“How convenient for—”
“And I enjoy your company,” Silas said, cutting her off.
Silence settled over them for a moment, but Silas did not hedge or attempt to take back what he’d said. He just sat, waiting for Elswyth to respond. When she did not, and instead stood frozen in place, Silas said, “Is that so difficult to believe?”
“No, it’s only—Well, I had supposed that you did not like me very much,” Elswyth said.
“Likeis such a flimsy word. Perhaps I do notlikeyou. Perhaps I find you hopelessly irritating. But perhaps I also find your intellect stimulating and your bleak humor a welcome reprieve from the falsities of society. Besides, the issue of my feelings for you is immaterial, because I need your help.”
Elswyth found that her mouth was dry. She didn’t know what to do with Silas’s sudden change in bearing toward her. “With what, exactly?” she said.
“All in due time. Can I count on you?”
Elswyth looked over her shoulder, listening for any sign of Mrs. Rose. “I would consider it. But I’m afraid Mrs. Rose rarely leaves my side. And my uncle and his steward are terrified to let me into the city unsupervised. I will not be able to leave without them noticing.”
Silas stopped investigating Persephone’s bouquet and moved toward the balcony. “That did not stop me, did it? Surely one as clever as you would be able to circumvent a few stodgy old chaperones. Meet me at Trafalgar Square tonight, at midnight.”
Silas took his coat from where he’d left it draped over the balustrade and began putting it on.
A thousand questions came to her mind. “But what shall we be doing? What shall I wear—”
Then Silas Blackthorn jumped from the window.
Elswyth gasped. One minute, he was leaning on the guardrail. The next, he was gone, flipping over the side, headfirst. She ran to the balustrade certain that she would see him smashed upon the ground.
Instead, she watched him lower slowly down—a stalk of ivyextended from the sleeve of his jacket, attached like a rope to the balustrade. He landed gently on the street outside and then retracted the vine. It released the stone and then slithered back to him. She watched it coil around his wrist, vanishing into the sleeve of his coat.
“And don’t be late. Good day, Miss Elderwood.”
And with that, Silas stepped away, donning his hat and disappearing into the passing crowd.
Silas stood before the monument at Trafalgar, waiting. Elswyth spied him from across the square, a head taller than any around him. Even at midnight, the square was busy. Constables patrolled the edges, where starving people lingered, hands outstretched, begging for alms. Malcontents lingered in the square, too, jeering at policemen and then vanishing into the alleyways. The riots over the Reaper murders had only grown worse in the past days, and the news sheets talked of little else.
Sneaking out from under Kehinde’s watchful eye had been difficult, and she’d taken care to ensure he did not know she was gone. At that very moment, a false Elswyth lay in her bed, made from a cage of carefully crafted branches, complete with long red hair fabricated from wooly fern. In the right light, it would look convincing—she hoped.
Elswyth walked briskly across the square. She wore a light riding cloak of deep green, set over a simple gown of emerald wool. Perhaps she had taken too long picking her gown. Perhaps she had agonized over her makeup, her hair—but that was of no consequence. She certainly did not do it for Silas.
When Silas spotted her walking across the square, he smiled.Again, with that slow smile: the eyes at first, then the teeth, then the dimples. Even when he let it fall, it lingered as a smirk. His eyes never moved from her as she walked toward him.
“Miss Elderwood. You are late. I almost thought you wouldn’t come.”
“Mr. Ogunlana is a light sleeper, and he surely doesn’t want me sneaking out of the house,” Elswyth said. “I had to climb out the window, down the wisteria vines. I still do not know if I fooled him. He could be out hunting me this very second. And I have seen the way he hunts.”
“Then I suppose it would be best not to delay. Shall we?” Silas said. To her surprise, he extended an arm.
“You want me to take your arm? Isn’t that quite familiar?”
“We would do well to blend in. If we were a married couple, we would attract less attention than an unwed couple walking side by side. But if that makes you uncomfortable…”
“I suppose it is only logical,” Elswyth said. She made sure her hood covered her scar and then took his arm. It would not do to be recognized, and her scar made her easy to spot.
Silas began leading her away from the monument and through the square. They passed a group of policemen clearing out people from tents in an alleyway.
“Best not to stare,” Silas said. “The attention of the constabulary is the last thing we need tonight.”
“Will you at least tell me where we’re going?”
“Right this instant? There,” Silas said. He nodded ahead to where Charing Cross rose above the buildings around it.
