“How much are your usual consultation fees?” Noble pointedly glanced at the dingy drapes, the faded rug, the ill-placed pictures on the office’s walls. He raised a brow my way as if to ask what I’d been thinking to choose this man.
I shook my head and gestured back, trying to convey that I’d never been in this room. I’d had second thoughts after meetingHackenstay the first time, but being in this office would have given me thirds.
Hackenstay wet his mustached lips nervously. “Do you need another job done?”
“No. I need you to tell me your fee,” Noble said, his voice silky and smooth.
“It depends on the job. I rolled the Winters fees all into one price on goodwill. They still owe me another hundred, which I will need to see soon.” He sent a softly chiding look my way. The obnoxious lump.
“No.”
Hackenstay switched his gaze back to Noble, shock edging his features. “No? What do you mean?”
“I’d like to see the work you’ve done on the case.”
He swallowed. “I-I don’t have that information at hand.”
“Then tell me how you expect to help Lord Kennen Winters.” Noble idly lifted a folded paper from Hackenstay’s desk. The negotiant reached out to reclaim it and put it back in its place, squaring it away.
“I will sit in on his trial and plead his case, just as I said.”
“With his family watching?” Noble picked up a round glass ball.
Hackenstay tried to snatch the ball back as well, but Noble pretended not to notice as he examined it. The negotiant looked irritated, but then switched his gaze to me and shook his head.
His lips curled in mock sympathy beneath his bushy mustache. “Unfortunately, family members cannot watch the proceedings. But I will be sure to relay everything to them after.” He reached out again for the glass ball and missed. “If you could just return my globe?”
Noble tossed it, a short arc of glittering light, and Hackenstay caught it against his chest. He looked more flustered than before.
“I see,” Noble said, fingers drifting through papers. “So really, they will have no way of knowing whether you help their brother in court.”
“I will help him until the end! I will convince the judge and jury of his innocence.” The negotiant clutched the globe.
“So you keep saying. Let’s be short and frank here.” He stopped and turned to me. “Actually, Lady Winters, why don’t you explain to Master Hackenstay what will happen in the next fifteen minutes.”
Surprise stormed through me. Me? I didn’t give him a chance to take it back. “Your ‘contract’ is nonsense. As are your promises. You are a terrible man taking advantage of us in our moment of grief and despair. You will return all our money, Master Hackenstay. Right now. To the piece.”
“I assure you, Lady Winters, that you need a negotiant for your brother to speak his case.” Moisture gathered on his forehead.
Anger, hot and deep, coursed through me. “I’ve read the laws, Master Hackenstay. In felonious cases you cannot do the things you’ve promised. I’m no longer quite as naive as when I walked through your door last week. Return the money right now or I—we—will make sure you regret it.”
Noble smiled. It wasn’t pleasant, but it also wasn’t aimed at me.
“Why I never—you can’t—now see here—”
Noble tensed, hand brushing his pocket, and turned. The door opened behind me.
I pivoted sideways, following Noble’s lead. How had he known someone was there?
“Here now, what’s going on?” The man at the door demanded. He was older and larger than Hackenstay, and dressed better.
“Master Tannett. Thank the spirits.” The negotiant pulled his scrawny frame up to his full height. “These folks are trying to cheat us.”
Noble took a step away and shot me a look so intense that I stepped back as well. I had stopped carrying my runelock pistol, no longer fighting jeering crowds. Perhaps that hadn’t been a smart decision.
Tannett’s eyes narrowed. “Are they now?”
“Your trainee is trying to swindle the Winters family out of two hundred gold,” Noble said. “Hardly the type that can call someone else a cheat.”
