Page 72 of Once a Villain
That wasn’t quite true—Joan hadn’t thought to bring anything deliberately. But she still had some coins from the Serpentine Inn. She scrounged in her pockets for them now, and Nick searched his own pockets.
Joan half expected Mary to refuse, but she took the coins with clear relief.
“You’ve been all right here?” Nick asked Mary now. His voice was still hoarse. She and Finn clearly weren’t all right.
“Course,” Mary said. “They sent guards here when you escaped, but we used all the resistance tricks you taught us. We didn’t tell them a thing.”
Nick took that in, fists tight by his sides. “And the—the others... ,” he managed. “Alice, Robbie, Luke...”
Mary was quiet for a moment, her dark eyes so much like Nick’s. “We’ve been lighting candles for them when we can afford it. Mum and Dad too.”
From outside, sharp whistles sounded, the notes reminding Joan of the Hathaways’ secret language.
“Guards,” Mary said. She saw Joan’s face. “You don’t have to leave—it’s just a scout warning us of a sighting. They’ll warn again if they come into the rookery.”
“We won’t stay,” Joan said. “We don’t want to put you in danger. We just need some diagrams.” She retrieved the pencil and paper they’d brought and explained to Finn what they were after.
“I won’t ask what this is for,” Finn said, eyebrows rising. He knelt on the floor to draw up the plans. To Nick, he said, “I suppose you only ever saw the pens and the battleground itself....”
He sketched quickly and with detail, starting with the lowest level of the building.
He’d moved on to the ground level—the arena and stands—when more whistles sounded.
“The guards are in the rookery—on Phoenix Street,” Mary said tensely. “They don’t usually patrol this early in the day.”
Nick shot the window an alarmed look. “Maybe someone saw me coming in.”
He was still disguised, wearing Jamie’s carefully applied makeup and glasses. His own family had known him immediately—and Joan would have too—but she suspected he’d have been unrecognizable to most people.
And if someone had snitched, surely she and Nick would already be in custody. Their opponents were time travelers, after all.
But—Joan thought suddenly of the previous timeline, where guards had spoken of unusual fluctuations whenever Nick had been around. They hadn’t seemed able to predict where he’d be, or what he’d do. They hadn’t been able to find him.
Eleanor had detached Nick from the timeline so that he could kill the King, and Joan was beginning to suspect that Nick was an unpredictable point on the timeline now. On the phone call with Aaron, Eleanor had talked about the wolves’ actions being clouded from her view.
That quality wasn’t foolproof, though, Joan knew. Nickhadbeen captured by the Court in the end.... And Joan wasn’t about to risk Nick’s family on a hunch.
“We should go,” she said now.
“Those guards are still on the outskirts,” Finn said. He hadn’t stopped sketching. “We have time.”
But there were more whistles—closer now. “They’re coming this way,” Mary said.
“We’re done,” Nick said to Finn. “Thankyou. This is exactly what we needed.”
Finn blinked up at him, face flushing a little, and Joan saw a glimpse of how much he adored and worshipped his older brother.
Joan swallowed. “Thank you,” she managed, echoing Nick. She looked over the drawings. “This is brilliant. Can you just put some crosses where the big screens will be?” She’d been thinking that if they needed a place to lie low in the stands, the space behind a large screen would be perfect.
“Screens?” Finn said. “What screens?”
“We were told there’d be a recorded message from the Queen,” Nick said. Cassius had mentioned it at the Pelican.
“Right,” Finn said. “She’s going to open the games with a speech—just like she does at every jubilee. But the recorded speech is one of the three-dimensional ones.”
Joan stared. “So... it’ll look like she’s in the stands?”
Finn nodded. “The staff had to consult these old guys who set up the imperial box for the last jubilee. They had to do all these calculations to make the projection look realistic. Funny thing is, though—the Court made the staff redo the whole box. They had to replace all the cushions and curtains with fancy silk stuff. There’s even going to be guards in there. Guardingnothing, though....”
