Argument bubbled up everywhere.
“She loped orf. We all know the law.”
“She didn’t pike it ’erself. Went wif ’er da.”
“She owes us.” That was a dangerous judgment, more so because it came from a sober, middle-aged villain. “Jobs went sour because Jess weren’t here, planning ’em. She were ours, and we needed her.”
A woman spoke up from the back. “Oh, hold yer bluidy tongue, Jack. She were a kid. Take it out o’ Whitby’s hide.”
“If yer dare . . .” Furtive laughter.
“You tell ’em, Cat.”
The red-haired boy said, “She didn’t peach. She never peached on us.”
“Worked for Whitby, didn’t she? It ain’t like she went honest.”
“I say, she dies.”
The most degenerate killers in London squabbled over what Jess was guilty of. She waited, sweating, wary eyes on Badger’s knife. And Lazarus watched without taking sides. He looked calm, almost bored, his eyes half- closed. Whatever game he played with Jess, it was unrolling to his satisfaction. Lazarus wouldn’t interfere.
If she’d cringed . . . if she’d whined . . . they’d have been on her like a pack of dogs. That hard, bright grin, the spectacle of her sheer, raw courage, held them off. But she was dancing on a knife edge. As long as Lazarus stayed quiet, the mood wavered and shifted. Sebastian had to stop this before they killed her just for the sport.
It was time. He stepped deliberately into the clear center of the room, where Jess faced Badger. Voices quieted. For the first time, Jess looked up and saw him. She whitened. The fool girl should have known he’d come for her.
He used the voice he’d learned on the quarterdeck. “I say, she lives.”
Ripples of murmur and silence spread around the room. He took another step and he was where he belonged, between Jess and that damned knife Badger was waving around.
“What’s he doing ’ere?” Badger glared suspiciously from face to face. “Who’s ’e?”
There were men who did know him. In undertones, his name was handed back and forth around the room. Even here, his reputation meant something.
Jess whispered, “Gonna get yerself sodding killed.” But she moved into his shadow, shielding behind him.
Lazarus said, “Gentlemen, this is Captain Sebastian Kennett, come to visit.”
“The sea captain?” Badger bared his teeth and tossed the knife from one hand to the other, spinning it, showing off. “Kennett ships. We don’t like rich coves what stick their noses in where they ain’t—” Badger feinted suddenly, slashing toward him, “wanted.”
He ignored the blade like it didn’t exist. It cut the air two inches from his cheek. He’d read bluff in Badger’s eyes before the blade twitched. Bluff . . . and he’d called it.
They understood nuances, this council of cutthroats. He had half of them on his side, that instant. An appreciative murmur rose, and a laugh.
Badger yelled, “You got no rights ’ere. Yer can’t walk in orf the street and—”
“Jess is mine.” He made sure everyone heard that. “You have my woman. That’s my right here.”
Badger’s low forehead creased. Events were getting away from him.
“I’m not—” Jess began.
He snapped, “You are,” and she swallowed whatever was hovering on her tongue. Something better unsaid, certainly.
There wasn’t a man here who wasn’t watching Lazarus, waiting to see what he’d do with that claim. Nothing, it seemed. Thirty men saw Lazarus being impassive.
He surveyed the pack, meeting eyes, looking into faces. “Jess is my woman. I say she didn’t run. Is there any man—besides Bugger here—” there was a stir of appreciative humor, “who says she did?”
“She been gone a while,” one plump rogue pointed out amiably. “Ten years. Ain’t like she stepped out for a spot o’ tea.”
Chuckles.
“Oh, I dunnoh, Blinks. I smuggled me a fair old spot o’ tea, when all’s said and—” She’d turned toward the voice, taking her eye off Badger. She didn’t see the raised fist coming at her.
Badger’s mistake. This was the opening he needed.
He blocked the punch. Cracked forearm to forearm. Badger spat a stream of filthy words and dropped into a killer’s crouch and brought his knife up.
This fight had been inevitable when he walked through the door. The huge black, the bodyguard, earned his gratitude by snagging Jess and yanking her, protesting, to the sidelines.
Badger didn’t mind attacking an unarmed man. He charged, thinking his knife was important, counting on the reach of those long, freakish arms. That left him wide open for a fast punch just below the heart. Speed beat reach, any day. When Badger hunched over to gag his belly out, Sebastian booted him in the groin.
There wasn’t a man there who didn’t wince. In the absolute silence, Badger swayed in place, gave a womanish whimper, and collapsed in on himself like a rotten melon. The knife clattered to the floor.
Because he knew his audience, because he was making a point, he kicked that vicious animal one more time as he crumbled. It felt just as good the second time. This garbage dared to raise a hand against Jess.
It stayed quiet. He didn’t have to raise his voice. “You were rude to my lady, Badger.”
No answer from the carcass on the floor.
He picked up Badger’s knife, flipped it, and leaned down to press the point to the man’s throat. He did it hard enough to send a trickle of blood running down to the rug. “I don’t like it when men are rude to my lady.”
Badger didn’t wash his neck. It was a throat that would be improved by slitting. No loss to anyone in the room, if he read the crowd right. But he’d made his point. He held the pose one second longer, then straightened up and tossed the knife away. That was the kind of gesture Englishmen loved. Besides, holding it was just going to get him in trouble.
This was what he’d needed. Not just a fight. A display of skill they’d talk about for weeks. He’d given the Brotherhood something to think about besides butchering Jess on these carpets.
“I don’t like brawls in here.” Lazarus’s voice slid like a snake between rocks. “This is not Donnybrook Fair.”
Jittering currents of expectation swept the room.
“Not much of a brawl.” Coolly, he prodded Badger with his boot. “Unless you want this killed.”
“A handsome offer. Not today, I think.”
He stared into the seamed cruelty of Lazarus’s face. “Then it’s time we talk.” He added, low enough that no one else heard him, “You’ve played with her long enough. End this.”
Lazarus nodded. He looked around the room, collecting every eye, taking control of his gang. “Is there anyone here,” he said calmly, “who doubts that Jess belongs to me?”
Dead silence.
“I tell Jess when to come and go. I tell her when to breathe. I decide when she stops.” He waited another minute while the silence stretched out. “Nobody else touches her.”
Lazarus hitched his jacket closed and walked past what was left of Badger. The talking started behind his back. Speculation, approval, and relief. Jess had her life back. For the moment.
“Step into my office, Captain Kennett,” Lazarus said.
Twenty-three
IT ENDED WITH BADGER FLOPPING ON THE FLOOR and the Captain adjusting his neckcloth, calm as a cucumber. Everybody enjoyed the show. Just another of Lazarus’s bloody spectacles. Never a dull moment in the padding ken. That was something else she’d managed to forget in the last couple years.
When Lazarus jerked his head toward the back room and invited the Captain to talk, Jess was glad enough to
