Winnie stubbornly lifted her chin. “I can do it.”
“Then be here tomorrow. Six sharp.”
“My lady,” Joseph said wearily when Winnie had gone, “what were you thinking? I’ve seen hundreds of her type. Hedonistic, selfish, with no thought for tomorrow…”
“I was thinking maybe she isn’t too far gone, and the opportunity should not be squandered. She’s smart and thinks fast, and she has the needed control over her bloodlust, if I’m right that she can keep her presence of mind to empty pockets while feeding. It’s merely a lack of vision. I hope that going on rounds will help her relearn how to see humanity again and realize what she might leave behind. But I meant what I said—you are the doctor and have the final word on your nursing staff. If problems arise or if she does not suit after the trial, that is your affair. She must prove herself to your satisfaction.”
Joseph shrugged. “On your head be it,” he said, and rolled another bandage.
ChapterThirty-Two
Kendrick lifted the pile of timbers and carried them down the tunnel. He had taken on responsibility for the maintenance of the Ossuary, which had badly declined in the last few decades. After recruiting groups of cleaners and teams of builders who knew their architecture and masonry, he had sought out cartographers who could map exactly what was above certain portions of the Ossuary and say whether or not expansion was possible.
This night, he was engaged in shoring up sections of the Ossuary, and this section in particular needed fortification because it was not stone or clay bricks, but plain earth. It had been a late addition to the Ossuary and expanded without much of the proper safety measures. Comparatively short, it connected two of the main stone tunnels and was regularly used as a shortcut. Now it frequently grew damp when it rained. Somewhere, moisture was getting in.
Kendrick and his volunteer workers waited while Marshall Cutter, who turned out to have an architecture background, examined the earthworks. “We’ll start here,” Marshall finally decided, indicating the section, and he went on to explain the process to set the timbers and wood planks in place to support the tunnel walls and roof. “Wood first, temporarily. But stone is best.”
“We’ll have stone. Let’s just make sure we don’t have this come down on our heads first,” Kendrick said.
The men and women set to work under Marshall’s direction, hammering timbers into place and lifting beams. They all grew grimy, working in London’s chalky soil.
“Not much clay in this spot,” Marshall said, scooping up a handful of dirt in his hand and working through it. “Part of the problem. And it’s getting wetter, too.”
“Shall we call it off for the night?” one worker asked.
“I think?—”
Above them came not so much a rumble, but a groan.
“Move,” Kendrick barked as earth started to crumble.
All the workers scrambled for the shored-up entrance of the tunnel. Kendrick seized a vampire bodily and pulled them along when they would have tried to rescue tools scattered along the tunnel. “Go!”
The vampires were fast enough to escape the falling edge of the dirt that came piling in—all except Marshall, who was the last out.
The dirt swallowed him in a deluge before the fall slowed and stopped.
Kendrick commanded, “Get those timbers and shovels!”
Marshall was a vampire and could not die from lack of air, but it would be one of the more frightening things to have happen to you, Kendrick thought, digging with a will as the others came behind, trying to make the dirt stable. Trapped under the weight of earth, buried alive, just as imprisoned as any human would have been.
Finally, he moved enough earth to see some of it twitch, and he switched to his hands, scooping the earth away and reaching for the vampire. Kendrick found a hand and seized it, pulling hard. Marshall came forth, wheezing after being freed from the crushing pressure, and the vampires quickly made sure that no more of the tunnel would come down.
“All right?” Kendrick asked, a hand on Marshall’s shoulder as the vampire wiped his face and coughed.
“All right,” Marshall said, wiping some of the grime from his face and looking down at himself. “Ugh. Lily is going to kill me.”
“How is Miss Pendleton doing?”
“Better,” Marshall admitted. “I stick by her when we leave the Ossuary, and I try to do more aboveground than just feed. I took her to a pantomime yesterday, since it’s nearly Christmas. She enjoyed that. She still has moments of…distance, but she’s improving.”
“I don’t think she’ll be very distant when she learns what happened.” Kendrick grinned. “It means she cares enough to worry and take you to task for it.” He wiped a hand down his own shirt and shook off some of the grime. “I’m looking forward to seeing that myself.”
“I just wanted to thank you again for letting me cook,” Addie said cheerfully in the kitchen of Carmine House, a huge apron wrapped around her and a smudge of flour on her cheek.
“You’re very welcome. We ought to be thankingyoufor stepping in until we have an official cook for the human staff. What did you make tonight?”
“I baked some bread to see if I could match the smells of the bakery near our house and then made some biscuits for the children.” Addie smiled. “Do you think the staff would enjoy brisket of beef for dinner tonight or a mutton roast? Etienne bought me a new cookbook, but I can’t decide what to make!” She cast a glance at Etienne, who was writing up a report for Kendrick at the kitchen table. “Andhe’s no help. Any recipe that isn’t French is suspect.”
