old world. Now—” picking up the cuirass “—how do we put this thing on you?”
“The straps buckle.” The stableman’s voice was barely audible. He shook his curly head. “My lord, forgive me, but this won’t work. They’ll come looking for me.”
“They’ll get their blood. You’re being replaced.”
Warily, the stableman asked, “By who?”
“By somebody replaceable,” Firo said impatiently, “which Lady Eleanor, for some reason, seems to believe you’re not.” He shoved the armor at the stableman, who took it rather than drop it—through years of having things shoved at him, Nate suspected—but did not move to put it on. “Stupid man. You’re being given your life.”
He stared at the cuirass. “They’ll go to my mother’s house. They’ll burn it down. My sisters—”
“Then go somewhere else. I swear, whatever she saw in you, it eludes me.” Firo shook his head. When he spoke again, his words came slowly and with precise enunciation, as if he really did think the stableman was stupid. “Here is the situation. Lady Eleanor wants you rescued, so rescued you will be. You have no choice in the matter. After you’re outside the Wall, I don’t care what happens to you. But I would not advise getting caught.”
Showing a spark of nerve, the stableman said, “If I am, they’ll find out who helped me.”
“They will,” Firo said. “But it’ll take time. I can make that time very unpleasant for you. And for your mother and sisters, too, I suppose.” He frowned at the stableman with genuine confusion. “Is there anyone else I should be threatening to convince you to let us save your life? A beloved cousin, perhaps?”
The stableman’s muddy blue eyes went to Nate, who gave him nothing. Then, slowly, he began to put the cuirass on.
* * *
In cuirass, helmet and greaves, the stableman made a reasonably believable guard, but it soon became clear that he was utterly lost in the House. Fortunately, Nate was able to find the courtyard where the phaeton waited, even if he made a few mistakes on the way; even more fortunately, nobody they passed seemed to notice that both he and the guard accompanying him were out of place and lost. Before he climbed into the two-person carriage, Nate muttered, “Stand on the side rail,” to the stableman, so he’d know what to do. Nate didn’t usually have a guard, but it wasn’t unheard of, and the phaeton driver glanced at the helmeted stableman pulling himself up onto the rail without much interest. Then his eyes widened. Despite his instinctive dislike of the man responsible for Judah’s situation, Nate felt a surge of panic. If they were caught, it wouldn’t be good for him, either.
“Onward,” he barked at the driver. “Hurry.”
The driver looked from Nate to the stableman and back. Then, eyes still wide, he said, “Sir,” a new note in his voice—was it respect?—and cracked the reins.
It took scarcely ten minutes to travel back to the manor. As befitted a guard, the stableman hopped down first. He accompanied Nate up the front walk. “Come in, I guess,” Nate said. This was not his plan and nobody had told him what happened next. Inside, he called, “Hello?” and was relieved when Bindy didn’t answer. She’d gone out on an errand that morning and must not be back yet. He went to his lab and began gathering supplies: surgical thread for stitching tattered skin; the opium syrup he’d been preparing for numbing away agony; a few other, less potent things to ease pain and encourage healing. When he came back into the kitchen, the stableman had peeled off the armor. He was holding it awkwardly, and didn’t seem to know what to do with it.
“Just put it on the table,” Nate said. He would find Charles later, and see if the armor could be sold. “What you’re wearing will work in most of the city.”
The stableman placed the armor in a neat pile, clearly used to keeping things tidy. “Is Judah really all right?”
“She will be. Eventually.” He considered asking the man outright if Judah could be pregnant, but decided it was a stupid question. Of course she could be; the question was whether or not she was. “There’s a gate in the garden. You can leave that way.”
“She just collapsed.” The stableman didn’t move. “I’ve never been so—What will they do to her?”
“She’ll be caned.” Nate found callous gratification in the way the massive man’s giant body crumpled into itself. Let him be hurt. Judah would be.