other people too,” Thalia reminded him. “Mr. Cornelius Cadwallader, for one. I can’t imagine he enjoyed letting Von Faber push him and his syndicate around.”
“That is a good point.” Nutall took a seat on the davenport and unfolded the newspaper again.
Thalia considered reminding Nutall that even if the police found out he’d been at the Imperial Theater the night before Von Faber’s demise, he wasn’t a murderer. She also considered how well sound carried in the boardinghouse and how nosy her fellow lodgers were. Instead, she said, “Plenty of people hated Von Faber. The police are going to figure that out. They can’t find anything against us because we didn’t do anything. If someone truly rigged the Bullet Catch to do away with Von Faber, it was neither you nor me.”
“Neither you nor I.” Nutall corrected her absently from behind the newspaper.
That was much more like the usual Nutall, Thalia decided. “So are you going out to find us a gig? Or will you just sit in here and read the newspapers all day?”
“The latter.” Nutall sounded preoccupied. “We can start to look for work properly on Monday.”
* * *
As before, Ryker’s Pierce-Arrow arrived punctually. It collected Thalia promptly at three o’clock. The Ryker servants were already used to her. Thalia was sent upstairs on her own once Rogers informed her that Miss Ryker was in her study.
Thalia knocked gently at the door and entered when Nell called permission. To her dismay, she found that the Trader girl had obviously been crying. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?”
Nell gestured to the Trader newspapers spread across the worktable. “Another manticore sighting. Even though his family had hired a bodyguard, a fifteen-year-old boy was attacked on his way to the theater last night. The bodyguard drove it off before he was seriously hurt.”
“Well, that’s lucky, isn’t it?” Thalia ventured.
“It is, of course it is.” Nell produced an embroidered handkerchief and blew her nose. “Only now Nat is going to keep me locked up here forever. Even if the Skinner gets the manticore today—he’s on patrol right now, of course—Nat will say two sightings means two manticores. Nat takes no chances. It’s terrible. It’s his excuse to keep me locked up here until I’m old and gray.”
“Your brother won’t keep you locked up here forever, I promise. It’s impossible.” Thalia investigated a lump beneath the layer of newspapers and found that it was a deck of cards. She began to shuffle them absently. “He wants to make sure you’re safe, that’s all.”
Nell made a noise of barely suppressed anger. “Thank you for these blinding truths. Next you will remind me that I’m lucky to have a brother.”
Thalia flinched a little. Once she’d had a brother. He’d died as an infant, when Thalia had been only three years old, and their mother had died the very next day. Thalia couldn’t remember any of it happening, and her father had never willingly spoken of it. She only knew that her mother had gone. Grief had been with her ever since, a remote injury, aching like a broken bone that never quite healed. “I would never tell you that.”
“You don’t have to say it. I know I’m lucky to have Nat. But that doesn’t change the fact that I’m practically a prisoner here. I know it’s for my own good, but I hate it.”
“You really don’t need me to have this conversation, do you? You’re doing both sides of it all by yourself.” Thalia handed Nell the deck of cards. “Show me what you did with the ace of spades when we met, only this time make it look a little more clumsy. Sometimes your trick will be more effective if you look like you’re trying hard on the easy part. Your mark won’t expect it when you fool them with the hard part.”
Nell began to shuffle the cards herself. “It’s supposed to look effortless, isn’t it?”
“It’s supposed to be effortless,” Thalia agreed, “but you need to have complete control over what your mark sees. For now, make me think you’re new at this.”
Thalia watched carefully as Nell cut the cards and began to manipulate them. She had to suppress a smile when she saw Nell steal the ace of spades and ditch it in her sleeve, ready to be called back into play at the right moment.
As Thalia had hoped, giving Nell permission to be a bit clumsy prompted her to move more fluidly. The faint stiffness she’d displayed, common to beginners, melted away. Nell fanned the