Page 63 of The Devil in Oxford
I took a step farther into the room, floorboards creaking with the movement. “Is there infection?”
Ruan gave his head an imperceptible shake.
“Is she any less stable than before?”
Again, another subtle shake.
I folded my arms beneath my breasts, still wearing his jacket. “I don’t see what good a hospital will do. You are far more attentive than any physician I have ever known and frankly I’d rather put myself in your hands than any number of their kind. Besides, you’re a witch.”
“Pellar,” he corrected grumpily.
“Semantics. The point is, you’ve read all the same books they have. You have spent the last several years of your life learning from Dr. Quick in Lothlel Green, you may as wellbea physician. I have seen firsthand what you can do. With or without your”—I hesitated, uncomfortable speaking of Ruan’s abilities in front of Mrs. Penrose, though the woman already believed he walked on water—“yourgifts.”
Ruan let out a decidedly Mr. Owen–sounding grunt, his roughened fingers resting on the girl’s pulse. Perhaps he and I had spent too much time with the old man for our own good.
Mrs. Penrose slid past me, pressing a good-night kiss to my cheek before slowly making her way down the stairs. I waited until she was fully out of earshot before I turned back to Ruan. “Do you think Reaver did something to Leona? I’d confronted him in the museum today—I cannot understand the man nor his motivations. But tonight? Tonight frightened me.”
Ruan shifted, settling his hip on the bed beside the girl. “Me as well. The air was thick with his guilt and the rage— Ruby, I swearto the gods he would have killed you on that floor had I not taken you away. I’d never felt such anger.”
I swallowed hard. Neither had I. “What does he think I’ve done?”
“It was chaotic, I couldn’t hear anything beyond the emotion.”
I let out an awkward huff. “Speaking of hearing, did you hear Mr. Owen tonight?”
“I did…” Ruan remained less amused than I was at the situation.
“The man lost ten pounds betting on Treadway. Anyone with eyes could have seen that he didn’t stand a chance against Reaver. The fellow might be a beast, and wish me dead, but his arms are quite…”
The ghost of a smile crossed his lips. “A man wishes you to the devil for unknown reasons and you are admiring his forearms?”
My throat dried and I swallowed hard. “All that is to say, I may not like the fellow but if one admired such a thing…”
Ruan chuckled. “Go on to bed. Get some sleep. I’ll be done soon.”
I crossed the hall not at all intending to sleep. Not with Leona missing. I dropped to my knees and dug about under the bed for my own satchel. Sitting around worrying was not going to get me any closer to finding out what happened to Leona or finding Julius Harker’s killer. And there was one place I had not yet checked for clues—quite possibly the most obvious place of all.Julius Harker’s home.
The wooden floorboards creaked behind me as I pulled out my roll of lockpicks from the bag and flopped them atop the mattress.
“I take it we are headed back out this evening?”
“We haven’t searched Harker’s home.” I continued groping around under the bed for my boots. I shucked off his coat and threw it carelessly beside the lockpicks before starting on the stubborn buttons at the back of my rose silk gown. “Close the door, would you? I’ll be ready in a trice. Assuming you’re up for another adventure?”
Ruan made a sound in his chest before closing the door behindhim. I’d half expected him to leave me in peace to change, but instead he stepped deeper into the room, brushing my fingers away as he made quick work of the buttons on the gown. “It will take all night if I wait on you to finish. And the sooner we are gone, the sooner we are back, the sooner I can get some sleep.”
I let out a breathy laugh and stepped behind the thin dressing screen before shimmying out of the gown. I flung it over the top before turning to my wardrobe and pulling out a pair of trousers and a clean blouse. In the reflection of the mirror, I caught him watching the screen with a considered expression, as if he could not quite decide how he’d ended up in this madhouse with me.
Madhouse.… I swallowed hard as the specter of my own past came back.Not now,Ruby.I quickly fastened the buttons of my trousers, and tucked in my blouse. I put on my riding boots and hopped out from behind the screen struggling to get my right foot fully into the thing.
Ruan handed me my roll of lockpicks. “Shall we?”
I took them from him, my fingers brushing his before I darted down the stairs. There was promise in these words. Something beyond this night and the ridiculous plan I’d hatched after far too many glasses of champagne.
Weshall. Whatever it might be.
CHAPTERTHIRTYAn Unexpected Conspirator
ONthe way to Harker’s home, I filled Ruan in on all that transpired while we were apart, including my trip to the Bodleian and the unpleasant discovery of Lord Amberley’s son mid-cocaine-fueled coitus. He didn’t react at all to any of it—not even a flinch when I mentioned that I saw his name on the ledger as the last person to request theRadix Maleficarum. He simply made that irritating sound in the back of his throat that told me little.
