Page 58 of A Treacherous Trade
“Of course, you haven’t heard. Jane was found at The Orchard a couple of days ago. She was poisoned, they think.”
Sophia chewed on the inside of her cheek, sizing me up with dark, calculating eyes. “AlysandJane are dead, then? Interesting.”
“Why interesting?” I asked. Why choose that word rather thantragicorsad—orjoyous, if that was how she felt?
“Just is.” She shrugged a bare shoulder and returned to the washbasin. Selecting a clean cloth, she dipped it in the water and scrubbed a floral-scented soap over it until suds appeared against the fiber. “You’re not here because you think I had anything to do with it, are you?”
Well… I hadn’t lent the thought a great deal of credence until I’d met her. “Actually, I…”
“And who are you to be asking, anyhow?”
“I’ve been employed by Beatrice Chamberlain to… look into their deaths.”
“What are you, some sort of lady private detective?” She scoffed. “Old Beawouldhire you over a man, God love her.”
“You and Bea—Mrs. Chamberlain are on good terms, then?” I circumvented her question with one of my own, though I hated when people did that.
“Oh, sure. I’ve nothing against her whatsoever.” Putting her delicate, slippered foot up on the bench I’d only just vacated, she reached beneath her skirts with the soaped cloth and began to wash herself—intimately.
This time, I forced myself not to look away. If Sophia’s gaze could be unflinching and bold, so could mine.
“Why leave The Orchard, then?” I asked.
She regarded me as if I were a special sort of dullard. “Why does anyone do anything? Money, of course. The Velvet Glove pays half again what I’d make at The Orchard, and the clientele are toffs rather than the working class, and prone to show their favor with jewels and the like. Additionally, I get these accommodations as one of the premier girls.” She gestured to the room.Herroom. “Beatrice had a favorite brunette already. Though I don’t know what she’s going to do now…”
“You mean Alys?”
“I suppose.” Finishing with her… ablutions, she tossed the cloth toward the laundry bin, missed, and didn’t bother to pick it up.
“Can you think of anyone you’d suspect would want Alys dead?” I asked.
“I’d no complaint with her, but Alys collected enemies like some people collect pretty butterflies. Like she was proud of them, and all.” Bustling to the trunk I’d sat on, she all but shooed me away so she could toss it open and retrieve clean undergarments. “I thought Alys’s death was an accident or, you know, she went for a holiday swim, like so many others.”
We shared a grim look for the many who dove into the Thames around Christmastime.
“There’s some speculation regarding that,” I said. “But what about Jane? Who would want her dead?”
“Besides me, you mean?”
I did my best not to gawk, as I certainly hadn’t expected her to just come out and admit it.
She cackled at my discomfiture and stepped into her drawers, drawing them up past the silk stockings with the most intricate lace garters I’d ever seen.
“You know how men are like dogs?”
“Yes, but you’ll have to narrow it down for me to catch your meaning,” I said before thinking, which amused her mightily.
“I like you,” she announced, chucking me on the shoulder. “I’m referring to how the smallest ones are the meanest. Jane was like that. Pretty manners, innocent face, tiny little thing with eyes big as saucers. Tear your heart out of your chest… right before she eats it. I was the only one at The Orchard not taken in by that manipulative cunt. Or maybe not, now that she doesn’t have me to torment any longer.”
“What do you mean?”
Moving to a messy dressing table, she spread her skirts to sit, arranging bits and bobs in order. I was behind her, so she met my gaze in the reflection of her mirror. “The Orchard has—had—three sparkling gems in its crown. Alys, Jane, and Indira. And now only one is left?”
Indira? I couldn’t say why, but something in me didn’t want to believe it. The woman was as regal as a royal and just as mysterious. Elegant, exotic, enigmatic. It was a potent mixture. Intoxicating, even.
But venomous?
“You really think she would be capable of murdering two women she worked closely with?”
