“That’s rude,” I told him, trying to keep a cheerful tone to my voice. “Let’s see, he’s probably about twenty years old, tall, and he has blond hair, just like Jameson. And how should I know if he’s ugly or not? Ask a girl, not me. Ask Tess. She was the one dancing with him.”
Peter’s eyes narrowed. “She danced with him?”
Lochlan stepped in. “Ernst treated her well. He was very polite and courteous, but didn’t do anything more than dance with her. They’re both young and it was a party. They ought to have fun.”
“He shouldn’t be dancing with her at all. Twenty is more adult than child,” Peter argued. “And Tess is only sixteen.”
“That’s old enough to start courting,” I said. “And aren’t they betrothed?”
Peter stood so suddenly that his hard-backed chair tipped backward and toppled to the ground. After glaring at it, Peter aimed a vicious kick at it so one of the legs bent at an odd angle. “I’m going for a walk,” he growled, and stomped out of the house.
The door slammed behind him and Lochlan gave a low whistle. “He’s got it bad. I don’t envy Ernst if he ever comes face to face with Peter. There’s no telling what he’ll do.” He turned to Roderick. “I’m taking Gil down to the market with me today. Are there any deliveries you want made or anything you’re expecting?”
Roderick nodded. “Word of that third shipment should be here any day. I don’t know if they’ll be there today or tomorrow, so keep up the shop for two days, just in case. Once we get that, we can close up your little knitting booth for a while.”
Lochlan began gathering up his scarves and socks. “Perfect. It’ll be nice not to have to worry about keeping the next shipment cool like we’ve had to do with the blood.”
“What’s the next one?” I asked curiously.
Roderick puckered up his mouth like he was trying to decide what to tell me and Lochlan nodded. “Gil’s proven himself trustworthy. We can tell him.”
After another moment’s hesitation, Roderick smiled in a most unsettling way, so that his broken, yellowed teeth all showed. “Live pixies,” he said with a leer. “Then we’ll have our own stock of pixie dust and blood that’ll never run out.”
The cart rattledas Lochlan pulled it along the path toward market, and I couldn’t stop myself from bouncing back and forth about plans to rescue my sister and father and contemplating how awful it would be to cage live pixies to drain them of their blood and pixie dust. Ought I to hunt down the pirate captain that Tinkerbell was married to and tell him? I was certain he wouldn’t stand for it.
Once I had the information about my sister from Roderick’s vault, I vowed that I would tell someone about the shipment to make sure the pixies were freed. That was just as bad as the warehouse full of slaves, and I wouldn’t let Roderick and Peter continue. Lochlan said he would help me track down my sister, and Ambrose had to have news about my father by now. It had been ages since I’d set the bounty on him. Surely the Employer had approved the request.
After we got to town and set up the booth, Mable shuffled over.
“Lochlan?” she called, running her hands over the merchandise. “Is that you? I have the funniest story to tell you about my grandson’s birthday.”
“I’ll be back in a bit,” I told Lochlan. “I’m going to meet up with a friend.”
Before Mable could pinch my cheeks and pull me into an hour-long story, I hurried away, winding my way through the streets until I came to the Syndicate’s safehouse. After looking both ways up and down the street, I gave the volley of knocks.
“Gil!” Brent pulled the door open and slapped me on the back. “I haven’t seen you for ages. Where’ve you been?”
Elvin, who was lounging on the couch, curled his lip. “He’s been learning knitting.”
“Oh yeah, I saw you at that booth,” Brent said with an easy grin. “Is business not going well? Is that why you’re here?”
“Nah. I’m just looking for Ambrose. Is he around?”
“As always,” Brent said, jerking his thumb toward the office. “He told me you put out a request for a bounty that you were going to pay. I was surprised; you never spend money on anything.”
I shrugged. “I need to keep things interesting. I don’t have a lot of time, but it’s good to see you.”
“You too!”
Elvin didn’t say anything but watched as I all but ran down to knock on Ambrose’s office door.
“Enter,” he called in his same dry, wheezy voice.
When I opened the door, he stood. “Ah, Gil. I was hoping to see you soon.”
“The bounty?” I asked without any preamble. “Has it been approved?”
“No.”
