“They primarily manage the house and take care of all the human things that occur during the light.”
“They’re family,” Dominic said, reappearing with a sleepy-eyed woman in a nightdress and robe. “This is Kate. She has milk to spare and is happy to help the child.”
“Poor little mite,” Kate said, peering at June. “I can take her to the kitchen and have a cup of tea while she has dinner, missus,” she offered.
“Thank you,” Genevieve said, bemused. “Her name is June.”
“Pretty.” Kate asked August, “And you’re her brother? I’ll bring her back sharp-like. Or would you like to come and have a ginger biscuit?”
August looked up at Kendrick.
“Go on,” he said gently, setting him down. “You and June will be safe here. He may need more than a biscuit,” he told the girl.
“Hungry? I know how that is.” She took June from Genevieve and reached out a hand for August. “Let’s see if we can get you both set before my Benny wakes up.”
The door closed behind them. “Where on earth did you acquire two human children?” Dominic asked.
“Where did you ‘acquire’ Kate?” Genevieve asked sweetly, but her eyes flashed.
“Kate was a street girl dressing as a boy and working for a cracksman to steal objects and jewelry. She climbed down one of our chimneys and got stuck. I had to pull half the bricks out to get her lose.” Dominic smiled. “Then I ate the man who had forced her to do it. By that time, our cook had taken a liking to her, and she stayed.”
“You have a cook?”
“We have a whole staff. Many are descended from those who were staff at the time of my turning, and a few even from Godfrey’s. They’re family.” He smiled thinly. “Do they donate a pint of blood every week or so? Yes. Are they also given full access to the house, fed, clothed, paid handsomely, and allowed to marry and raise families here, something not afforded to many of the London serving class? Yes. We value loyalty. Something sadly unappreciated by this generation of vampires.”
“How many vampire households function this way?” Kendrick questioned, his gaze flicking to Dominic. “Cohabiting while humans manage their daylight affairs?”
“That is how it was often done,” Dominic said.
Genevieve pressed her hands to her stomach. “They are not—harmed? Or imprisoned?”
She must’ve heard from Elspeth or Robbie how they’d found the master’s townhome. Kendrick shook his head. “They shouldn’t be. That wouldn’t engender loyalty.” Something niggled in his mind, about humans and vampires coexisting, but he couldn’t pull the thought free. He made a note to come back to it later.
Dominic concurred. “If you have to fetter your retainers while you sleep, they’re not retainers; they’re slaves. Now, to return to the more pressing matter: did you just pick two children off the street?”
“No.” Genevieve briefly explained her tutoring and childminding role and ended with, “Their mother has been missing for two days. May the children stay here, since Kate seems willing to care for the child, while we search for their mother?”
“Yes, of course.” Dominic met Kendrick’s eyes. “Do you need help?”
In one of the East End’s twisted and narrow thoroughfares, Kendrick ripped the threadbare shift left behind by Evangeline Hartshorne in three pieces to follow her scent. He passed the pieces to Genevieve and Dominic and said, “We’ll search block by block and meet back at Mrs. Hartshorne’s home if we find nothing.”
Genevieve nodded decisively and melded into the stream of people.
“You really think this woman is still alive?” Dominic asked. “After two days? Assuming she didn’t just abandon her children.”
“Genevieve says abandonment is unlikely. And do you want to be the one to tell the boy you gave up?” Kendrick asked.Do I want to be the one to tell Genevieve the same?“We hope until we find evidence to the contrary.”
Dominic turned the cloth over in his hands, then lifted it to his nose and inhaled.
Kendrick strode off among the warren of streets, listening to crying children and cockney shouts and calls as tiny pubs teemed with humans. Horse and dog droppings fouled all the scent trails for humans who went to and fro by foot every day. He closed his eyes and searched.
Tracking was no easy thing. Humans traced their paths over and over through the days. Scent trails doubled back on each other and took patience and time to find. They layered, aged, and disappeared under the weight of worse or overpowering smells or were washed away by the rain and snow.
It took time for Kendrick to find one of her scent trails, and it took time to trace. He learned her patterns, where her daily tasks and needs took her in the streets around her home, wandering paths and straggling circles making up the pattern of her small world. Sometimes she walked with the children, sometimes not. But Kendrick kept to the traces sans children, doggedly following the paths wherever they led—and then, partway through the night, he found the site of an encounter full of fear and decay.
Kendrick did not know the scent of the vampire with her. But he did not scent blood—not here. He marked the place and left, now hunting for Dominic and his wife. He found Dominic first. “Come with me,” he said. “I’ve found something, but I can’t recognize the scent.”
Dominic followed him to the place and paused. His face turned cold and hard as a rumble of thunder echoed, drawing closer.
