave Chaff a nod, which he returned. He strolled up the walk beside the low iron fence that surrounded the grounds and scanned the street. Then, fast as a spooked cat, he hopped over and ducked into the bushes. After a long pause, she heard his soft whistle and strode forward. Two short whistles came from the bushes, Chaff letting her know the coast looked clear. Following his example, she sprang over the fence and crouched down, slipping into the bushes behind him.
He gave her a game grin, his irritability gone as soon as they were away from Ash. “If someone told me before I met you that my best pupil would be a twist, I’d have said they’d gone barmy.”
“Girls can be criminals too. Get a move on.” She poked him in the ribs and he jerked away, chuckling as he started slinking across the grounds.
They stayed low, working their way through scratchy, wet bushes and deep shadows, the soggy soil squishing beneath their feet. The tension and excitement of the caper kept her mind off other things. They stopped and crouched next to a tree a few yards from a door in the back of the building. Electric lights spilled their harsh glow out through some windows, but it was getting late enough that the residents would be settling in for the night, at least as much as kids ever settled.
“The Lit orphanages are all laid out the same. That door will take us in through a washroom,” Chaff whispered. “From there we can sneak past the front desk. It should be quiet at this hour and it’ll be easier if we can find out what room he’s in on the roster.”
She nodded, holding silence around her as a defensive barrier against the many distractions trying to hammer their way into her thoughts, like why Chaff was so extra protective around Ash and why Ash was so put out by Chaff’s affection toward her and how she felt about all of that. He made a quick gesture toward the door and they scampered up to the building, crouching next to it. The damp sinking into her clothes started to make her shiver, but it provided one more distraction from the things she didn’t need to be thinking about right now.
Digging into a pocket on the inside of his vest, Chaff pulled out a small pick set. Much nicer than the rusty little set she had. He considered the lock, then held the set out to her. She gave him a questioning look.
“This is your adventure, and besides, I’m willing to admit when I’m outclassed.”
Normally, such a comment would have made her beam with pride, but in the current situation, it only made her feel nauseous. She grabbed the pick set and went to work on the door, cursing Ash in her head all the while for making her feel bad about her hard earned ability to do such things. The lock clicked and Chaff squeezed her shoulder in silent praise before accepting the set back and tucking it away. He began to turn the knob.
She heard a soft sound from inside and shot a hand out, closing it over his. He froze, trusting her. Louder sounds of someone rummaging around beyond the door followed and he gave her an appreciative nod. She met his eyes. They weren’t as shockingly pretty as Ash’s perhaps, but they were lovely, with a charming glimmer of mischief that brightened her mood. Why hadn’t she ever noticed that before?
He smiled then, a smile so warm and welcoming that she caught her breath in surprise and looked away, staring hard at her hand over his on the doorknob while her cheeks grew hot, thankful for the cover of darkness. Perhaps someone else did care for her, despite his declaration that one should never grow too fond of companions on the street. Although she hadn’t intended it to happen, he’d become more than a mentor to her a long time ago. Was it so surprising that he might feel the same?
They waited there, crouched close together, until they heard the sound of feet departing and another door closing. Then they waited another few minutes in silent accord before she took her hand away and he began to turn the knob again.
He paused before opening the door. “Ganbatte.”
She grinned. “Ganbatte.”
He pushed the door open.
The room beyond was dark and musty, a washroom that wasn’t very well kept. It smelled of dirt. There were a few cupboards on the wall, none of which shut all the way despite how new the building was, and a pile of smal
l, muddy shoes in one corner. She pointed to the shoes and he nodded. They took their shoes off, tucking them behind a broom with crisp bristles far cleaner than the floor. No sense leaving tracks around the building.
She listened for a moment, then opened the next door and they crept into the hallway beyond. A few doors stood closed along the left side and a room opened to the right with a single lamp sitting on a desk next to an open book. Chaff nodded in that direction. They started to move, then he grabbed her arm. A light bobbed toward the room from down another hall. They retreated into the shadows at the edge of the doorway to wait.
As the light neared, another figure stepped up beside the desk, materializing from the shadows in one corner. Maeko sucked in a breath when she recognized the detective. Chaff gave her a questioning look, but she didn’t dare speak for fear of someone hearing. Then she noticed that two sets of footsteps approached from the hallway with the bobbing light. One sounded normal and even, the other halting, with every other step thudding hollow and heavy on the floor. Dread formed a writhing mass in the empty pit of her stomach.
Two figures entered the room, a tall, narrow faced woman with small dark eyes and a downcast young boy hobbling along beside her on a rigid false leg. The woman carried a candle, perhaps to avoid disturbing other residents with the bright electric lights. Em glowered, staring at the two as though their very existence was the source all of her troubles and Maeko felt a twinge of sympathy for the boy.
“That’s him,” she whispered.
Chaff’s teeth ground together next to her, a sign that something peeved him and she had a good idea what. Thankfully, he couldn’t put voice to his anger yet, though he would as soon as the opportunity arose.
The Girl and the Clockwork Cat (Entangled Teen) Page 14