“Miss Seymour!” Emily gasped, “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you—”
“Likewise, I’m sure,” said Mina, getting her breath back herself. She had to laugh a little, too. “Not really an evening for calm, is it? What are you doing back so early?”
“I came away before I thought I would,” said Emily, looking down and biting her lip. “People I was going to visit were busy. I thought if I was just in the kitchen, it wouldn’t hurt anyone.”
“And it won’t,” said Mina, as cheerfully as she could manage. She could read enough of the girl’s face. Either some youthful suitor had thrown her over, or a friend had left her out in the cold. Either way, the girl needed cheering up. “It’s good to have company. Put the kettle on, will you? I’ll see if there’s any jam left.”
Searching in the pantry helped her mood a bit, but the restlessness didn’t go away entirely. It just sank down to the back of her spine.
“I was going to ask,” said Emily. “You haven’t seen Gussie tonight? Only I saw on my way in that he hadn’t touched his milk.”
“I haven’t.” Finding a pot of orange marmalade, Mina emerged from the pantry. “I wouldn’t worry. He’s probably just found another place—or a lady cat.” In London, a cat’s actual fate was likely far less pleasant, but there was no point bringing that up. “I bet he’ll be back tomorrow.”
“Hope so,” said Emily. “I know it’s foolish, but I like having animals around. My gran kept a dog back home. Mostly for the rats, but she was a nice little thing.”
“Is this your first place?” Mina asked, but she didn’t hear the answer.
As sudden and illuminating as a gas flare, the uneasy feeling she’d had before came back and swamped her, turning to real fear in the process. Mina couldn’t name the threat, but she knew that there was one—and that it would likely be deadly.
“Miss Seymour? Are you all right?”
“No,” Mina said, because she surely didn’t look it. The blood had drained from her face, and every object in the room stood out in sharp relief. “When will the others be home?”
“Not for another hour at least,” said Emily. “Mrs.—Mrs. Baldwin said she and her husband were going to have a good dinner, and Mrs. Hennings is—”
“Good.”
“What’s happened? Do you need to lie down? Are you sick?”
“No. There’s about to be trouble.” Mina met Emily’s eyes. She put every bit of force she’d ever learned into her voice, every atom of command she’d mastered dealing with younger siblings and cheeky grocers and Professor Carter’s visitors. “Go to the pantry. Get into the corner.”
“Why?”
“I can’t explain. Please.”
Mina leaned forward, taking the other girl’s shoulders in her hands. “Please trust me on this. If nothing happens, you can make fun of me later or be angry, but please go now.”
Now Emily’s face was white and her hands shook, but she nodded. “And you?”
Mina picked up the largest knife from the butcher’s block. “I’m coming too.” Then, as an afterthought, she grabbed a second knife and held it out, hilt first. “At least there’ll be two of us.”
Thirty-two
Once again, night stretched out above Stephen, and in dragon form he soared over the rooftops of London. This time, with a destination in mind, he could watch the streets below or the stars above. This time, he also had company, as Colin flew beside him, blue scales shimmering in the moonlight.
“It’s been a while,” said Colin, in the wordless speech they used when flying. At such heights, the wind would have taken away all sounds. “I think we were at Loch Arach the last time we flew together.”
“No, it was Italy,” said Stephen, laughing at the memory. “Aunt Elizabeth’s house. I remember we came in just before dawn and interrupted one of her spells, and she threatened to turn us both into frogs.”
“And then said it wouldn’t make much difference. Quite a blow to the pride for a young man.”
“A young man as drunk as you were shouldn’t havehadmuch pride left.”
“I’d matched Alessandro drink for drink. Considering his bloodlines, I thought my pride was well-founded, thank you. And I hadn’t noticed you abstaining.”
“You weren’t in a state to notice much,” said Stephen.
The two of them banked and curved, coming around over the Thames and then making for the east.
