Page 107 of The Bastard's Iberian Bride
The alley outsidewas fetid and smelly and darkly shadowed.
Apprehension ate at her gut, just as Jock had described in the stories he’d told, and her tired muscles started to rebel.
Bink took the packages from her and nudged her close to the wall. There was no one around, but later, she imagined this alley would be quite dangerous.
“There are watchers,” he said in a whisper no louder than a breath.
Watchers. On the street. So they must be close, yet they could not go there. Unless…
“The back way?”
She felt his head shake, and with it, she felt his worry.
“An inn?”
Another shake of the head. Of course. They’d talked about that. Agruen would check every inn and public lodging. He’d have spies there, looking for them.
“Do you trust me, love?” he whispered.
“Of course.” The words were out before she could think, and that made her want to laugh.
“I’ve just the place.” He squeezed her hand. “I’ll explain on the way.”
Bink’s gazeswept the alley as they progressed through it. There was no one about, not hidden under a beggar’s pile, or behind a crate. No sign of life whatsoever. Later, when full dark fell, there would be plenty of action, there on that rack of boxes, or there, in that recessed doorway.
He pushed back the fear threatening to swamp him. He must channel it into his muscles, like he’d done before battle. This wasn’t so different. The boy watching the street might not have been Agruen’s, yet he’d lit a warning flare in that sixth sense Bink had honed so well in Zebediah Gibson’s home, in school, and later on the Peninsula.
He led her around, through a series of mews and across into a street, reckoning they’d reached Bloomsbury. Paulette accepted the small bag with her box stoically and kept pace with him. It would be a long walk, though as a country woman, she’d probably walked farther than this every day going back and forth to the village.
He spotted no lurkers about in the street, but kept the pace brisk, checking at corners for more watchers. To her credit, she kept silent. He could see the wheels of her mind turning like the inner workings of a clock, wondering what he’d spotted, what she’d missed, what she should look for.
She trusted him. She’d said that without hesitation, in a way that made his blood soar. And he doubted she was thinking about where they would stay. It would be yet another new experience for her if Betty took them in.
And he would have a great deal of explaining to do.
Paulette’s feet ached and her stockings bunched in the heels of her boots. She did not want to complain though.
“This is Mayfair,” Bink said, still speaking quietly though the walkers had thinned.
She glanced at the large townhouses. At this hour, Bink said, people were dressing for sumptuous dinners, the ladies in fine gowns, the men in their brocaded waistcoats, like the ones they’d seen in the shop windows. Hunger uncurled in her stomach, and the dogged fatigue lifted with a surge of anticipation.
“We’re going to the Hackwells’?”
“No. We’ll seek help from another of her ladyship’s acquaintances.”
“Her friend from the children’s home? Lady…ah, what was her name?”
His silence lasted past a row of carriages, the horses being held by liveried men, their presence distracting her. She checked each in turn in what she hoped passed for rustic awe, surreptitiously looking for evidence of Agruen. Danger seemed nowhere, and everywhere, her ignorance was so grave. Jock hadn’t prepared her for this.
They’d reached a square edged with great houses before he again spoke. “Friends of Annabelle Harris might find succor at places high or low. Where we’re going happens to be one of the low ones.”
The houses were far too grand to be low, but she kept her own counsel and followed him. They came at last to a lane where the houses were, indeed, smaller, closer, yet still genteel. He passed it, turned into yet another back alley, and went on to a plain wooden gate.
She’d tried to store their itinerary in her head, but she was hopelessly lost. She must learn her way around London’s byways, if she was to spend time here with any sort of freedom.
Bink put his ear to the gate, and she copied him. The alley was deserted, quiet, and a good deal cleaner than the ones they had passed through earlier, and there was no noise within.
He opened the gate and they slipped inside.
