“Of course.”
“The quirks and quillets will be out for this one.”
“Yes.” Alcroft shot me a speculative glance. “It should prove entertaining at the very least.”
I didn’t see anything entertaining about the situation, and it must have shown around my mask.
“No offense meant to you or your brother, Lady Second Winters. I refer to the game of manipulating the law and its enforcers until such time that Gabriel can absolve your brother.” He tilted his head. “Gabriel always finishes the tasks set before him. Do not despair.”
“You sound certain.” I looked between them, wondering at their easy friendship. “How long have you known each other?”
Alcroft was part of the gilded, and though Noble seemed able to hold his own, he hadn’t been born to it, that much was obvious. They must have met through business.
“Oh, we have known each other for what now, twenty years?” Alcroft seemed amused, and I couldn’t understand why. Noble made a sound of agreement. “Quite the puzzle, is it not, Lady Second? I will leave you to suss it out.”
I looked at Noble. He seemed equally amused, but there was a fine line of tension around his eyes that hadn’t been there before.
“School?” it was the earliest place where anonmight work their way into gilded circles. It was a monumental task to advance socially, but Noble was powerful. And other than dynasty, power mattered more than anything to the gilded. Maybe—
Alcroft’s eyes changed. Noble tensed further. “Did I ever tell you that I begged High Lord Steelcrest to register you at Gildonvale?”
Noble snorted. “I’m sure that was a scene you would not wish to re-create.”
“No, no I would not.”
Noble looked to the long case clock at the side, tension visibly strumming through him. I filed it away. I hungered to know his secrets. “We’ve kept you too long.” He rose and started retying the strings on his mask. “Let me know what your contact says. We are staying in the Ashfield row.”
Alcroft rose too and rounded the desk, bowing his head to me and shaking Noble’s hand, his mask held loosely between his other fingers. “I will. Perhaps I’ll drop by sometime this week. I admit that Lucian has infected me with his excitement about the case. I will send a note first, but there might be something I can do.”
Noble nodded and re-donned his mask as they exchanged final words. He slipped his hand around my waist as we exited and walked down the hall, bypassing the ballroom and heading straight for the door.
“And now, my dear, it is time for you to become my wench.”
Chapter 8
MARIETTA
I removed my mask and gloves in the carriage. Utilizing the light from the gas lamps and my small pocket mirror, I attempted to smooth away the smudges around my eyes.
“Leave it. The extra kohl makes you look smoky and sensual.” Noble leaned languidly against the back of the seat across from me.
My cheeks warmed. I had never been called smoky or sensual—not that it would have been at all appropriate. But I found that it suited my current sensibilities just fine. I ran my fingers down the nightspider silk of the low-cut dress—feeling even more naked without my gloves—and watched the man across from me.
Noble had changed into an outfit fit for a laborer. It was too big for him, hanging from his defined edges, but I had a feeling it was that way on purpose. He had another cap on, this one set at a jaunty angle. It would allow him to hide his eye color mostly in the shadows. His cheekbones appeared flatter. I hadn’t been paying close attention, but he’d worked some magic with a charcoal pot. He was still going to turn women’s heads, but in the guise of a rakish deckhand instead.
He looked like the kind of man ladies had strict orders never to speak to.
The carriage turned a corner. “Remember that we are just here to soak up information and to see which patrollers and watchmen are friendly and which are not. If the chance comes to ask questions, or the topic of the murderer is broached by someone else, you have to be enamored with everything about the murders and murderer—like one of the women who attend every execution and then touches herself on the spot.”
The mirror dropped from my hand into my lap. “Pardon?”
He waved away my question and shock. “Just be enamored and try not to act too bright. I know it will be difficult for you.”
I held my tongue at his obvious amusement and stowed the mirror without looking at him. Better to change the subject. “Does Alcroft owe you favors as well?”
