Alone now, Octavia should have pushed back the stranger without hesitation, but things were not that simple. He still stood against her, his massive body still covered and protected her, and for the first time in as long as Octavia could remember, she felt safe.
“I take it those were the men from whom you ran?” he asked, his voice low but still deep.
“Oh!” Octavia came into herself and pushed the stranger away. She was shaking, unable to meet his eyes, so she brushed down her dress and pretended to right herself. “They were.”
“Who were they?” He sounded generally worried for her.
She snorted. “No one of consequence.”
“They should not be…” His expression hardened and he turned to look where they had run. “If you like, I can send for the authorities. Men should not be pursing women through dark alleys.”
“Isn’t that the truth,” she laughed. “Thankfully, all they pursue now are shadows.” She took a deep breath to calm herself. “Well, if that will be all…”
With Marcus and his two men no longer a problem, Octavia figured now was as good a time as any to be rushing in the opposite direction. She certainly wasn’t going to stand here and exchange trivial conversation with this strange man. He might have just helped her, but she had a strange feeling about him, one she could not figure out.
“Good evening.” She put down her head and stepped around him.
He snatched for her arm, but she dodged it. “Where are you going?”
“Away from here,” she said over her shoulder.
“I best not find my wallet missing when I return home,” he called after her.
She laughed. “Just as I best not see you again. I do thank you for your help, however. I owe you one.”
With that said, she ducked around the corner and picked up her pace, vanishing into the night as she was so used to doing. That incident… it was close, far too close.
It is high time that I sort my life out. Only, how might I do that… perhaps I should have asked that dark stranger for a job.
Chapter Two
All right… that should be enough time. If Marcus knew where I lived, he would have come here first, rather than following me from Mr. Cosgrove’s bookstore.
Octavia was crouched down in an alley, her eyes trained on the townhouse at the end of the street. Like the rest of the buildings in this street, it was a dilapidated hovel, the type that many might assume was abandoned on first inspection.
Of course, it was the opposite of abandoned. By Octavia’s last count, there were over twenty people living there. They were all young in age, desperately poor, each constantly searching for anything that might bring them hope that this was not all that their lives had amounted to. Octavia included.
Satisfied that she had not been followed, she sprang from the alley and hurried down the street. Then she rounded the side of the townhouse and slipped through the back door.
It was noisy inside, as was always the case; general chatter, babies screeching, young women crying. Octavia ignored it as she climbed the stairs to the third story, hurried down the hallway, and then knocked on the closed door at the very end.
“Who is it?” a young male voice asked.
“Open up, Henry,” she said.
“What’s the password?” he asked her.
She smiled to herself. As was always the case, Octavia had told Henry not to open the door for anyone, herself included, unless they had the password. It was one of the many measures that she had instituted to keep them safe, something she’d managed to do now for nearly four years.
“Redgate,” she said into the closed door. “Now, open up.”
The sound of locks and chains followed her demand, and a second later the door swung open to reveal her eight-year-old brother, Henry, on the other side.
He was small for his age, a natural consequence of being underfed. But his eyes were the same deep green as Octavia’s, and his hair was the same chestnut brown. He looked more like their father than their mother; the same long face and severe features, while Octavia’s face was rounder and softer like their mother’s.
Oh, how Octavia loved him.
“Quickly now.” She stepped into the room and closed the door. Then, she proceeded to lock it again.
