‘I hear curiosity can get a lady into trouble,’ she said, a little humour mixed with the challenge in her eyes. Thea blinked at her. If she didn’t know better, she would be sure Frankie was flirting with her.
‘How did you know it was me?’ she asked, trying to return to firmer ground.
A one-shouldered shrug. ‘The pocketwatch.’ A gesture at Thea’s pocket. ‘You have a particular way of opening it. I knew I’d seen it somewhere before the first time you came to the garden. Then I clocked you – no pun intended – at the next lecture.’
Thea felt the corner of her mouth turn up at the awful joke. It made a rush of something pleasant happen in her head. ‘And you figured I couldn’t handle myself on the street?’
‘I figured someone would rob you blind and probably do worse if they found a rich lady dressed as a man passed out down an alleyway. You looked like you were on your way down’ Thea felt a sudden wave of gratitude. Just that someone had been looking out for her. That Frankie had cared. It didn’t make her head any clearer as they stood bathed in moonlight from the alley’s entrance.
‘Do you often notice things about ladies?’ she heard herself asking. Or more probably it was the whisky asking. Then there was silence. Frankie’s expression had become serious. She knew what Thea was really asking.
‘Whenever I have the chance.’ Not quiet. Not apologetic. Just Frankie.
Thea’s blood rushed in her ears at the admission. The utter confidence of her. Like she wasn’t ashamed of it at all. She couldn’t believe what she was tempted to do, but she was. Just knowing that they both shared this queerness was intoxicating. But she couldn’t, could she? Although she did need to take some control back into her life. But surely not with a gardener. But then, she knew they were both the same on the inside, and that she shared more in common with Frankie than she did with the people who dressed like her. Meat with thoughts. Everyone was the same, on the inside, green gunk and all.
She became aware she had been staring. At Frankie’s lips. And she had moved so close she could feel her breath. Oh god. She didn’t dare look up and at her eyes, so she looked down. That was no better. Frankie’s chest rose and fell almost as fast as her own.
Before she knew it her eyes were back to Frankie’s lips and then her mouth was on them, kissing her, pressing her back against the wall. Her mind raced with both horror and exhilaration, but she’d done it now, she might as well make the most of it.
She felt Frankie’s hands move up to her back and pull her closer, deepening the kiss. Then they parted, breathing hard. They looked at one another.
Interesting.
Frankie moved first this time, pulling her back in. The second kiss was a little more tentative. She tried running her tongue over Frankie’s bottom lip and felt the hands still themselves on her back. She broke the kiss.
‘Huh.’ said Frankie, still so close Thea could feel the warm breath. She pulled back a little further so she could focus on Frankie’s eyes, unfamiliar with the sensation of a kiss actually taking the heat out of this kind of situation.
‘Nothing for you either?’ Thea asked.
Frankie shook her head. ‘Nope.’ Despite their apparent agreement, Thea was a little put out.
‘Not even a little bit?’ Frankie stuck out her bottom lip a little as if she was thinking, and her eyes widened. It was the first time that Thea had seen her genuinely off balance.
‘Seems not.’
‘Huh,’ said Thea, this time.
‘Curious,’ said Frankie. And then her eyes softened, and she smiled, and Thea glowed with a mutual understanding, even if that was firmly based in friendship and nothing else. She smiled back, gripped the front of Frankie’s shirt and was about to push herself away, when the light of the moon dimmed. She felt Frankie tense against her fisted hands.
‘Well,’ said a voice whose low timbre held a world of menace. ‘What do we have here? A couple of well-dressed gentlemen in an alley. Wouldn’t be up anything indecent, I do hope?’
Thea stood stock still while Frankie’s eyes darted round, assessing the situation. A second figure appeared behind the first. Thea felt Frankie move a little closer.
‘Stay where you are,’ said Frankie, keeping her voice low.
‘And what’s a snip of a man like you goin’ to do about it?’ asked the man absently, as he moved forwards. He came close into Thea’s space and fingered the velvet of her lapel.
‘Fancy suit you ‘ave there, sir,’ he said. She almost didn’t dare breathe whilst she considered her next move. There weren’t any immediate demands, but she assumed she was about to be robbed.
‘What do you want?’ she asked, finding her voice.
‘Just the usual,’ came the casual tone. ‘Fish ‘em out.’ He gestured by way of an inclination of his head to their pockets.
‘I aint got–’ started Frankie, but Thea cut her off. This was something she could do.
‘I have,’ she said. ‘Best to give him what we have and then I’m sure he’ll leave us alone.’ She flashed Frankie a pointed look before reaching into her pocket and extracting the dummy purse she kept explicitly for this eventuality. It had a few coins in it, but she kept the bulk of the silver she carried further down. She deposited it into the man’s hand, her chest puffing out a little as she realised she was about to win this one. Frankie understood the streets, but she had the means.
The man opened the purse’s drawstring and peered inside.
