The Gentleman and the Thief (The Dread Penny Society #2) - Sarah M. Eden Page 0,74
could catch it and return it to the Ipsley mine, it might remain there and stop causing mischief here?”
“If I had a home,” Pip said, “I’d always want to be there.”
Tillie held him closer. “You can have your home with me, Pip.”
What would it take for her to offer him a home “with us”? How could Wellington show Tillie that such a future was not only possible but perfect?
“You’ll not make me go back to the workhouse?” Pip looked from one of them to the other, worry and hope warring in his expression.
“No, Pip. We’d not want you so far away as Ipsley,” Tillie said.
The boy sighed and leaned against her. He looked less burdened. “It likes things that are shiny. That’s how I got it to come out of the mine—with shiny things. And I had a shiny box that it went into. And I closed the lid so it couldn’t get out, and then I ran with it. But it wasn’t happy in the shiny box. It bumped around inside. I ran and ran, but then I dropped the box and the lid came off and the blue flame came out and darted into your house.” He looked to Wellington. “I should’ve told you, but I was afraid.”
“How long were you out on the moors by yourself?” The creature had, after all, been undertaking its thefts for weeks.
“I hid in the stables.” Pip curled into an ever-smaller ball on Tillie’s lap. “The blue flame was angry. I didn’t want it to find me.”
“We’ll lure it away,” Tillie promised. “And we’ll get it back home. Nothing will happen to you, dearie.”
Pip climbed down. He assumed the determined stance of one attempting to be brave. “You’ll need shiny things. And a box.”
Tillie nodded solemnly. “We’ll fetch ’em.” She stood and took Wellington’s hand in hers. “Let’s catch us a tiny blue monster.” Tillie waved Pip along. “You can stay here with my papa.”
“He likes me,” Pip declared.
“We all do,” Wellington said.
Tillie squeezed his hand and smiled up at him. A man could quickly grow accustomed to such a look from such a woman. Pip skipped off down the corridor, his joyfulness restored.
“What do your guests think of Pip?” Tillie asked. “They couldn’t have missed that he’s an urchin.”
“I don’t know that they’ve interacted with him yet.”
Her gaze returned to the corridor, though he suspected she wasn’t really looking at anything in particular. “Are you afraid they’ll disapprove of him as well? Or accuse him of being the thief?”
“They might,” he admitted. “Civility requires that I give them shelter from the rain, but there is no requirement that I allow them to be insulting.”
“Pip and I are beneath them,” she said. “Their behavior is expected.”
“But it won’t be endured. Should they cause you further pain, my dear, I will toss them out on their ears, rain or no rain.”
Her expression softened. “Not many gentlemen would make that choice.”
“They would if they knew you.”
She swung their linked hands between them as they walked. “I think you’ve grown fond of me these past weeks.”
“I’ve always been fond of you,” he said.
“Fond enough to undertake ridiculous and likely dangerous adventures?”
He let his amusement show. “Increasingly so.”
Tillie tugged him onward. “Let’s go fetch some shiny things.”
They’d been out on the moors for an hour without any sign of the elusive blue flame. Tillie was wearing every piece of shining, sparkling jewelry at Summerworth. Wellington kept near her with a wood-lined silver humidor at the ready. It was the shiniest box they could find.
And, yet, they’d had no success. To compound the difficulties, the skies above were turning leaden. Heaven help them if they were caught out in such a place under such circumstances!
“Perhaps we should come back another day,” Wellington said. “I’d not want you to catch cold.”
“Pip will not rest easy until the bluecap is home. And your guests aren’t likely to leave until we recover the missing brooch.”
He squared his shoulders. “That is all the motivation I need.”
Tillie snorted, something a well-bred lady would never do, but which he enjoyed immensely. She was sunshine and fresh air.
She held up two fists full of dangling bracelets and chains of precious metal, bouncing them about so they sparkled. “Mr. Thief,” she said in a singsong voice. “Come steal these fine things from us.”
“That hasn’t worked yet, it won’t—”
A blue flame appeared, no more than fifty yards ahead of them. Wellington pulled in a tight breath.