and, grasping the child by the scruff of the neck, all but throwing him into the carriage. Then, he kicked down the steps for Griz, shouting her address to the driver.
He leapt up after them, and to her relief, Griz saw that the terrible blank look had gone. Still, he was shaking as he cast himself onto the seat beside her and glared at Nick.
Tears were rolling down the child’s cheeks. He didn’t even seem to notice. Impulsively, Griz reached out to comfort him, but Dragan’s cold voice froze her.
“You set us up to be killed.”
Nick didn’t deny it. He stared back at Dragan from his own haunted eyes. “They’d have killed me, too. Me.”
Griz, grappling with both vile facts, fell back into her seat.
“There is no honor among thieves,” Dragan said harshly. “You are as expendable to them as we are.”
The boy did not—could not—deny it. He turned his head away, silently weeping.
“Why did they want us dead?” Dragan asked.
“’Cause you were asking too many questions.”
“No,” Griz said suddenly. “It wasn’t the number. It was particular questions we asked.” From her pocket, she took the crumpled paper Nick had given her in the alehouse and spread it out on her knee. But she was still too shaken to read it. The words jumped and jostled before her eyes. “This came from the rookery that the police cleaned out?”
“Art’s taken over their business,” Nick said dully.
“What business?” Griz asked, folding the paper and replacing it in her pocket.
Nick shrugged impatiently. “Thieving. Fencing. Girls. Boys.” He turned his miserable gaze to Griz and then Dragan. “He looked out for me. Sent me with special messages, kept the pimps away from me. Why’d he turn on me, now? Didn’t he see me?”
“I don’t know,” Dragan said. Although he did, he was clearly sparing the child as his anger retreated. “The point is, you’ve seen too much, now. You can’t go back.”
Nick dashed his sleeve across his eyes and from somewhere found more brash courage. “You going to give me to the Peelers?” he asked carelessly.
“That depends,” Dragan replied after a moment.
Obviously sensing a way out, Nick wheedled. “I can disappear, no bother. Other manors won’t know or care what I done. And I’ll spread the word no one’s to touch you. No one’ll thieve from you or burgle you ever.”
“It depends,” Dragan interrupted, “on what you tell us now. Who is Art? What’s his name?”
“Art,” Nick said, casting him a familiar, pitying look. “Big Art Dooley.”
“Did you ever meet a girl—a young woman—called Nancy?”
“Of course,” Nick scoffed. “Lots. Nancy at the King’s Head, Little Nance, who works at Flo’s. And Old Nancy, who takes in washing and sends it back dirtier.”
“None of those. Her name was Nancy Barrow. She’d have looked respectable, about the same age as this lady, but with brown hair and light blue eyes. Short lashes and straight eyebrows. And a little mole on her chin, here.” Dragan touched a point to the left of his chin, and Griz regarded him with fresh fascination.
He may not have been Nancy’s lover, but he had certainly studied her.
Perhaps he had wanted to be.
And abruptly, she remembered. “The sketch in your notebook, Dragan, show him.”
Dragan delved into his pocket and dragged out the book. He had forgotten about it, too. He thumbed quickly through the pages until he came to his portrait.
He had even marked the small mole on Nancy’s chin.
Nick did them the courtesy of considering the drawing. “No, don’t think I know her.”
“Did you ever carry messages to a Nancy or a Miss Barrow from Art?”
Nick looked at her as if she had horns. “Big Agg’d have killed me.”
“Big Agg being Art’s wife?” Dragan suggested.
“Something like that,” Nick replied. Losing interest, he gazed out of the window and scowled. “Here, where are we going? These houses are huge, like palaces in the middle of a park…”
“We’re just dropping off Lady Grizelda,” Dragan said. “Then you’ll come home with me while we—”
“I ain’t going nowhere with you!” Nick declared, glaring with sudden, incomprehensible fear. “I’ll take my chances with Art before I’d go with you!”
“Mr. Tizsa saved your life,” Griz said, frowning. “Aren’t you grateful?”
“Not that grateful,” Nick said fervently.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Dragan said without heat. “I don’t even like small boys at a distance. I have lodgings with a doctor and his family whom I shall try to persuade to let you stay for a little. If you promise not to steal.”