Page 92 of Angel's Flight

“Musha-rin-durin dah, whack for the daddy-o, whack for the daddy-o there’s whiskey in the jar,” the whole crowd sang with the band and Erik sighed, closing his eyes to let the music reach him.He’d been trying to keep it out, but maybe Christine was right.Maybe he could give it a chance.

“He counted out his money and it made a pretty penny, I took the money home and I gave it to me Jenny,” the men on stage sang over the drum and pipe, their voices rough and reedy, carrying a tune old as the hills.His mother had sung this song once when she was in a fair mood; when the sun was shining and she thought no one could hear.Her father had sung it to her, and his father to him, and so on.Who knew where it came from...

“She sighed and she said that she never would deceive me, but the devil’s in the woman and I never will be easy.”

“A violent song, though not inaccurate.”

Erik’s eyes flew open.There before him, seated where Christine had just been, was Pauline, with a look of pure delight in her grey eyes.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to surprise you,” Pauline said, leaning towards him.She was dressed more fashionably than he had ever seen before, wearing a dark blue dress with a low-cut neckline edged in lace.Her spectacles were gone and her hair was up in the same sort of style Christine had favored lately, with a few ringlets loose at the base of her neck – had she changed the color somehow to look more auburn too?

“The only surprise is seeing you so soon,” Erik drawled, affecting an air of disinterest.“Have you been lurking here waiting for me?”

“You do think quick,” Pauline replied.“When I received word from Monsieur Bidaut that you had fled London with your tail between your legs, I knew you were on your way.You’ve given us quite a merry chase – the trick about America was genius.To find you so easily now is truly a delight.”

“The delight will be mine when I leave you a bloody pulp out in the alley,” Erik said with a sneer that was met with a mock gasp of horror and a grin.

“You’d threaten a woman?I thought you were reformed, or some such nonsense.I guess you’re the killer I have heard so many things about,” Pauline tutted.“And don’t say I don’t know you, Erik.Because I do.I’m a scholar of all things about you if I do say so myself.Your dedicated student and aficionado.”

“That can’t be very satisfying,” Erik muttered.“There’s not much to learn.”

“You’d be surprised what an enterprising detective can uncover.”Pauline looked so proud of herself, it would have been comical if not for the madness in her eyes.

Erik waved a thin hand.“What do you want?”

“This is a parlay before the battle begins.A courtesy offer.”

“You want something in exchange for the surrender of my fortune?”Erik was almost ready to give it to her.Being chased down for such a petty reason was truly beneath him.

“Oh.No,” Pauline said sweetly.“That exchange will come later.When I decide whether or not to burn your mother’s crumbling old village to the ground.”

The mask concealed the expression on Erik’s face, but not the fire that must have sparked in his eyes, for Pauline grinned, smug and infuriating.

“Why would I care?”Erik bluffed.“Or believe you would do something so flashy and foolish?You and Bidaut have been subtle so far.”

“I don’t mean literally, silly man.”Pauline giggled like she was flirting, a profoundly disturbing affectation.“I mean I’m going to own that town – plans are already in motion – and destroy it, bit by bit.I’ll evict the useless farmers, and close down whatever godforsaken hovels they have on their main street.Drive everyone away one by one in misery.There’s so much you can do with a little finesse and a vulnerable old fool.”

“And money.Which your employer doesn’t have or they wouldn’t be after mine,” Erik scoffed, though the thought was chilling.

“We’ve learned from you how easy it is to make people believe in ghosts and lies,” Pauline replied with a shrug.“But you’re right.Bidaut thinks it’s too complicated.He’s planning on finding someone to kill if you don’t comply.Maybe our friends from Lucca?Howard or dear Giacomo.Jack to you.Or that whore in London your own strumpet was seen with?Or perhaps Adèle Valerius?That would be poetic.”

Erik forced himself not to take the woman by the throat right here, audience be damned.All Erik could hope was that this was a bluff, and he had not done the thing he wished the most not to do – or that Christine had taught him to not want to do – endanger friends, old and new.Bring more people under the shadow of his curse.

“Be careful wasting all your threats now, someone may begin to doubt your honesty in making them.”He kept his tone light and annoyed, even though he was seething.

“I think you know how serious we are,” Pauline trilled.“But, as I said, this is a parlay.I have an offer for you and you alone.”

There was something wild in the woman’s eyes, something that had become untethered from reason since the last time Erik had encountered her.Maybe he could exploit that.

“I’m listening,” Erik muttered.

“I will tell Bidaut, our employer, and anyone who will listen that I lost you; to give up the ghost, as it were, if you do one, simple thing for me.”Pauline’s face was bright with excitement as she inched closer and slid her hand across the table to grip Erik’s.It made his stomach turn and his nerves go on high alert.“Something not entirely unpleasant.”

“What are you suggesting?”She couldn’t possibly mean what Erik feared she did, but she batted her lashes and looked at him with what he assumed was meant to be an expression of seduction.

“I think you know,” Pauline purred, but Erik was silent.“If you insist on clarity: I want you to fuck me.”

“Why?”Erik asked, holding in his horror and the impulse to pull his hand away.This wasn’t the time to deliver any sort of rejection to a madwoman.

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