"So," he said in a dangerous, silky voice, "your Gypsy laundress has taken our single best clue and pawned it, somewhere in a city of five million people."
I gave him my most abjectly sorry look. "I do apologize. I see that I have made rather a muck of things. But you must understand, I only did it to save Magda. I knew she was innocent, but I heard the way she spoke to you, the way she taunted you. I feared that you would be less than impartial."
"You mean that you did not trust me," he said flatly.
I lifted my chin. "No, I did not. But it cannot matter that much. You believe that you know the source of the box. Surely you do not require the box itself."
"That box is evidence, and I will have it."
"I cannot think how," I pointed out reasonably. "After all, London is a rather large haystack, and Magda such a small needle." I gave him a feeble smile, which he quite rightly ignored.
He did not speak until we drew up in front of Grey House. He alighted and held the door, but just as I made to exit the cab, he pounced, thrusting his arm across the opening, barring my path.
"That needle has, I imagine, hidden herself in a very small, very specific part of the haystack," he said, his voice low. "Do not underestimate me, my lady. I will have that box."
He had not taken his eyes from mine, and I understood from that unflinching gaze that we were no longer partners in this endeavor. He would know exactly where to find Magda, of that I had no doubt. What I did doubt was his ability to recover the box with his limbs intact.
He stepped back sharply, dropping his arm.
"Good day, my lady."
I gathered up my skirts and my dignity and swept past him and into Grey House. It was not until I had gained the privacy of my own home that I picked my skirts up into my hands and began to run.
Through some miracle that I still cannot credit, Valerius was at home. I found him in his room, his nose buried in a book, idly feeding the raven titbits from the tip of a pencil. I burst in without apology.
"Val, you must help me. He's going to the Gypsy encampment on Hampstead Heath. He'll be killed, I know it."
Val rose, sending the raven scuttling off irritably to the bedpost, where it glared down at us, muttering. Val put an arm around me, leading me to a chair. I did not sit.
"Julia, calm yourself. Who is going to the Gypsy camp?"
I took a deep breath, pressing my hand to my corset. "Mr. Brisbane."
Val's eyes widened, in fear, I thought. "Nicholas Brisbane? You know him?"
"Yes," I said, throwing off his arm impatiently. "He was here the night that Edward died. Father met him. He is investigating a matter for me. I stupidly gave a piece of evidence to Magda and now he means to get it back. She's gone to her people, and if he goes there and tries to take it from her, or to make trouble—"
I did not have to finish. Val knew the Roma as well as I did. Any infringement of their freedom by the English was met with hostility at the very least. More than once we had witnessed exchanges of some violence when they had been interfered with by villagers who should have known better. We had left them largely alone and they had been good to us. But I had always suspected that if we pushed them too far they would turn on us as well. Their friendship was like the good will of any wild thing—a gift not to be taken lightly.
"We must go, Val. It will not be dark for a little while yet, but we must hurry."
I was tugging at his coat, but he held my hands fast.
"You cannot go like that," he pointed out, taking in my extravagant costume with a glance. He was right, of course. No one with a scrap of sense flaunted their wealth in a Gypsy camp. To do so was to invite robbery—or worse. Smart visitors dressed discreetly and did not wager large amounts at their games. If we meant to blend in, we would have to do the same. I think the idea occurred to us both in the same instant, for no sooner had I looked at him than he was rummaging in his wardrobe, tossing out garments that might serve.
Within moments I had gathered them up and disappeared behind the screen to transform myself. It took me ages to wriggle out of my clothes, but in the end I managed, tearing only a few of the costly ruby buttons off in the process. I retrieved them, taking a few precious seconds to tuck them into my pocket. It would have gone much faster with Morag, but I dared not take her into my confidence. She would have insisted on coming along, and I was dubious enough about accepting Val's help.
A few moments more and I stepped out, rigged as a boy, from proper tweed trousers to choking necktie. Val had slipped into my room and fetched my own boots and a hard black hat. He gave me his wide woolen scarf to wind about my chin and stepped back to appraise the effect.
"At least you have a crop, so we do not have to worry about your hair giving you away," he said finally.
I scrutinized myself in his glass, rubbing at Fleur's rosy salve with my handkerchief. "Passable, I think. With any luck it will be full dark by the time we arrive. Get some money, will you?"
He scooped up his notecase and gloves and we departed, slipping down the stairs and out the study door, into the back garden. In a very few minutes we were through the gate and into the mews. I was breathing a little easier then, wondering if we might actually get away with our deception. We scurried around the corner and into the street where Val hailed a hackney. I muttered a little, wishing he had found a speedier hansom, but there was no help for it.
"Where would you and the lady like to go, sir?" the driver inquired amiably.
"Damnation!" I said softly. "What gave it away?"
"If you don't mind my saying, love, it's the walk. All hips and bum, nothing like a bloke at all. Where to?"
"Hampstead Heath, the foot of Parliament Hill," I muttered, and subsided into a sulky silence. All during the lengthy, creaking drive I tried to imagine how I was supposed to walk without using my "hips and bum," but at length I gave up. Darkness had fallen and we were climbing, almost to the Heath, when Val spoke.
"Julia, I wish you would confide. What is this all about?"
I looked at my hands, fisted against my unfamiliar, tweedy lap.
"Why should I? You have not confided in me," I said simply. "There was another bloody shirt in the laundry. Not another fight in front of the opera this time, I think."
"Oh." That was all he said. I knew that I should collar him about Magda, as well, demand an explanation for the despoiling of Carolina's grave, but I did not. I realized how close Magda had come to destroying him. I could not have borne that. He was my flesh, and I loved him for all his faults, for all his misdeeds. I would protect him, in the end. But for now I did not want to know.
The cab alighted at the fringe of the Roma camp. There were a few private carriages, a fair number of horses, and another cab or two standing or tethered. Val gave the driver an extortionate amount of money to wait for us. I doubted our ability to find another cab so far out. Besides, although I did not like to think about it, there was the chance we might have need of a quick escape.
Mindful of the cabman's criticisms, I pulled my hat low and made a concentrated effort to walk flatly, my hips held firmly in check.
"What is the matter with you?" Val hissed.
"I am walking like a boy," I explained, pitching my voice as low as I could.
"No, you are walking like a perfect imbecile. For God's sake, Julia, you're clumping."
I straightened my knees a bit. "Is that better?"
"A bit."
"You had best call me something else. Julian, I suppose. And get your hand away from my back. God only knows what people might think."
Val shied violently but kept his hands to himself. Without thinking, he had reverted to his inbred courtesy and been guiding me with a hand to the back. A mistake like that could be lethal in these surroundings.
For a while we simply skirted the camp, keeping half in shadow as we ambled along. The ground was dry and hard, well-packed from the wheels of the Gypsy caravans and the hooves of their horses. The wind carried the sharp smoke of th
eir wood fires, laced with the fragrant spice of the cook pots. Over it all lay the thick odour of horse, the pungent smell of money to the Roma. There was music as well, lively and bold, and threading through it all the strange, exotic lilt of their language, drawing us along. A half-naked girl tried to pick Val's pocket and failed, running back to her mother. The woman cuffed her lightly, smiling and scolding her gently in Romany. I had no doubt she was being reprimanded—not for the attempt, but for its failure. The woman leaned over her cook fire, stirring an iron pot, and I smelled something rich and spicy, a stew of some sort, I supposed. My stomach gave a rumble of protest.
"Blast."
"What is it, Julian?"
"I should have thought to bring food. Did you dine?"
He shook his head. "No. Even a few sandwiches would have served."
"Never mind. I'll stand you to dinner at Simpson's when all this is done. Roast beef with all the trimmings."
"Splendid. Only promise me you will wear a dress. This masquerade is playing hell with my nerves."
"Done."
We slipped in and out of the jostling crowds, sometimes following groups or pairs as a new bit of entertainment would lure them on, sometimes holding back and peering into the shadows near the caravans. There were fortune-tellers, scrying with crystal balls and cards and palms. There were dancers with tiny, high-arched feet, stamping and yelling to the rhythms scraped out by the violins and guitars. And there were the men, beguiling the English to wager on a roll of the dice or perhaps the purchase of a new horse. There were smiles and shouts and groans, all well-lubricated with money and liquor. I might have enjoyed myself had it not been for the coil of fear knotted in my stomach.
Val had no such scruples. I caught him ogling a dancer, her wide skirts flaring up to reveal a ripe brown thigh as she turned. She winked at him, doubtless in hope of a generous coin, which he was quick to throw. She blew him a kiss then and I tugged at his sleeve as he so often used to do to mine, urging him on toward a little group gathered around the blind old man who told lengthy tales in Romany with great, theatrical gestures.
"I was looking for Mr. Brisbane," he protested.
"He is not under that dancer's skirt, I can assure you," I returned sharply. "In fact, I do not see him here at all. Or any of Magda's people. Where have we not looked?"
Val scanned the encampment. "The caravans."
I shook my head. "Too dangerous. We might edge near if we were to have our fortunes told, but if they caught us skulking about…"
He nodded grimly. "They are dealing horses that way," he said, inclining his head behind me. "And there is a boxing tent as well. Perhaps he is watching a match."
We decided to try the horse ring first, then the boxing tent, but before I could move, I heard the Gypsy storyteller's voice rise and fall and I stood, captivated by the sound of it. It was a beautiful language, with an Italianate, musical quality to it. It was an expressive tongue, a perfect vehicle for the richness of the Roma emotions. It was a language contrived to woo or to lament, to seduce or revile. I, of course, knew none of it. For all Magda's affection for me, she had never permitted me to speak a single word of her language. I had gleaned a few bits here and there, contextually, but never more than a handful of words, and I had forgotten them along with so many other scraps of childhood. I had never been allowed to ask if I even understood them properly. The one time I had ventured to use the Romany word for Englishman, gorgio, Magda had turned her back on me and walked silently away. Later she relented, but only enough to explain her anger.
"Romany is ours, lady. It is a powerful language, with great magic. We do not give our power or our magic away," she had told me. It made a curious kind of sense, although I still did not see the harm it would do if an English girl could count to ten in Romany. But Magda's message had been plain. I would not be allowed into their camp if I trespassed on their language. I never attempted to speak Romany again.
But I drank it in whenever I listened to them talk, marveling at the smooth, liquid sound of it. I began to think it impossible that an English-speaker could ever learn it. It was a very unbuttoned sort of tongue, demanding enthusiasm and passion and a liveliness that those with cold northern blood could not muster.
I relaxed a little as the old man rambled on, and after a few minutes I allowed Val to lead the way toward the horse ring. A deal was in progress, with an Englishman, protesting the price, ranged against a Gypsy horseman who was holding firm. They were each backed by a dozen or so men of their own kind, shouting and jeering as negotiations moved back and forth. Several times the buyer named a price and put out his hand in the traditional manner of Gypsy horse-dealing; scornfully, the dealer slapped it away and named a better one. Between them the horse stood placidly, his head hanging low, his eyes shifting from his Gypsy master to his prospective buyer. He looked handsome, and sound enough, and I wondered how many times he had been sold and found his way back to the Roma.
My father often bought horses from Magda's people and had never had any difficulty with them, finding their horseflesh to be of the highest quality and their prices fair. But he always maintained that this was because Magda's people knew and liked him. They were permitted to camp on his land, and so treated him fairly when horse-dealing. But other Gypsies, he warned us, were far too clever and tricky for us. He had always instructed my brothers to purchase their horses at Tattersall's if Magda's menfolk were not to be found. My second brother, Benedick, had neglected to follow this good advice once, purchasing a solid-enough looking animal from a traveling group of Roma when he was in Cornwall. He had been particularly taken with its glossy coat, I remember. It washed off during the first good sweat. Benedick had tried desperately to get his money back, but of course they were long gone, doubtless laughing themselves sick over the stupidity of the young gorgio lordling too stupid to spot a bit of dye in a horse's coat. I looked as closely as I dared, but this horse seemed genuine enough in his colour, if a bit spavined. And if the prospective buyer did not look to that before the sale was completed, he deserved to be fleeced.
We slipped past them and toward the boxing tent, where a match was in progress. According to the hawker outside, the Gypsy champion, an enormous brute, was fighting all comers for a pound. We listened to his patter for a moment, rather impressed at the fighter's credentials. His record was a prodigious one, and it occurred to me that they might attract more challengers if they did not stress so openly the number of men he had knocked down.
Val paid the entrance fee for both of us, grumbling as he did so. I reminded myself to reimburse him for the night's adventures. His allowance was generous, but so were his expenditures. The remainder might not run to an evening's entertainment.
My eyes watered as soon as we stepped inside and I fought against the urge to cough. It was close in there, with three or four dozen men crowding around, smoking and cursing at the combatants. The rank smell of sweat and horse, sawdust and stale beer clung to the canvas, and I could hear quite distinctly the sounds of solid fists slamming into bare flesh. Val shot me a doubtful look.
"Are you certain you're up for this?"
I nodded, but he continued to look dubious. He needn't have bothered. I had seen a number of prizefights as a child. Father adored them, and if he happened upon one, he had not been terribly fussy about bringing me along. I had only to promise not to tell Aunt Hermia and he would bribe me with ginger nuts. I had rather enjoyed those illicit outings. The fighting was brutal, but Father carefully explained the finer points and I always enjoyed the little wagers we placed. The summer I backed seven winners was the summer he stopped taking me along, I remembered wryly. He had begun taking Valerius instead, but he always said wistfully that Val lacked my appreciation for watching grown men thrash each other.
I was surprised now at how quickly it all came back. It seemed that one bare-fisted fight was rather like every other. A few sharp-eyed men would make money on the affair, and several dozen men, largely inebriated, would not.
The crowd, ever in danger of having their pockets picked, ringed a beaten-down area thickly laid with sawdust tamped hard by booted feet. It even smelled the same, I remarked to Val. He grimaced, which I thought rather weak from a student of anatomy.
He kept us carefully to the back of the spectators while he scanned the crowd, looking for Brisbane. I had difficulty seeing over the heads in front of me, and for the briefest of moments I regretted my disguise. Had I come in skirts they would have all made way for me, I thought ruefully. But then if I had come in skirts, I would have doubtless attracted unwelcome attention, women being scarce at such events.
A few of the men shifted and I realized the crowd was a bit thinner on the other side. I motioned to Val. We edged past, keeping to the back of the tent as we made our way around. There was a crunching hit suddenly, and a roar went up as the crowd surged forward. I was very nearly knocked off my feet, but I kept my wits and shoved hard against the man who had jostled me.
He turned, his face fat and moistly red in the light of the hanging lamps.
"Watch yourself, sonny. Mustn't get trampled, now, my lad."
He turned back to the match and I gave a little sigh of satisfaction. Finally someone had owned me for a boy, even if it was only a drunken lout at a prizefight. I threw a little look of triumph at Val, but he was staring straight ahead, over the man's head at the fight itself. I nudged at him, but he simply stared. He jerked his chin toward the boxers.
"Look," he hissed finally.
I edged around the fat man, thoroughly annoyed. He had probably seen a broken nose that had intrigued him or something else perfectly useless, I thought irritably. I rose up on the balls of my feet, peering over the fat man's shoulder, and got my first proper look at the boxers.
There was indeed a broken nose. Both of the fighters were stripped to the waist. The touted champion stood facing me, streaming blood freely from a pulpy pile in the middle of his face. He was dashing blood out of his eyes with his fists, his expression murderous. Then he smiled, horribly, revealing teeth bracketed in blood. He spit a tooth into the sawdust, but continued to grin like some demented creature. Slowly, deliberately, he raised his fists—enormous, meaty things, the size of hams. He swung heavily, but his opponent darted back lightly, just out of reach. There were bruises beginning to darken the side of the slighter man's torso, and I wondered if his face was undamaged. It did not seem possible that he could have inflicted such damage on the champion and sustain only a few bruises himself.
Lady Julia Grey Bundle Page 26