Page 11 of A Deal with the Devil

“That’s what I’m afraid of!”

There was very little time left for talking or jesting after that. It took considerable concentration to cross the rooftop, the chill numbing her fingertips. The roof of the adjoining house was in much better repair and considerably less steep. Which was a comfort, as Kitty had made the mistake of looking down.

“Everything is so much less daunting from up here,” Evie said. “More like a dollhouse city.”

Kitty jerked back from the edge, feeling slightly queasy. She had not given nearly enough consideration to the matter of getting back down to the ground.

The glorious, stable ground.

Currently, very, very far away.

“Are you well?” Evie shouted. “You’ve gone funny.”

Kitty tried to smile—to mixed results, if Evie’s reaction was any indication. Her sister visibly recoiled.

“I don’t know what you are doing to your face,” Evie said. “But I demand you stop it immediately.” She held the hedgehog in his golden wire palace out of reach. “And don’t cast up your accounts on poor Galahad.”

“Let’s just get down.” Kitty’s teeth chattered even though it was not quite that cold.

“Two more houses,” Evie said encouragingly. “Sir Reginald spent all that money on new balconies and trellises, remember? It’s quite sturdy.”

Kitty would have preferred a ladder. Or an actual staircase.

“You’re a very interesting color,” Evie pointed out conversationally. “A bit green, a bit chartreuse.”

“Not at all fashionable of me.”

“You’d be thrown out of Almack’s.”

For so many reasons. Even if one of the patronesses routinely and with near-religious fanaticism came to her shop to purchase the very books she looked down her nose at Kitty for selling.

Thunder rumbled, and Kitty felt it under her feet. Lightning flashed. It was getting dangerous, and not just because the way down was several stories of wet trellis and hopping from balcony to balcony. The next ripple of thunder came with a flash of lightning Kitty swore she felt in her teeth. She jumped with a loud, strangled yelp.

And promptly lost her footing.

Evie was too far away and her hands were full of hedgehog.

Kitty sprawled and slid down the roof, too slippery to stop herself, too rough not to hurt all the way down. She caught herself on the edge by wedging her heel into the eavestrough. Rain pelted her, running in her eyes and her mouth as her pulse bolted like a spooked horse.

“Kitty!” Evie reached her, grabbing her arm. She was suddenly pale, teeth chattering. “Don’t you dare die and leave me alone.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Kitty croaked. Her knees felt like stewed celery. “Isn’t Sir Reginald away? Something about the seaside?”

Evie nodded. “He invited me to go with him.”

Kitty was momentarily distracted. “He’s eighty-three years old.”

“I don’t think he meant it to be indecorous.”

“Hmm. Either way, he likes you. I’m sure he won’t mind if we go through his house. He’s always wanting to show you his new décor.”

“I’m not sure this is what he had in mind.”

Kitty was too busy twisting to point to the window behind them that was relatively easy to access. Evie helped her to her feet, which were still not quite as steady as she would have liked. “It’s unlocked,” she announced. She wondered if weeping with relief was going a bit too far. Maybe her aunt was right. She was dramatic.

“Housebreaking is a hanging offense,” Evie said, reclaiming Galahad’s cage from where she had wedged it in order to reach her sister.

“Not for someone as pretty as you,” Kitty said. “Me they will hang with all alacrity.”