Page 54 of An Honorable Deception
Lavinia would have guessed younger—she was so small, slight. Although to look in her eyes, she might have guessed a hundred instead.
Yates narrowed his eyes. “You think?”
“Parents died in a fire in our building—Barclay and Willa and Rosie took me in. I was a baby, so they had to guess about the age.” It didn’t seem to bother her. “Why? How old are you?”
“Twenty-three.” He didn’t seem to find the question odd. “And this adoptive brother of yours doesn’t mind sending his twelve-year-old sister into strange parts of the city to pick pockets?”
Lucy’s chin came up. “Ain’t strange. We know all of London. And we ain’t gonna steal from ourownlot—they’re no better off’n we are.”
On a different day, Lavinia might have let her eyes slide shut, dismayed at hearing one so young talking brazenly about theft. After everything else she’d learned today? Picking a few pockets sounded next door to virtue.
Yates reached to unfasten that wretched pin from his tie. “Do you know Rabbit and Percy and Coal?” He slid the thing back into his pocket.
Lucy looked surprised for the first time since she climbed out of that window. “’Course. Doyou?”
Yates grinned. “They’re my couriers.”
Now the girl’s eyes went thoughtful. And, if she weren’t mistaken, respectful. “Can’t be. You—that can’t be right.You?”
Yates tipped his invisible hat and gave a mock bow. “Mr. A of the Imposters. At your service, my lady.”
Lucy grinned so wide she looked like a normal child. “Oh, Barclay’sdefinitelygoing to want to meet you.”
“And I him. I think I will, in fact, need his help.” He nodded toward Grosvenor. “Tell him to find me in my study. If he can manage it, he has the job.”
With a giggle that sounded far too young and innocent for the conversation, Lucy darted off. Within a few seconds, she’d vanished into the shadows.
Lavinia sucked in a breath. “You really think it’s wise to hire a thief?”
“Wise? Hardly. Morally sound? Certainly not. But I want to learn who this family of hers is—and frankly, I don’t know who among ‘honest folk’ I can trust right now. I saw the police commissioner inside that place, and he certainly wasn’t making arrests.”
Lavinia sighed, not quite able to wrap her mind around everything that had happened in this long day. The morning with the magazine. The excitement of that discovery. The realization that she was, in fact, in love with Yates. That torturous train ride, her first surveillance, and then Lucy. “What are my chances of getting you to share what you learned in there?”
Yates turned to the left and started walking. “Details? Nil. But the gist is that it was as we feared, and Samira is there.”
“Why wouldn’t she come with you then?”
His sigh was knotted with frustration. “First, because she thought her presence would protect Alethia.”
“How?”
He was quiet so long, his jaw was clenched so tight, she thought he wouldn’t answer. When he did, she almost wished he hadn’t. “She said that had always been the arrangement. Her, to spare Alethia. Before.”
Before.Before?Their only real before was in India, but that ...
Lavinia tucked her hand through his arm because sheneeded it there. He’d forgive it, given the circumstances. “Who ... who would have been both there and here?”
Another beat of silence. “Exactly. I think I convinced Samira that she is in factnotprotecting Alethia now—I told her that she’d been attacked. But then ‘his lordship’ was on his way up and I had to leave. She said she expects he’ll have moved her by tomorrow, insists he’s using her as a pawn to exert control over Alethia.”
“So then we follow. See where he takes her.” His breath of laughter made her frown. “How is that funny?”
“It isn’t,” he said, still chuckling wryly. “It’s just that I was so frustrated by the situation I hadn’t even been able to think of that rather obvious solution. All I could think was to hope she was wrong and go back for her tomorrow. I think I was too blinded by my determination to bring that whole place down to think logically about Samira herself.”
Well. Good to know she was a valuable member of the team, even if that was all he’d ever want her to be.
Fairfax House loomed ahead of them, the lights in the windows showing that Sir Merritt was at home. Part of her wanted to continue to Hemming House, collapse into bed despite the early hour, see if sleep would erase a few of the day’s emotions.
She nodded toward the lights. “I imagine Sir Merritt will be a help with our planning. He seems to have a way with strategy.”
