“Let’s talk about something happier, please. Like that clerk from your building who stood up for you in court. He sounds promising.”
“Fourth?” I chuckled as I stripped out of my drawers and held up the knickers. “He’s just a lad. Besides, I practically have him married off already. Do I put both feet through the holes here?”
“One in each.” She held my elbow to keep me from toppling over. “You’ve not lost your head over that towheaded copper, I hope. He’s pretty enough until you see all that disgusting truth and justice gleaming in his eyes.”
“Inspector Doyle’s a good sort.” I hauled the knickers up until they covered my front and back bits. “He spoke up for me in court, you know. He didn’t have to do that.”
Rina held out the nudie. “Step into it. That’s it.” As I braced my hands against her shoulders, she pulled the flesh-colored garment up my legs and over the knickers. “Maybe he fancies you. He’ll want marriage and a baby every year, you know. His sort always do.”
“I am not having babies; Tom Doyle’s or anyone else’s.” While Rina laced up the back, I pulled over my shoulders the short penders and buttoned them to the edge of the corset, which kept the flimsy, skintight contraption in place. “Marriage is also not in the cards.”
“Cards can be shuffled, love.” She came round to inspect the front. “Once this thing with Walsh goes away, you can move on, start over. Maybe go up to Settle.”
“All it does there is rain.” I plucked at the fabric clinging to my breasts. “This is too small.”
“It’s perfect. Stop fussing.” She brought a sheer gown made of diagonal strips of black net and deep gray satin over from the armoire. “This one will do.”
I refused to allow the colors to remind me of Dredmore. “Can’t I wear something with a bit more cheer to it?”
“I’ve a lovely little pink thing,” Rina said. “That and a switch with ribbons and tails, and you can play Daddy’s Despair.”
I shuddered. “I’ll wear the black and gray.”
“Coward.” A knock sounded on the door, making Rina glance at her pin watch. “It’s past time I got downstairs to manage the gels. Finish dressing and then go to the Amber Room on two. And unless you want to earn your keep the hard way, Kit, keep the damned door locked.”
Draping myself in the black and gray gown didn’t make me feel any less naked, but I didn’t see anything showing through when I checked the full-length glass. Wearing the garments of a working strumpet had to be my most scandalous disguise yet, but after I made a few rounds of the room I began to appreciate the lightness of the nudie and the unrestricted movements I could make in the loose gown.
Comfortable as I was, it still required a fair amount of nerve to step out into the hall and make my way to the stairs. There I froze halfway to the second floor as a blond gel with an older gent passed by me.
“You’ve a decent fire built?” the man was asking her. “My feet are ice blocks.”
“No worries, dearie.” The strumpet dropped me a wink. “I’ll have you thawed in no time.”
The man hadn’t even glanced at me, I realized, and I chuckled as I continued down. My costume was as good as a cloak of invisibility.
A few gels had already brought up their first clients of the night, judging by the noise coming from behind the closed entries I passed. I heard one shrill voice demanding to be spanked harder, and cringed as the gel in the room obliged, making him shriek all the louder.
“Hey, Birdie’s been holding out on us,” a sodden voice said behind me, and a damp hand turned me round to face three gents and the gels they’d hired. The one holding my arm grinned and stepped closer. “Oh, I do like gingers, I do. What’s your name, ducks?”
“ ’At’s Prudence.” The busty blonde clinging to his arm tried to pull him back and gave me a hard look. “Her’s been hired out for an all-nighter, ’aven’t you, dearie?”
I nodded and tried to hurry off, but the blonde’s gent wouldn’t release me.
“Must be good,” the drunk told his mates. To me he said, “Whatever he’s paid, I’ll double it.” He tried to shove me into the blonde. “I want to see the two of you have a go at it.”
“I don’t entertain ladies,” I said without thinking, which made all three men burst into laughter.
“Gel’s got a sense of humor, too. Capital.” The drunk cuffed my shoulder. “Tell you what, Pru. Since you’re so shy, you can play the maid.”
“No,” a voice I had never wanted to hear again said. “She cannot.”
I looked between the drunk and the blonde and saw the dark figure standing just beyond the group. He’d donned a heavier cloak and a mask that covered every feature above his mouth, but the voice was unmistakable.
I glanced at the blonde. If I went with her and her client, I’d have to perform an illegal sexual act with another woman for which the Church said I would be damned for all eternity. Or I could go to Dredmore.
I really had to think about it.
“Milord.” I didn’t smile or natter on about how happy I was to see him; I had a few shreds of pride left. I gestured in the direction of the Amber Room. “This way.”
“Oh, don’t go running off to do the dirty right away, ducks,” the drunk said, and wheeled round to give Dredmore a foolish grin. “Come and have a drink with us first.”
I waited for Dredmore to refuse the offer. Instead he came and put an arm round me.
“We’d be delighted,” he told the drunk.
I felt no shame in playacting the strumpet. My garms may not have been to my personal taste, but I didn’t consider myself superior to Rina or her gels. Had fate been only a fraction more unkind to me, I might have sold myself on the streets of Middy.
But to be marched along and obliged to behave like Dredmore’s whore made me feel as if I’d poured several gallons of lamp oil over my head while standing next to a bonfire. It wouldn’t take much of a spark to set me off.
Why had he come? Furthermore, how had he known that I’d be here?
I held my tongue until we reached the large party chamber the gents had rented for their revelries. I couldn’t make myself cross the threshold, not until I felt Dredmore’s hand at the small of my back.
“Afraid?” he murmured.
“Bored.” I wondered how I might get rid of him in front of six witnesses. Perhaps when he lit one of his infernal cigars I would accidentally tip an oil lamp in his lap.
At first glance Rina’s party room resembled a parlour, with settees and lamps and elegant drapes. Then I noticed how wide the settees were, and some baskets that contained unmarked bottles of golden liquid, lengths of satin ribbon, and, of all things—
“Peacock feathers?” One of the gents reeled over to a basket and plucked out a long plume. “Now, what can you do with one of these beauties, love?”
His strumpet, a leggy brunette who had thin lips beneath too much tint, whispered something in his ear, making him roar with laughter.
Dredmore steered me round the others to a settee by the crackling fire in the hearth. Rather than sit I leaned against one arm and held out my hands as if to warm them.
He hovered, not quite touching me but close enough to keep the others from hearing him. “You shouldn’t have run from me.”
“I didn’t run.” I turned my hands over and wriggled my fingers. “I rode.”
He grunted. “I suppose I should be grateful that you left Velvet at a decent stable.”
“Velvet.” Of course, because he was black.
“I didn’t name him.” He came to stand beside me. “You could have killed yourself, riding alone in the dark.”
I glanced up at him. “Disappointed?”
His mouth twisted. “I came to court today for you.”
“I saw,” I acknowledged. “Yet you never made it into the courtroom.”
“I was waiting by the prisoner’s gate,” he said. “When they brought you out, I was going to take you from
