Kendrick shot him a wry look. “A Saxon king. You wouldn’t know him. It was before your people’s time.”
Etienne scoffed. “You think my people came from Normandy?Mais quel Ostrogoth.”
“Now who’s wrong?” Kendrick gestured crudely and Etienne laughed. “It’s odd, though,” Kendrick added. “It sounded too similar for coincidence.”
“A student of history, is she?”
“Perhaps.”
Where did she bide? What justice had been denied her?
She was a puzzle he wanted to solve.
If she were his woman, he’d buy her new gloves.
Etienne lifted his coat and brushed it before sliding his arms through the sleeves. “So her suggestion, based on a coronation oath. What was it?”
“Peace, forbidding wrongdoing, and just and merciful judgments.” Kendrick mulled this over.
Etienne gave a Gallic shrug. “It does not seem an unreasonable request,cher ami.”
“Iintendto deal fairly with all concerned.” He frowned.
“As far as I know, no vampire has developed mind-reading as a talent,” Etienne said dryly. “Therefore, how would they know that?”
“It’s very irritating when you’re right,” Kendrick said, narrowing his eyes. “And she is right as well. My intentions are not laws.” He fell into a brown study, musing over the problem.
Etienne broke the silence. “Where does your mysterious Miss Dryden live?”
“Given that she is able to slink around and overhear plots and slip me notes, I would assume somewhere in the Ossuary.”
“Ah. Then it probably does feel urgent to her.”
“What about that makes it urgent?”
“No one likes living in the Ossuary.” Etienne held up a hand. “Before you ask me more questions to which I do not have the answers, why not come and have a bite with me? Tomorrow night, find your lady and ask her about the problems that plague her and what she believes could be done about them. Ladies have a managing instinct that should not be discounted.”
“Fine,” Kendrick said, picking up his sword and swinging the baldric over his shoulder. Maybe slaking his thirst would take his mind off the woman.
Slaking his thirst didnottake his mind off the woman.
“You are still stewing,mon ami,”Etienne said, eyeing him warily.
Kendrick realized he was stalking down the dark street like a marauder and both humans and horses were giving him a wide berth.
“If you continue like this, I shall have to use my talent to keep the humans away,” Etienne said, likely only half-joking.
Kendrick halted at a street corner. He ran his tongue over his teeth, tasting the blood of the young dandy who had had one drink too many. After helping himself to the falling-down-drunk dandy’s blood, Kendrick had poured the man into a cab. He probably would have had his purse and anything else in his pockets stolen in a twinkling otherwise. Closing his eyes, Kendrick inhaled the sharp wind flavored with smog and the smell of sewage and horse droppings and cookfires into his lungs. The strong and clashing scents cleared his mind and helped him focus.
Talents developed at need. Etienne had come into his talent early for a vampire. His ability obscured him and threw up “keep away!” warnings of danger, making humans and to a lesser degree, vampires, avoid his immediate area. A way to hide since Etienne had been turned during the bloodshed of the French Revolution.
Miss Dryden had a talent for true invisibility.
What had caused her to need to hide? And if a man who had hurt her was dead, why was she hiding still?
Etienne asked, “So. What are you going to do about your little harridan?”
“She isn’t little,” Kendrick said absently, eyes still closed. “She’s as tall as me.”
