Page 67 of A Treacherous Trade
I looked almost like Indira and Izzy had, but for the blue of the cold.
Venturing out into the hall, I could hear the cadence of their frantically whispered conversation as I made my way down the stairs in my bare feet. The fifth stair creaked, and the house fell instantly silent.
I hurried the rest of the way down, as I had no reason not to.
They were possessed of a perfectly fine parlor with a cheery fire crackling beneath the mantel, but chose instead to gather in the kitchen.
I realized why when I opened the door.
Amelia bustled about the kitchen adding leaves, berries, and seeds to a mortar. She looked up as I entered, and then swiftly over at the Arthurian table where Croft sat like a hulking sentinel.
He stood at my entrance, and I realized in that moment what the phrase “murder in the eyes” truly meant.
It was when green irises turned black with a rage so dark and lethal that it might overtake one’s humanity with true demonic wrath. Croftvibratedwith violence.
“Gray has agreed tosit downand be still while you tell us—me—what happened to you.” She pulled a high-backed chair from the table and settled it next to the warmth of the cookstove before shoving a cup of tea into my hands. I didn’t miss that she angled the chair away from Croft, so we could not see each other before she went back to her mortar and pestle.
Taking a sip, I winced at the heat on my lip, but sighed when the brew, sweetened with honey, made its comforting way all the way down to warm my belly.
She didn’t look at me, and I sensed that she was giving me the space to gather my thoughts, which I appreciated.
“I was walking from The Velvet Glove to The Orchard to meet you and Bea when a man pulled me into an alley.”
I heard a chair scrape against the floor behind me, and Amelia turned to pin him with a ferocious glare. “As far as I can tell, you aren’t hurt anywhere but your lip and cheek, is that right?”
The bath, I realized, was an examination as much as it was a kindness. She was able to ascertain by the way I reacted, by the condition of the rest of my body, how much damage had been done.
Which, she’d correctly surmised, was none.
“What about the things that don’t leave a mark?” she asked, more for her brother’s benefit than mine, I thought.
I shook my head. “I was only hit once. But it was enough to put me out for a few seconds.”
A foul curse colored the air behind me. “Tell me you found a constable. That they’re out there looking for this dead man.”
“Gray, you promised,” Amelia said.
“He could be stalking his next victim,” Croft argued.
I shook my head, feeling absurd. “I don’t think he’ll go after anyone else tonight. In fact, I’m certain he was sent after me… and I think that’s because I asked someone the right questions about Alys and Jane.” I looked at Amelia, who’d stopped grinding, to gape. Then over my shoulder to Croft, who was staring at the teacup in front of him as if he wanted to smash it with the tight fist he’d rested on the table. “Besides, I stabbed him in the shoulder with the blade I keep in my boot.”
“There’s my girl.” Amelia flashed a victorious grin as she poured the ground herbs and such into a dish and unstoppered a vial with clear liquid, adding a few drops. “They make you bleed, you give them one better.”
“What the hell were you doing at The Velvet Glove?” Croft asked, earning him a scathing glare from his sister.
“Visiting Sophia,” I answered.
“Sophia?” Brows drawing together, Amelia brushed her hands down her apron and turned to me with the bowl. “What does she have to do with any of this?”
I sighed, searching a mind muddled by pain and fatigue. “I suppose I should start from the beginning.”
“Put this on your cut first,” Amelia dipped her finger into the bowl and brought out a paste that looked like something one might fish out of Teagan’s diaper. “You’ll wear it for five or ten minutes and wash it off. Have a care to not ingest it, even though you’ll want to lick your lips. It’ll send your stomach into an upheaval you’ll not soon forget.”
She reached for my lip, and I flinched back. “What’s in it?”
“Best you not worry about that, but you’ll wake up tomorrow and find most of the swelling magically gone. And the bruise will heal at least twice as fast.” She winked.
I looked around at the charming and often lovely sprigs of leaves, bundles of flowers, and dried herbs hanging from every part of the kitchen. A few live ones still flourished in the anemic light of the window, hearty plants I couldn’t identify.
