Page 68 of Courier of Death
“No, I…I wanted to call on Geraldine, but the warder turned me away,” she lied. “Did he deny you as well?”
The young widow quizzed her with a sharp look, as if weighing whether to believe her. But then, she sighed. “He did. Apparently, women are only allowed inside if they have committed a crime.”
After an awkward pause, Leo gestured toward the main walkway. “Perhaps if we apply to the warder together, we can convince him.”
Being here alone with Emma on this side of the chaplain’s home, out of view of anyone passing on the walkway, suddenly felt perilous.
Emma smiled tightly. “Optimistic thought, but I don’t believe that will persuade him. I think I’ll try my luck another day. Good afternoon, Miss Spencer.”
She turned on her heel and started swiftly for the front of the house and the walkway that would lead to the road. She was going to run. Leo hurried to stay with her.
“There is a coffee shop just down the road that we passed on the way up. Perhaps if you’d like?—”
Emma whirled to spear Leo with a glare. “We? Did you not come here alone?”
Leo bit her tongue and cursed herself for the asinine blunder. Before she could concoct an explanation, a commotion of clattering wheels and whinnying horses sounded beyond the perimeter wall, coming from the direction of the entrance gate. Then, the voices of men. Sensing danger, Emma latched onto Leo’s arm and hauled her close with surprising brutality.
“What have you done?” she seethed as the men’s voices carried. A handful of them dashed along the walkway, whichwas just within their view. It was Sergeant Lewis and a few uniformed constables on his heels. Close enough to signal.
“Serg—!” The sharp point of something hard dug into Leo’s waist, and she gasped, her voice cutting off.
Emma pushed Leo back toward the secluded side of the chaplain’s yard. The woman’s fingers clutched her arm in a bruising grip. A shock of pain lanced through her side as the blade of what appeared to be a penknife jabbed her.
“Quiet or this goes straight into your liver,” Emma hissed.
Briefly, Leo considered attempting to wrest the penknife from her hand. But with the knife blade still poking into her skin, there was a steep chance of failure. She knew her own strengths, and physical prowess was not one of them.
“Actually,” she said, trying to breathe evenly and not cause the blade to lodge any deeper, “the liver is on the right side of the body. As this is my left, you’d likely pierce my spleen or descending colon.”
Emma shrieked in frustration, and hot pain flashed along Leo’s side.
“You think you are clever, do you?” she spat out. “A clever woman would have left well enough alone, not pressed her luck.”
She dragged Leo toward the corner of the house again to check if the path was clear. It wasn’t. Just outside the entrance gate was a police wagon and a constable in uniform standing guard.
Emma slowly backed them out of sight.
There was no more point in lying. “Inspector Reid knows you ordered that female warder to kill Geraldine,” Leo said. “He knows you are behind the bombing involving Constable Lloyd. Porter Stewart told us everything. They are here to arrest you.”
Inflaming the unhinged woman’s temper might just result in the blade being plunged deeper into her body. But Leo would not be cowed by fear or pain.
“Shut up,” Emma ordered. Then, with a twisting tug on Leo’s arm, she said, “You and I are walking out of here, and you’re to do so without drawing attention our way.”
Arm in arm, they would look to be bosom friends to the constable at the gate—should he not see the knife between them. A fine sweat erupted on Leo’s chest and back as Emma rushed them toward the gravel path.
“And where will we go from there?” Leo asked. “You are only going to kill me afterward.”
“That is your own fault. You and your inspector have ruined everything,” she said, sounding petulant and desperate. “I should gut you now. It would be kinder than the punishment my family will show you.”
“Ah yes, the Spitalfields Angels. Is Clive Paget your father, then? And is Miss Hartley truly your sister?”
Emma startled, surprised that her connection to the Angels had been uncovered. She glanced toward Leo, distracted. On Leo’s next stride, she swung her ankle out and brought it back against Emma’s in a sweeping motion. Emma tripped and, in her stumbling, the knife slid down the side of Leo’s torso in another blaze of pain. Her leg tangled with Leo’s, and they both landed hard on the ground, the agony in Leo’s side debilitating. In a blink, Emma was on top of her, pushing her onto her back. Leo kicked and thrashed, but the woman’s weight was more than she could combat.
“Oi!” the constable at the gate called out before starting toward them.
The tip of the penknife came to rest underneath Leo’s chin.
“Stay back!” Emma screamed. He did, holding out his palms in surrender.
