Page 20 of A Treacherous Trade

“Not early enough, my dear,” she said darkly. “We both preferred life on the streets to that at home.”

“Oh, Amelia I’m so sorr—"

“Let’s not, Fiona,” she said, with an odd sort of cheerfulness. “I’d rather not.”

To be honest, I wasn’t in a place to lay bare the past either, especially when this dress left me so otherwise exposed. The tops of my breasts kept threatening to spill over what could have been a modest, plaid wool bodice, if it only had several yards more fabric.

Where a schoolteacher’s dress would have eyelet lace or cotton frills, this one had sheer sleeves and was pulled up like a drapery at each thigh to show everything below the knee.

“I’m dressed now,” I called to her. “If one could call it that,” I muttered to myself.

“Good! Step out and let’s have a look at you.”

I tiptoed from behind the screen, tugging on the bodice to make certain all the pink parts of my breasts stayed covered.

This time, I wasn’t aware that Croft had opened the door again until the door handle broke off in his grip.

“What will it take to keep you away from here?” Amelia snapped.

“You said she was dressed!” He gestured wildly. “You bloody lied!”

“Sheisdressed—that’s her costume.” His sister’s tone lowered from exasperated to entertained.

“Tell me you didnotmake that, Amelia.”

“But I did.”

“Well, you’re not wearing it anywhere,” he said to me.

“Oh, but she is.”

“Like hell she is. She’d be arrested for indecency.”

“Sheis standing right here.” I gestured with my arms as if no one could see me, which drew a wild stain of color from beneath Croft’s collar. He kept his eyes firmly glued to his sister, but not before he’d sneaked several glances at my boots, my stockings, and everything below my neck.

“It’s not as though she’ll be out of doors, you big dolt. She’ll only wear it as a costume.”

“But people will see her.Menwill see her!”

“That’s the idea.”

“No.” He whirled to face me, snapped his jaw, and then turned back to his sister. “No. And I say again… absolutely not. I came in here to tell you that I’m going to Scotland Yard today. On my one bloody day off, and I’m going to make sure this is solved through theproperchannels.”

“That would be much appreciated,” I chimed in, because he wasn’t the only one with scruples about me wearing this dress anywhere.

“Now, if I do so, can you two promise me that dress goes nowhere out of this house?” He shoved a finger at me, still unable to look.

Amelia leaned against the counter, the gleam in her eyes as bright as the one on the sharp knife gripped in her hand. “You have two days. If these murders are not solved in the next forty-eight hours… Fiona is goingincognito.”

ChapterFive

The peal of a scream poured acid on my frayed nerves and electrified my heart to give an extra kick against its cage.

I gathered up my skirts and half tripped, half ran up the steps to my Chelsea rowhouse and slammed inside.

“If you want it, you’ll crawl on your knees for it,” came the street-roughened voice from my parlor.

One belonging to a familiar female.