Ambrose pushed the door open, which swung in on well-oiled hinges that didn’t squeak in the slightest. The lack of noise unnerved me even more than lurking in fight clubs near the dock. I could handle myself in motley groups of thugs, but this prim and proper private school had me all sorts of uncomfortable.
“We’ve brought Gil, the one who tried to put out the bounty on Tavrek,” Ambrose said, pulling himself up proudly as he entered. “Elvin, meet Mistress Davenport, our Employer.”
A thin, blonde woman maybe a few inches taller than myself stood facing away from us as she consulted a map on the wall. I could see one of her perfectly manicured nails tracing along a shipping route.
“Leave Gil with me,” she said in that musical, feminine voice, her back still to me. “I’ll get you the bounty.”
Elvin released my hands and left with Ambrose, snapping the door shut as they left. I braced myself as the woman turned, unsure of what to expect, then we stared at each other for a full ten seconds as wave after wave of shock crashed over me. I knew that face. She was now in her thirties, but I could still see the teenage version I remembered. She and I looked very alike, with similar builds and hair the exact same shade of blonde.
“Nora?” I asked in a small voice.
“Jillian!” The dignity, poise, and aloofness I’d felt when first entering the room evaporated on the spot as she flung her arms around me.
I had found my sister at last.
CHAPTER 31
Iclung to Nora. “You?” I asked, unable to restrain myself. “You’re the Employer? But…how? You were sold!” It was all so surreal. I’d been looking in the darkest holes of society’s underbelly, and my sister had been at this high-society boarding school for rich girls?
She pulled back. “I was one of the lucky ones. The Davenports bought my freedom. It’s a long story, but I ended up marrying their son, and their father was the previous Employer. He passed the title to me when he saw how passionate I was about the work.”
Questions exploded faster in my mind than I could settle on one. They all whirled around until I finally stammered, “Wh-what do you mean, thepreviousEmployer?”
She nodded. “The Employer is simply a title that a variety of people have used and passed down to a successor after a few years. I wanted a way to find you, so I volunteered to be the next Employer. I found Papa and we bought his freedom, too, but Mama?—”
“I know. I heard. But Papa! Where is he? Is he okay?” My father was alive. Nora had already found him. My heart wasgoing to burst if it kept beating this hard. I looked around the room, spotted a small portrait on Nora’s desk, and snatched it up. “Is this him?”
“It is. He was kept at that work camp for years, and the day I bought his freedom… Jillian, it would’ve broken your heart. He was so thin.” Then, after seeing the expression on my face, she hastened to add, “He’s healthy as a horse now. But enough about us. We’ve been looking for you for years. Where haveyoubeen all this time?”
I couldn’t stop looking between my sister and the portrait, unable to believe that I had finally found my family. “I’ve been working for you! I’m Gil—I’ve been masquerading as a boy this whole time and have been a bounty hunter for the Syndicate for five years.”
She shook her head, dumbfounded. “All this time, I’ve been looking for a girl. I can’t believe I didn’t realize. Papa and I have been digging through files about every girl in Ebora and Berkway and even Haven Harbor. We looked in graveyards and foster homes and schools. It never once crossed our minds to look up the boys.”
“Surprise,” I said with a grin. “Hiding our identities seems to run in our family. I had no idea the Employer was you. I didn’t even think it was a girl. I actually wondered if the Employer might’ve been Ambrose; I found a note in Roderick’s trunk that looked like his handwriting.”
She laughed. “I teach penmanship and calligraphy here at Rosehaven Hall. I simply mimicked his handwriting and had Papa plant it in that trunk.”
“You teach calligraphy and you also command the Syndicate? What other secrets is my big sister hiding?”
“No other secrets now. I can’t believe this! We must go see Papa. He’s waiting on a shipment back at my office right now. My other office,” she added when I began looking around.“Welcome to my double life. Here is my teacher’s office. I head up the Syndicate elsewhere.”
“Let’s go! Is it close? Does he have any idea I’m coming?”
Nora gathered up a few things and almost ran to the door, looking almost as excited as I felt. “Fairly close, but he has no idea it’s you. Ambrose?” she called when she exited. “There’s some paperwork on my desk here about a few new bounties, then you can come after, along with…”
“Elvin,” Elvin supplied, bowing low. “At your service.”
“Help Ambrose. I’ll handle Gil.” Nora shot me a conspiratorial look.
Glad to leave Ambrose and Elvin behind, Nora and I walked as quickly as possible down the path. Along the way, Nora told me about how she had become the Employer and begun the hunt for me and our parents, and I told her all about growing up on the streets and becoming a bounty hunter and looking for her all these years. Every few steps, she would glance my way, as if to reassure herself that I was still there, and I couldn’t blame her—I was doing the exact same thing.
We crossed a dainty footbridge spanning a narrow stream dotted with flowers where the air was filled with butterflies and bumblebees.
The irony. The most notorious crime boss in all of Berkway, my sister, had been here sipping tea and eating crumpets while I scoured the most despicable places in the mapped world looking for her, all while she had been searching for me.
“I’m sorry you had to grow up the way you did,” Nora said sadly. “I wish I could’ve made it easier for you.”
“I wouldn’t have known what to do with a life like this,” I told her. In the distance, a few girls rode in a carriage out of the grounds and off toward the lake. “But I’m glad you didn’t suffer the way I imagined you did.”
