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This was personal. ‘Why do you ask?’
‘You keep asking me questions...thief.’
She couldn’t have heard him correctly. Surely this wasn’t about something so trivial as the baker. ‘Were those your loaves of bread?’
‘Parents. Answer me.’
She shook her head. ‘No parents. Is this over the bread? Did you watch me take it?’
‘I watched you being caught.’
Relief that he hadn’t seen Gabriel steal gave her courage to ask more questions. ‘And that had you bring me here.’
‘You know what would have happened to you if that watch guard took you away?’
‘Do I look a fool?’
‘You’re the one caught for mere bread—perhaps you didn’t know the consequences.’
Living the way she had all her life, she always knew the consequences. ‘It’s not mere bread when it means life and death.’
‘Ah, yes, the important question. I don’t want your death.’
‘Rape, then.’
A curl to his lips as if she insulted him.
‘I’m a woman. You’re a man. Why else did you force me here?’
‘Not. That.’
His answer was short, curt, the tone as if he found her question distasteful.
Aliette refused to be embarrassed. She was poor, street born and bred, her clothes barely serviceable. But some of it she purposefully created. She needed to smell, to grind dirt into her skin and clothes to deflect leers and lust. Life would have been easier if she was a boy. When she’d become old enough she’d thought to disguise herself, but by then she was all too easily recognised. So a girl, now a woman, she remained.
She should be pleased her filthy appearance worked as it had all her life. He didn’t want her death, or her body, and he purposefully saved her from gaol and losing her hand.
‘In truth, what—?’ he began to ask.
‘Why are you holding the child?’ she interrupted.
Chapter Six (#u72a54595-01f8-5158-94d4-7601fb1ba97c)
He looked perplexed. ‘Because I have not put her down.’
A girl. Aliette had no reason to trust he wouldn’t harm her, but he had held his hand so far and it was enough for her to truly pay attention to the man before her...and the child. ‘What’s wrong with her?’
Alarm crossed his strong features. ‘Nothing.’
‘She’s too quiet. Is she asleep?’
He looked down at her. ‘Her eyes are at half-mast.’
Awake, but listless. ‘Is she with fever? Sick? Has she spit up?’
‘I don’t—’
She took a step forward and raised her arms. ‘Give me that child.’
‘No.’
He said the single word so evenly and decisively it was as a sword striking down.
It stopped her short, her arms outstretched, her stepping foot braced in the air.
‘You may not take her,’ he said.
Where were her finely honed survival instincts? This was not a man to be ordered about. She lowered her arms and foot and stepped back. ‘I only meant—’
‘Save me from well meaning intentions,’ he said sardonically. ‘That’s not why you’re here.’
She could not keep her eyes only on the man. She was a fool. Maybe he was Darkness. But for some reason, instead of heeding the warning in his expression, in his words and deeds, she stupidly took her eyes away from him.
It was the child. Jarringly innocent in this darkened luxurious room, a clamouring instinct had welled up and overtook her good sense.
If she survived this, she’d blame Helewise and Vernon. Gabriel as well, for he was frequently sick and needed her care. He’d been unused to street fare and exposure. It had taken him weeks to toughen to the degree he had.
‘You haven’t told me why I’m here.’
‘I will, in my time.’
‘In the meantime—’ She couldn’t let it go. It was unwell; she was certain of it. Maybe it was the fact she had been a neglected child, or maybe it was the care of Helewise and Vernon that compelled her. Either way, she asked, ‘Is the child yours?’
He swiped a dagger from his waist. If she had taken those steps towards him, it would be buried in her belly.
‘Why do you keep asking me questions about the child?’
‘You’re...’ she swallowed ‘...you’re holding her in front of me.’
The blade looked well used and fit easily in his hand. It was a weapon this man had used many times before. He held still. So did she.
‘The child isn’t mine,’ he answered, watching her watch the blade.
Her entire life she’d lived with Death and his scythe. If it wasn’t the icy cold of winter trying to kill her, it was another person trying to survive. When threatened, she’d learned it was always the person behind the weapon she should be wary of. But this man wasn’t like another thief on the streets trying to steal a blanket. This man didn’t pull his blade to take something from her, for she had nothing. He pulled the blade because she asked about the child. He did it to protect the child—from her.
Fear from being kidnapped swirled with her usual mistrust. But his deeds ceased every emotion in her. She’d never seen a person defend a child before. Not like this. Certainly never her own parents and even a mother with a suckling infant put the infant aside if there was food to be had or a customer to pull up her skirts for.
Five winters past, it had been bitterly cold and she had come across what she thought were wadded-up old blankets. But instead of a treasure, it was a swaddled baby. Frozen, its skin pale, lips blue, with ice feathering along its tiny eyelashes. She’d cried for days afterwards. The babe haunted her dreams still. To this day she avoided that part of town in winter and found herself wary of piles in corners.
But Darkness drew a blade for a child who he awkwardly held and something ripped through her chest. She couldn’t breathe right.
‘You’ve gone pale,’ he said, sheathing the dagger. ‘Are you fainting?’
She felt far away. As if she was here, yet not in the same place she was before. As if she recognised everything, but nothing was the same. Because Darkness guarded a child from harm.
She swallowed. ‘Have you...have you ever taken care of a child before?’
‘No.’
‘Can you put her down?’
His smile curved cruelly. ‘Are you ordering me?’
He said it as though she was an insect who could talk. ‘I’m not ordering you. I...simply want to see her.’
He did a double take. Another. A cant to his head, waiting for something.
She wasn’t about to do anything else. This was enough and he made it clear it was too much. Never trusting anyone, she shouldn’t care about anything other than getting as far away as possible from this madman.
This killer. Who happened to cradle a child and was overly protective about her. But the child was too quiet. Aliette needed to see her.
‘You can place her over there, unwrap her and I can see her from a distance.’
‘You know something of children?’
‘Is that why I’m here?’
‘Hmm.’ He took two strides forward. So swiftly she braced herself for a curled fist. It didn’t come. Instead, he held the child towards her. ‘She feels warm.’
‘All children feel warm if you hold them too long.’
She took the child who, despite her length, was light, and carefully unwrapped the swaddling.
Thin, gaunt cheeks. Bone-like arms, a swollen stomach and sunken hip bones.
‘How old is she?’
His brows drew in, his eyes searching the child as if asking her to answer. ‘Around a year.’
She did know something of children and this condition, she knew it very well. Thin, emaciated. Greyish skin. Listless. An unwise anger swept through her. ‘She’s—’
‘Yes.’
‘She’s...hungry,’ she blurted. ‘You’re starving her! When was the last time she ate?’
At his mystified look, she demanded, ‘Did you give her something to drink?’
Lips clamped shut and his eyes narrowed.
‘You haven’t fed her, or given her a drink? Has she been crying? Restless?’
Another bout of silence. Aliette had no patience with it. Maybe the wealthy had time for waiting, but if she stalled or waited for anything she’d have starved to death. ‘She needs oats or bread all warmed with milk and honey.’
‘You want me,’ he said in that terrifyingly even voice of his, ‘to provide that for you.’
‘I don’t know this place. These men don’t follow my orders. How else am I to get it?’
‘This isn’t—’
‘Whatever you want of me, I won’t do it, not when this child needs me.’
He looked to the child and to her. He looked to argue, the superiority of his expression one she’d seen many times when a shopkeeper thought to abuse a street urchin. She stared him down. If he meant to kick or strike her, he could join the others. She’d survived many such blows over the years.
If he intended to kill her, there was nothing she could do to defend herself, though she’d try to protect the child first. But if this was her day to die, it was simply like every day she ever lived. In truth, she wasn’t meant to have made it this long.
With another narrowed gaze, he pivoted towards the door, but not before she saw a flare of victory in his eyes.
What he thought he’d won Aliette didn’t care about, as long as the child had what she needed. She’d seen enough suffering in her lifetime—the fact that this child was surrounded by gold and silk and was still hungry she couldn’t tolerate.
Reynold left the room and closed the door. The two men who had escorted the thief were on the other side and he gave them the unusual tasks. If they wondered about the requests, they didn’t ask. He paid them not to question. Although one of them looked behind him. To see if the thief was unharmed? He would have to be dealt with later.
When they marched down the stairs, he turned to go back into the room, but stopped. The door was partially closed and the thief wasn’t looking his way, her attention fully on the child in her arms.
She was doing this walking, swinging motion and singing softly.
The morning sun filtered through the unwashed windowpanes delicately lighting its two occupants, the shimmering reds and greens of tufted cushions and the rich browns of well-polished carved furniture.
The woman was slight, not much more substantial than the babe she held. Her clothes were an odd, but practical mixture of layers. Two coarse surcoats, one much shorter than the other, over a thick, overly large chemise. She had no gown and her shoes had distinct holes. Grace’s greying swaddling dragged on the floor as the thief swept them from side to side. Both were slight, filthy, their clothes unkempt.
The room was small and the subtle distinct tang of abject homelessness, blood and fresh dirt clashed with the resonating fragrance of lavender and lemon, the warmed silk from the tapestries and the musty familiar perfume of his books.
But she was perfect. Everything about this was perfect. Hair that almost matched Grace’s and both appearing filthy from the streets. No parents to care for her. No one to suspect or question the child she held so carefully and sang to so beautifully was his.
Even more so now that her mothering instincts resurrected themselves. Against him, which both grated on and amused him.
The thief was the solution to keep Grace close to him. A woman of childbearing age in a desperate situation. She would be a servant to him and raise the child. He could then see Grace, keep her close through the years. And because the thief and Grace would be perceived as servants, his arrogant family wouldn’t perceive Grace as his greatest vulnerability.
He turned to the mercenaries taking the stairs behind him and instructed them to place the food for the babe, the woman and himself on an empty table. He’d propose to the thief what needed to be done and she would thank him profusely for saving her from gaol and poverty. It was all too easy.
Although...there was that one moment of lapse in his control which was concerning. Her request to take Grace catching him off guard. The blade was out of its sheath before he thought to draw it. An indication of how much he cared though he hadn’t had his daughter for a day.
Such action would be an anomaly from now on. People did not catch him unawares and now that he knew his feelings existed, he’d hold them in check so he didn’t reveal anything more. Until he dismantled his family, not even his daughter or the thief could know him.
Chapter Seven (#u72a54595-01f8-5158-94d4-7601fb1ba97c)
Aliette was startled when the door swung open and the two mercenaries who had carted her here carried in large trays with mouthwatering food and freshly poured ale.
They set them down, one of them glancing at her from head to toe before they walked out the opened doors. A moment later, her captor entered. Silently, steadily, he closed the doors behind him and stood with no direction of what he intended for her.
