Page 39 of Ashes To Ashes
She covered another gasp with both hands, or rather, paws. Claws sprouted from her fingertips. When she realized, she shook them and the claws retracted. Her hands returned to normal. She pressed her lips together and glanced past him, left and right. She tucked her hands behind her back.
"I belong to an organization that protects your kind," he said. "I need to take you to safety. Now. Fetch whatever you can carry and come with me."
"But what about my work? My shift begin soon."
"Where do you work?"
"Gumm's Boots on Commercial.”
"I'll tell them you were called away to an ill relative's bedside."
She continued to chew her lip.
"Your loved ones can come with you," he told her.
"I have no one. My husband and son dead."
He removed some money from his pocket. Her eyes widened. It was probably a year's worth of wages. "You can move out of London and rent a room for yourself. This should last you until you find work." He knew he was asking a lot of her, but if he couldn't save her…if she died because he hadn't alerted her yesterday…
He swallowed down the bile burning his throat. "I'll drive you to the station."
"I pack. Wait."
He retreated to the cabriolet. Another woman emerged from the house and paused when she spotted him. She was younger than Mrs. Metzger, but looked just as tired. She edged past him and hurried off along the street, her shoulders stooped.
Mrs. Metzger returned barely ten minutes later with a carpet bag that looked like it had traveled the world. Worn and stained, it nevertheless looked sturdy. Lincoln tied it to the back of the cabriolet.
"I will go to Southampton where there is sea and good air." Her face lifted and the sagging seemed not so pronounced. She held out her hand for the money and he passed it to her. She tucked it into her bodice then climbed up beside him.
"May I ask you a question about your hands?" he asked as the horse pulled away from the gutter.
She folded her gloved hands in her lap. "You may."
"Is that the only part of you that changes? Or is there something more to your magic?"
"Only my hands change, but I see the dead too."
"You're a medium? Or a necromancer?"
"What are these?"
"A medium speaks to the spirits of the recently deceased, but a necromancer can summon those long dead and bring them back to life."
She gasped then crossed herself. "I am medium. I see new spirits, before cross over."
He flicked the reins to drive the horse through the thickening morning traffic. They sat in silence, allowing Lincoln to think. Did the killer suspect Mrs. Metzger was a necromancer and had decided to eliminate her, just in case? Or was he now attacking supernaturals of any sort, no matter if they couldn't be used to reanimate the dead? If so, then everyone in the ministry archives was in danger.
A half hour later, he'd deposited Mrs. Metzger at Waterloo Station and headed home. She was safe, and perhaps she might even be happier living at the seaside than in London. He'd told her to contact him at Lichfield once she was settled. He would add her new location to the files, and keep those files locked away from untrustworthy eyes.
The house was quiet when he entered via the courtyard door, and he didn't need a seer's powers to know why. Gus and Seth were gone. He bypassed the kitchen but felt the venom of Cook's glare nevertheless. A resounding thump of the rolling pin left Lincoln in no doubt that Cook blamed him for his friends' departure.
Lincoln took the stairs two at a time, only to stop dead when he met Lady Vickers on the landing. She greeted him with a smile, which surprised him. Shouldn't she be upset about her son leaving? Shouldn't she be worried that Lincoln would throw her out now? The last time they'd spoken, she'd stoked Lincoln's temper and been determined that he should treat Seth as an equal, at the very least. So why the smile?
"Good morning, Mr. Fitzroy. I see you've been out already, and in such gloomy weather too."
"It has only just begun to rain." He stepped aside, but she didn't move to pass him.
A small crinkle appeared across her smooth brow. "You look troubled," she said, her smile fading.
