smile.
'Now then, Captain,' Black Nancy said. 'You look that surprised to see me.'
Chapter Five
She was the same Black Nancy, and she wasn't. The huge smile and cocky manner would never change, and she still had her fall of inky black hair. But the young woman in my chair was a far cry from the girl I had known last year in shabby castoff clothing, desperate for coin to take back to her father so he would not beat her.
Nancy wore a neat cotton gown as plain and modest as any servant's, and she was clean. Her air of wary desperation had gone, but as she rose to greet me, I saw that her lewd good humor was still in place.
'Ain't I glad to see you.' She threw her arms around my neck and planted a noisy kiss on my cheek. 'Let's look at you now.' Nancy stepped back, holding my hands. 'As handsome as ever. And such a fine coat. Have a tailor now, do you, just like a nob?'
'Borrowed from Grenville,' I answered. 'The tailor, not the coat.'
'Grenville, now he's a true and rich gent, but I like you better.'
'You flatter me.'
'You're much more interesting, ain't you? I read about you in the newspaper all the time. Captain Lacey, up to his neck in the Berkeley Square murder, Captain Lacey in thick with Bow Street. You do have a nose for trouble.'
'And how are you, Nance?' I asked dryly. I broke from her grasp, closed the door, removed my hat and gloves, took up a spill from the shelf near the door, and lit more candles. 'Now that you're a slavey at an inn in Islington.'
'Aye, that I am.' Nance flicked her braid behind her back and held a candle steady while I lit it. 'I make up beds, plump pillows, carry trays of tea, and smile at the guests so they'll leave behind more coin.'
'And you like this?'
'Oh, aye. I have a soft bed all me own, food when I want it, a bit of coin, and I don't have to lay on me back for a gent unless I want to.' She lowered her right eyelid in a wink. 'Don't mean I don't sometimes want to.'
'You're incorrigible, Nance.'
'Does that mean the same as a bawd? 'Cause I know I am.' She glanced at the closed door of the next room. 'I'm thinking your bed is nice and soft. Strong, too, I'll warrant.'
I wanted to laugh. I'd rather missed her blatant attempts at seduction, and I was pleased to see that she was no longer so needy of kindness. She seemed to have found some contentment.
'I have a lady,' I said.
'I know that. Mrs. Brandon told me. She told me everything about you. She's a good one for a gab, is Mrs. Brandon.'
'How unnerving.' I blew out the spill and tossed it to the cold grate.
'That we had a chinwag about you? Naw, it were all flattering. I have a gent of me own, you know. He's hostler at the inn. Knows all about horses, just like you. He ain't much handsome, but he's young and very strong and likes to laugh.'
This was the first I'd heard of a paramour. 'Is he kind to you?' I had a more fatherly demeanor toward Nancy than she'd like, but I did worry about her. She was apt to imprudence when it came to men.
'Aye, he's kindhearted. He knows he's got a good girl in his Nance.' She gave me a sly smile. 'Thought I'd ask you, though, on the off chance.'
She'd known I'd say no. Nancy had always loved to tease me.
'Did Mrs. Brandon tell you why I wanted to see you?' I asked. 'I need your help.'
Nance nodded, suddenly all business. She resumed her seat with a thump. 'She said something about missing game girls, but not much else. Want me to have a trot about Covent Garden, do you?'
'I hoped you might know the girls who'd gone missing, or at least know someone who knows them. I want to be certain the girls haven't simply moved on and don't want to be found. Perhaps they encountered happiness the same as you've found in Islington.'
'That was you yanking me off the street and telling Mrs. Brandon to take care of me. I was that furious at you for doing it. I'd wanted you to take care of me, you see.'
'I know you did.' I remembered the way Nancy had pursued me with relentlessness, puzzled because I had no intention of taking her to be my ladybird. The fact that I had very little money and was more than twice her age had not deterred her. I suppose that, compared to living with her father, the prospect of staying in two rooms with a gentleman who didn't beat her had seemed luxurious.
'I still think we could have chirped along quite nice in this nest, you and me, but I ain't sorry I went to Islington. Now, who were these girls?'
I sat down and told Nancy what Thompson and Pomeroy had told me about the two girls. As I talked, Nancy lifted her pint of ale and slurped it noisily. She gave me a nod when I finished. 'Could be they found someone new. But I'll dig up some of me old pals and have a gab. Can I listen in when you talk to this sailor chap? I'll know how he treated her if I hear what he has to say-whether she scarpered or really is in trouble.'
'Tomorrow afternoon at the Rearing Pony. I do not know what hour yet.'
'You send your slavey around to Mrs. Brandon's to fetch me. That's where I'm sleeping of nights for now.' She looked thoughtful. 'Mrs. Brandon seems a bit low. I'm cheering her up.'
I blenched, wondering what Nancy thought would cheer Louisa. 'She went through much when her husband was in Newgate.'
'Aye, I know so. She's that pleased with you for sorting it all out.'
I wondered. That episode had revealed many of Colonel Brandon's sins, and I'd left Louisa uncertain whether she could forgive him. Brandon had walked firmly into the mess himself, but my poking and prying had revealed much that both he and Louisa would have preferred to remain hidden.
Nancy drained the last of her ale and wiped her mouth. 'I'll be taking my leave then, if you're not offering me a bed.'
I gave her an admonishing look. 'I will find you a hackney.'
She cackled with laughter. 'A hackney? Ain't we fine ladies and gents. I can go on me own. I'll look up me pals on the way. Course, some of them won't speak to me, like as not, since I've landed on me feet.'
'Not when girls have been vanishing from the dark of Covent Garden. Look up your pals during the day.'
'They're asleep during the day. Deserve to rest, don't they? I've been tramping these streets since I was a tyke, Captain. I know me way about.'
'You're not a tyke any longer, nor are you a game girl. Respectable maids do not wander about dark London byways at night. I will fetch you a coach.'
She flashed a grin and peeped at me from under her lashes. 'Sure you don't want a bed warmer, Captain?'
'You flatter me, Nance, but you are still the same age as my daughter.' Thinking of Gabriella made me falter. I had once worried that she'd become like Nancy, selling her body in order to buy bread. That she'd grown into a fine young woman as innocent and well cared for as any English lady made me shaky with relief. Whatever her mother had done to me, she'd not punished Gabriella.
Nancy lost her smile, came close to me, and put her hand on my shoulder. 'Aw, Captain, I know you're worried about her.'
'It is not that. I have discovered that she is well.'
A look of genuine pleasure entered her eyes. 'I'm that glad, Captain. Truly I am.'
As was I. I held on to that thought as I saw Nancy down the stairs and to a hackney waiting at a stand in Bow Street. The coachman leered at me as I gave him coin, no doubt believing I was sending my bit of muslin home. Nancy did not help matters by flinging her arms around me and kissing my cheek as I lifted her up into the coach.
'You're a fine gentleman, Captain.' The coachman cracked his whip and the carriage sprang forward. Nancy stuck her head out of the window. 'Always said so, didn't I?'
