But, well! Why should she feel so guilty? She’d only asked of him what common decency ought to have offered. So what if she’d brought this dirty, lice-infested creature to sully this room of greens and golds, with its delicate furniture of pale cane. That chimney there was swept by boys treated little better than this one. In all the stinking alleyways and shadows a stone’s throw from these impeccable, stately walls, a hundred others just like him lived and suffered and died. Why shouldn’t she remind Lord Cotereigh of that? It would do him good.
But…
“Thank you,” she said, head still bowed over the boy’s lifeless form.
“No doubt my coat has fleas.” She heard the rustle of cloth. From the corner of her eye, she saw him shrug out of the sleek, black garment.
He approached the sofa in waistcoat and shirtsleeves. His riding boots, only a little dusty from the day’s travails, came to a halt on the rug, an arm’s reach from her knee.
“I believe the clerk’s story,” he said. “The boy is a thief.”
“No one deserves this.”
“The law says he deserves far worse. Again, the clerk was correct. The boy’s fate is death. Perhaps transportation. Though we both know they’re nearly one and the same.”
Madelaine tensed, an ache in her gut. “You wouldn’t.”
“If you truly want me to send a magistrate to that man tomorrow, the story is bound to come out.”
“Then…then we don’t involve the law. I’ll be responsible for the boy. If the doctor says he can be moved, I’ll take him to my aunt’s. You needn’t have anything to do with it.”
Lord Cotereigh said nothing, his silence a weight on the back of her neck, keeping her face bowed. But then the boy woke suddenly, making her jump.
His eyes flicked open, revealing a startlingly pale blue against the dark grime of his face and even darker hair. He groaned, trying fretfully to get up, expression panicked as he took in the faces over him, the strange surroundings.
“Shh, shh, it’s all right.” Heedless of vermin and dirt, she put a hand on his tattered sleeve. “Don’t move. You’re safe.”
“I didn’t do nothing, I didn’t, I didn’t do nothing—”
He was still trying to get up, but the pain was too much, his breath panting with it. Going still, he lay curled up, wide-eyed, one hand drawn up as though to protect his face.
“I didn’t, and you can’t prove nothing, and I won’t say nothing nohow, even if yous beat me again and again, I don’t say nothing,I’m no snitch, you tell that to Jem, I’m not saying nothing, I’m not—”
“Hush, hush. You don’t need to say anything at all. Just rest. The doctor will be here soon.”
“No, no, no, don’t want no doctors, don’t need no nothing, lemme go and I won’t do it anymore, I’s promise, but you gotta let me go—”
“Rest. You’re hurt. Can you tell me your name?”
He shook his head, terrified, then winced, whimpering in pain at the movement.
“You’re not in trouble,” she promised. “No one is going to do anything bad to you. We’re going to help you.”
“Don’t need no help, just let me go an I promise I won’t do it no more, I got to go, gotta get back—”
“Back where?”
“Please letten me go, please, I gotta get back—”
“To your parents? Your family? We can take you there when you’re feeling better.”
“Ain’t got no parents.”
“Then—”
“Please, please…” The pale blue eyes were wet and shining, fixed on hers and pleading. “I gotten get back—”
“Boy,” said Lord Cotereigh. “If you can get out of this house without fainting, then I’ll gladly let you go.” He stood back, gesturing to the door. “By all means, try it.”
