Vivian turned away from the quick, determined sound of Honor’s feet on the stairs. Her whole body ached with exhaustion, the fight that had carried her through the week suddenly gone out of her. She wanted to lie down and sleep for the few hours she had left. Maybe, just maybe, she could do that without dreaming.
“Come on,” she sighed to Leo, fishing her keys out of her bag. “Let’s—”
Her hand froze even as she reached for the door. She didn’t need her keys. It was already open a single, careless inch. Vivian stared at it, not moving. Then—
“Goddamnit.”
“Viv?” Leo sounded alarmed. “What happened?”
“She can pick locks,” Vivian said, her voice shaking. She shoved the door all the way open. “Don’t you remember? Honor can pick locks. Goddamn it.”
“What did she want?”
“I don’t know,” Vivian said, staring around wildly as Leo closed the door behind them. “There wasn’t—”
She broke off. There was. Of course there was. Vivian walked straight to her bed and yanked the pillow aside. Both the letter from Honor’s mother and the reference for Maggie Chambers were gone.
How had she known? Or had she just wondered what Vivian might have found and searched, just in case? The letter Vivian could understand; if she had found something her mother had written, she’d have snatched it up too. But what about the reference?
Honor knew Maggie Chambers. That had to be it. The maid, whoever she was, had been in on the plan the whole time.
“What is it?” Leo asked. “Did she take something?”
Vivian jumped, spinning around to stare at him. Had it even been a minute since Honor had left? There was still time to catch her if they hurried.
“Where are you going?”
Vivian was already at the top of the steps. “I’m going to follow her. Are you coming or not?”
Even in the dim hall light, she could see the muscles clench in his jaw. “Yeah,” he sighed. “I’m coming.”
Vivian didn’t bother to keep her steps quiet as they ran downstairs and back out into the night. Her ankle ached, but it was a distant pain, drowned under waves of anger and adrenaline. The city was still dark, but it wasn’t quiet. Somewhere across the river, she could hear a factory bell clanging, its sound louder in the quiet, clear air as it dragged the next round of workers into their shift.
Vivian was breathing hard as she turned, looking up and down the street. Had Honor disappeared?
“There,” Leo murmured, pointing, a figure in a suit and hat disappearing around the dim corner at the end of the street.
They turned the corner just in time to keep her in sight, Vivian grim and determined, Leo’s reluctance almost a physical presence beside her. Two blocks. Three. Five blocks heading east. Vivian wanted to run after her, to grab her and shake her and demand answers. But she knew better than that. They hung back enough that if she turned, they could duck out of sight.
“What did she take?”
“Letters,” Vivian said. Quietly, she told him what she had found that day.
“How do you think she knew they were there?” Leo asked when she fell silent. He grabbed her hand to keep her from stepping in an oil-slick puddle.
“I don’t think she did,” Vivian replied. She’d had enough time to think it over as they dodged through the city streets. Ahead of them, Honor turned south. “I think she got a little bit lucky. She must have decided to check my place. She had to know it was worth looking because… because she knows me.” She swallowed back a lump in her throat as she said it. If Honor didn’t know her so well, it wouldn’t hurt so much. “She had to know I was looking for whatever I could.”
“So she is mixed up in it,” Leo said quietly.
Vivian nodded. “Whoever that maid really is, Honor knows her. She wouldn’t have taken that reference, otherwise.”
“She’s the person who was meeting with Buchanan that morning.”
“Maybe.” It made too much sense not to think it. But it still didn’t feel quite right. “Whatever it is, maybe we’re about to find out.”
Leo didn’t say anything in response. They were coming to a busier part of the city, where restaurants served sleepy customers through the night. It was easier to blend in here. It would also be easier to lose Honor. They began to move more quickly. Ahead of them, Honordisappeared around another corner. When they finally reached it, she was half a block ahead, just climbing into a cab.
In a moment she’d be gone from sight. Vivian stared around wildly. There were three more cabs on this street, drivers snoozing at the wheels, waiting for any final fares as the last revelers of the night stumbled home. She didn’t have any money with her, but that didn’t stop her from banging on the window of the first cab to wake the driver up. Paying the fare was a problem for the future. She couldn’t risk Honor getting too far ahead. Vivian yanked the door open and slid in, scooting all the way over so Leo could follow her.
