Wedded in Sin (9 page)

“I can think of only two reasons, but there may be countless more,” he said, his gaze returning to Irene. “The first is that this is a newly successful dress shop. No doubt there are any number of competitors who would happily send you to the devil.”

“But no one else has been followed. Just me,” said Irene in a small voice.

“You are the buyer. You are the most visible and probably most vulnerable, especially with Lady Redhill on her honeymoon.”

“And who knows if we have been followed?” inserted Penny. “Perhaps we just haven’t noticed.”

“True,” agreed Samuel, “but you have recently lost everything. Perhaps your recent difficulties are part of a larger pattern.”

Penny was both reassured and horrified by that thought. Reassured because she was not alone in her problems and horrified that she had just brought all her friends into her own nightmare. “I don’t know what to think,” she murmured.

He gently pulled the wet rag from her fingers and wrapped her hand in his. “You needn’t think for now, Miss Shoemaker. That is what I am here for.”

Penny smiled back, caught by the reassurance in his eyes and the warmth of his touch. Indeed, she might have stood there soaking up his touch, but Irene interrupted the moment.

“What is the second?” she asked. “You said you could think of two reasons that someone is spying on me. What is the second?”

Samuel shifted his gaze back to the room in general, and Penny felt the loss keenly. But as he continued to hold her hand, she was able to control her reaction.

“Have you ever heard the expression that where there’s smoke, there’s usually a fire?”

Irene nodded, her eyes wide.

“I find that when one person associates with dangerous thugs, dangerous things happen. Usually to her friends first.” At this, his gaze shifted, looking long and steady into each person’s eyes. He began with Irene, who blinked in shock, then to Mrs. Appleton, who simply hugged Tommy and looked worried. Tabby had stepped far back from the group, but he held her gaze as well. Then he looked to Wendy, but the seamstress was looking at the floor while her hands worried in her skirts.

“Wendy?” asked Penny. “Is something amiss?”

The seamstress flatted her lips and glared up at Penny. “Everything is amiss, and there is nothing I can do to change it.” Her voice was hard and angry, but Penny read an apology in her eyes. “I cannot understand why you have been thrown from your home, I don’t like people being followed or their friends getting noshed on the head. Helaine would know what to do. She always does for things like this. But all I can see is that the shop must stay open. And for that, I must sew a dozen more dresses by week’s end and with a girl more thumbs than fingers.” She shot Tabby an angry glare. “I fear for all of you and I want to ’elp, but all I can do is sew.”

Irene nodded and stepped over to the desk. “Of course, of course. You’re right. Whatever else is going on, we must make sure the shop thrives.”

“And to that end,” Samuel said as he hopped up from his chair, “Miss Shoemaker and I shall be off to inspect some smoke.” He winked at Penny. “That’s me being clever as I refer to seeing the solicitor.”

“Yes,” she returned. “I understood that.”

“Oh!” he added as he turned to Tabby. “There’s a man near Bond Street, has a room right above the Salty Dog. Name’s Bert Keigley and he owes me a favor. Tell him that I sent you—Samuel Morrison—and he’ll fit you with glasses right away. Should help with your sewing.”

“Glasses!” gasped Wendy. “But she can see better than anyone. Spotted you when you were still down the street and I couldn’t see a thing.”

“Ah, but that’s just the problem, isn’t it?” he said to the girl. “You can see at a distance, but up close is a blur. You’re farsighted, my dear, and that can be corrected with a pair of glasses. Then I expect your stitches will be as neat as a pin.”

Tabby didn’t say a word, but the way her eyes widened and she pressed a hand to her mouth told them everything they needed to know. She was indeed farsighted.

“But how did you know?” asked Penny.

“Look at her workstation,” he said as he gestured over to the corner where the girl usually worked. “Everything as neat as a pin, but set far away from her chair and with as much wide space as possible from each other. That plus her terrible work and the fact that she did indeed point us out when we were over a block away make the conclusion obvious.” Then he turned and rapidly wrote out a note on some paper lying on Helaine’s desk. When he was done, he sanded it quickly and handed it to Tabby. “Give this to Bert and he’ll fix you up right and tight. Give you a good deal, too, and let you pay in pieces as you get the coin.” He glanced significantly at the bolts of cloth stacked six high on the nearest table. “Best go now. He needs time to grind the lens and you need to be back here earning your keep as soon as possible.”

Tabby took the note in a shaking hand, at last finding her voice. “Thank you,” she whispered. “Oh, thank you, sir!” Then she was gone in a flash, disappearing without even grabbing a coat.

Meanwhile, Samuel was turning his winning smile back to Penny. “Ready to sniff at some smoke then, Miss Shoemaker?”

“Of course, Mr. Morrison. Let us go immediately.” She didn’t say that when he smiled at her, she was more than willing to go to an evil solicitor’s office. Indeed, she was willing to go anywhere at all with him. She would put her hand in his and happily walk right up to the devil himself.

And that, she realized, was a very worrisome state of affairs. Fortunately, she was too distracted by his smile to allow herself to dwell on that fear. Besides, she rationalized, he was a nice man and a gentleman. How dangerous could he be?

Chapter 6

Penny had never been in a solicitor’s office before. It
was the province of men and so she was predisposed to awe the moment she stepped in the front door. But even with that, she could see that the offices of Mr. Addicock, solicitor at law, had seen better days. It wasn’t necessarily the dirt on the floor or the odor of smoke, but the complete absence of a woman. She saw a boy barely into his teens hunched over a desk writing something and that was all.

Perhaps this was how law offices worked, but Penny guessed that the most prestigious ones had a woman to serve tea and another to dust and clean. Butlers, footmen, and the like were all well and good, but there was something about a woman’s eye that made a place brighter. Or at least a good deal cleaner.

She glanced at Samuel and saw that he was observing everything with his own keen eye, but she read no judgment on his face. Simple observation without emotion. Then he abruptly rapped his knuckles on the boy’s desk and shifted into a charming and rather stupid smile.

“Ho there, boy. Busy copying, what? Tedious work. I quite admire the way you do that, hunched over all day. Been doing it long, what?”

“Ever’ day, all day,” the child mumbled.

“Ugh! Tedious, I’ll bet. And you have been working here forever, I’ll wager. Probably feels like an age, when you’ve only been here, what? A year at most?”

“Three months. Next week.”

“Oh, early days then. But at least the pay’s good, right?”

The child rolled his eyes, and now that he’d actually lifted his head, Penny could see that he was older than she’d expected. More like eighteen or nineteen.

“Pay’s shit, and that’s when he remembers t’ pay. But he’s nice enough.” Then he leaned back and stretched out his back with a grunt. “You’ll be wanting to see him, then, but he ain’t here.”

“Nothing to worry about,” Samuel answered with a shrug. “This lady here’s his client. Managing a trust for her brother. Thomas Shoemaker? She’s here to talk—”

“Oy, that’s you then,” he said as his gaze turned to her. “He said you’d be round, probably screaming and wailing. That I wasn’t to let you in and to call the constable directly.”

Penny lifted her hands and tried to force a smile. “I’m not screaming or wailing.”

The boy frowned. “No, you ain’t.”

“Nor is she likely to,” added Samuel. “I’m here and this is a happy visit. Not often that a woman’s brother gets a fat lot of money for the sale of her home, what?”

Penny looked at Samuel in surprise. She didn’t want to sell her home. She wanted it back! But of course, he was smiling happily down at the boy, sparing her the smallest glance. Obviously, he had a plan, so she reinforced her genial smile. She ought to be worried at how quickly she had come to trust Samuel, but that, too, was pushed aside as she focused on looking as far from a hysterical woman as possible.

Meanwhile Samuel gestured to the only other door in the room. “That go to his office then?”

The boy stood up, obviously alarmed. “But he ain’t in there—”

Samuel dropped a friendly hand on the boy’s shoulder. “I know, I know. If I were to guess, I’d say he’s holed up somewhere close. Left you high and dry to deal with a wailing woman.”

The boy’s expression shifted to a disgusted grimace. “’At’s me job,” he said with a kind of grunt.

“Really? I thought your job was to copy papers and such. Filings and the like. You know, the job of a clerk. Not to play nursemaid to screaming women.”

Obviously the boy hadn’t thought of that, and obviously this was just the right tack to take. His expression tightened in a sulky kind of disobedience. “’At’s what I says,” he grumbled. “But ’e don’t listen.”

“No, his type never does. But tell you what, old boy, turns out that this is a happy day, the lady isn’t screaming, and you don’t have to call the constable on anybody.” Then he tossed the kid a tuppence. “Why don’t you run over and tell Mr. Addicock that the lady’s excited to see him while we wait here.”

The boy shook his head, but with some regret even as he pocketed the tuppence. “I ain’t supposed to let anyone in here. Not without Mr. Addicock.”

“Of course, of course,” said Samuel with a nod. “But we’re not just anybody. The lady’s a client. And you’ll be going to get Mr. Addicock, won’t you? His office is locked, ain’t it?” Just to prove it, Samuel rattled the doorknob. “’Sides, he’ll be happy to know that she’s not screaming, won’t he? Come on. It ain’t your job to be sitting here nursemaiding anyway. Not when your hand is so neat and the copying so perfect.” He pointed to the papers the boy had been writing so carefully.

The boy was giving in. Penny could see it, but he wasn’t quite convinced yet. So she decided it was time she played her own hand, though it turned her stomach to do it. She smiled sweetly in just the way that she did for very difficult customers. She was warm and friendly, and she lowered her head slightly in a show of humility.

“I’d be very grateful,” she said. “And I promise not to descend into any sort of hysterics at all. I swear!” She said it with a kind of giggle that only the very birdbrained released.

It worked. The boy colored up to his ears and ducked his head. This was, of course, exactly why women acted the fool. Because it made men fools. She glanced sideways to see if Samuel was affected.

He was, but not how she’d hoped. He was watching her with his eyes narrowed, and his color raised. She had no idea what that meant. For all she knew, he could be suffering a moment of dyspepsia. But then the expression was lost beneath his congenial expression.

Meanwhile she touched the boy’s arm. “I am afraid you have the advantage of me, sir,” she said as breathlessly as possible. And when the boy didn’t answer, she smiled. “You know my name, but I don’t know yours.”

It took him a moment that involved several blinks and a gasp. But then he ducked his head. “Um, Ned, mum. Ned Wilkers.”

She gave him her best curtsy. “Pleased to make your acquaintance, Ned Wilkers.”

Beside her, Samuel grimaced. Probably at how easily Ned was becoming flustered. Rather than allow the boy to see Mr. Morrison’s disgusted expression, Penny stepped forward right up to poor Ned. Any closer and she’d be in his lap.

“Please, Mr. Wilkers, I want so much to thank Mr. Addicock in person. I’m so thrilled with what he’s done.” It was a miracle she didn’t choke on her words. “Would you get him for me, please?”

He hesitated even as she lifted him out of his chair and began guiding him to the door. “Um—” he began, but she giggled again.

“We won’t bother a thing. I promise.”

“But—”

“Go on,” Samuel urged the boy. “Bad form to keep a lady and a client waiting, what.”

Ned took a breath, looked a little sweetly at her, and then nodded. “Right away, miss. Right away!” Then he dashed off without even remembering his cap.

The moment the door shut, Penny exhaled in relief and turned to Samuel. “He’s gone. Now what?” But her voice trailed off. Obviously, Samuel already knew what he wanted to do. He was at Mr. Addicock’s door with a lock pick in his hands.

“Lock the front door. It’ll delay them when they return.”

She did as he’d bade, using the key that was hanging on a peg right in plain sight. By the time she’d finished, he had opened the door to Addicock’s office and was releasing a low whistle.

“Our intrepid solicitor is not a man who likes to file.”

Penny looked around and couldn’t help agreeing. She had thought her own father was a slob with everything but his tools. He used to leave receipts everywhere, mixed in with leather scraps and the odd pound note. But at least her father had both herself and her mother to keep things in order. Apparently, Mr. Addicock had no such females in his life. Pile after pile of papers rested haphazardly next to cold tea and the remains of a very old meat pie.