Page 42 of Of Fate and Phantoms
Mink peered at me through long strands of greasy hair, and for one moment I wondered if he was like me, female pretending to be a boy. But then I remembered seeing him piss once. He was definitely male. "Why would you be in danger from us?" he asked.
I counted three others in the cellar, including the person beneath the blankets. Finley and Mink made five. Their numbers were depleted, unless the rest were out scavenging and stealing. With my training, I could probably fight them off if I had to, particularly with the knife strapped to my ankle and another to my forearm.
"I'm not," I said. "But he worries about me."
Mink's gaze slipped down my length then slowly met mine again. "So you found yourself a husband."
The other lad gasped and the body on the mattress pushed back the blankets to peer at me.
"I'm not married," I said.
"But you are a woman."
"I am. How long have you known?"
The body on the bed swore softly. The other boy, Tick, if I recalled correctly, stared at my chest as if he'd never seen a woman before.
"Not at first," Mink admitted, "but the idea grew on me the longer I knew you. You never pissed or changed in front of us and you liked to be clean. In my experience, only girls like to be clean."
"I always knew you were the clever one." I handed him the sack and watched him open it.
Tick reached into the sack and pulled out a loaf of bread, baked the day before. He tore off the end and knelt on the mattress. A boney hand emerged from the folds and squirreled the bread away.
Mink pulled the blanket from the sack and, to my surprise, smelled it. He breathed deeply, closing his eyes, burying his face in the wool. I knew it had been laundered with a lavender scent, but couldn't smell it from where I stood. The stench of urine and filth was too strong.
"How many are you now?" I asked softly.
He lowered the blanket but didn't let it go. "Just us five."
"There's more than enough food for five of you to eat well for a few days, at least." I nodded at the sack. "There are clothes, too."
He pulled out a shirt and smelled it. "You always did like clean shirts."
"And trousers."
"Dresses?"
"I'd almost forgotten what it was like to wear a dress," I said. "It took some getting used to again. They're no good for climbing, or running." Or fighting.
Mink's face softened and I thought he'd smile, but he didn't. I'd never seen him smile. When the others would howl with laughter over a childish joke, his lips would hardly lift. Sadness dogged him, so deep that he couldn't shake it. In my experience, sorrow like that haunted only those who'd once known love and safety and lost it, whereas those like Stringer could laugh and enjoy themselves because they knew nothing better than the life they lived in the cellar hovel. They were born in the slums and would die in the slums. I suspected Mink wasn't born to this class but had found himself entrenched in its mire at some point.
"You mentioned money," he said. When I listened really hard, I could hear the middle class tone in his voice. He hadn't learned to cover it completely. "How can we get some?"
"My friend and I need ears and eyes in the East End."
He shoved the sack away. "No. We're not dobbers. We ain't risking our lives for your fancy man."
"He's not my fancy man."
"He a pig?"
"No. He works for a secret organization that tries to keep the world safe from…" I sighed. There really was no way to describe what Lincoln and the ministry did without mentioning supernaturals, and he'd strictly forbidden me to tell them that. "Never mind. He's a spy, of sorts, but his network is a little fragmented in this part of the city." Although Lincoln had tavern keepers, police constables, shop keepers and prostitutes in his spy network, he didn't have anyone at the very bottom level. It was impossible to get lower than these child gangs.
"We can't help you," Mink said, folding thin arms over a thin chest. "Take your things and go." He signaled for Tick to give back the blanket. Tick clutched it tighter and watched his leader through narrowed eyes.
"Don't be a fool, Mink," I said. "You need what's in that sack, and you need regular money. My friend can offer you that. Look at me." I held out my arms. "I'm healthy and happy."
"You've definitely changed, and not just your…" He waved at my chest but didn't meet my gaze.
