Page 31 of The Fulbourn: Pitch & Sickle

‘Exactly,’ Pitch said. ‘So scurry on home, there’s a good lad. Tell the Lady we were very good boys and did what we were told. Now we are going to have some time to ourselves.’

Isaac ground the cobbles with his bootheels and stalked off, muttering all types of unpleasant things.

Pitch leaned into Silas, pressing his ear to his broad chest. A night out in London was hardly new to him. A commonplace outing. Yet he thrilled with a veryuncommonsense of excitement at the thought of just he and the ankou, larking about as though all that concerned them was finding a place to take a drink.

‘All right, then.’ Silas’s voice was a soothing rumble beneath Pitch’s ear. ‘Where would you like to go, Miss Cargill? Shall we dine? I could definitely eat.’

‘I’d like to just walk…and see where our feet take us. Do you mind?’

‘That sounds a very perfect idea.’ Silas offered his arm. ‘Madam?’

‘Sir.’ Pitch grinned.

He dropped a short curtsy, nestled his hand in the crux of the ankou’s elbow, and they were on their way.

CHAPTER TEN

SILAS POINTEDout a thin puddle upon the pavement. ‘Careful now.’ He unhooked their arms and stepped in front of Pitch, performing what he hoped was a very graceful move. He didn’t trip or splash his heels in the wetness he was trying to help the daemon avoid, so he figured that was a job well enough done.

‘I am saved from that dastardly puddle, how noble of you.’ Pitch’s cheeks hollowed as he sucked back a smile.

‘Fine,’ Silas puffed. ‘Walk along in wet petticoats. I truly don’t care.’

‘You are most uncaring, it is plain to see.’

Silas rolled his eyes, proffering his arm. Pitch slipped his hand back into the crux of the ankou’s elbow, settling comfortably.

They walked along quietly whilst the city murmured and rattled around them with the passing of carriages and calls of chestnut sellers in the distance. Silas left the prince with his thoughts. He’d press Pitch soon enough to learn where it was that Edward had gone, and in turn hopefully Charlie – good god, Silas was hopeful – but right now the daemon, though pensive, was uncommonly relaxed. Even his bothersome hip appeared to have relented, and his limp was far less noticeable.

‘Perhaps I shouldn’t have brought the watch. I know it vexes you, but you left it in my keeping and I felt unhappy about leaving it behind, even though it was likely more sensible.’ Silas could not be certain that it wasn’t the watch itself demanding to be carried along, for he’d felt physically unwell at the thought of leaving it on the mantel in his cottage. ‘Is it less harassing at least? I had Gilmore find me a lead box. I didn’t tell him what for, and he grumbled about it of course, but I wonder if it helps to have it contained?’

Pitch’s gaze slid up to find him. ‘Somewhat. Yes.’ His altered eyes were the shade of honey in sunlight. A striking hue but a poor cousin to the daemon’s natural verdant. ‘Thoughtful of you, Mr Mercer.’

‘Who’s that? Never heard of the man.’ Silas smiled, warm beneath the daemon’s close study. ‘You have definitely had too many champagnes, my dear sister.’

Pitch’s laughter was delicate. He bumped his hip against Silas’s thigh. ‘What appalling stock we must come from to do the things we do to each other and be related.’

‘I thought the story was,’ Silas said, ‘that you were at the soirée to reapply for the position as Edward’s wife.’ Silas tugged at his collar, the darn thing a size too small all of a sudden. ‘I thought having another husband appear may be problematic. Besides, I was hardly in the right frame of mind to think clearly, when I that man…’ Silas paused. ‘Well, he was not being gentlemanly at all.’

‘No. He was not. But he’s hardly the first of his kind I’ve met, and certainly was no issue to deal with. I had the matter in hand.’ Pitch paused. ‘He was just a man.’

Though they were pressed against one another, Silas wanted to draw him in even nearer so Onoskolis could not shift into any gap between them.

‘You are right,’ Silas said. ‘I overreacted.’

Pitch pressed his hand to his belly, quiet for a worryingly long moment. ‘Was that you out in the alleyway? Lurking like some ne’er-do-well?’

‘It was.’ Silas nodded. ‘I gave the kitchenhand a bloody great shock when I came bursting in, I can tell you. Christ, that second floor has the most ridiculous number of doors. I opened every damned one before I found …’ Silas shook his head. The prince was right. He’d gone wildly overboard. ‘Isaac cornered me in the alley. He’d seen me loitering and came to investigate. When he told me there was no fire set in the room where you were…well, he could not stop me. I told him to cause a distraction. I had no idea if he’d listen. We were lucky to get away with it. I could have made a right mess of things. I’m so –’

‘Say it and I shall punch you as no decent lady should.’ Pitch nodded a good evening to a passing couple. He squeezed Silas’s arm. ‘Our dear Mr Fothergill may reconsider the next time he thinks it reasonable to crack a woman’s head against a table again.’

‘Jesus Christ, Pitch…he cracked your –’

‘Forget that. Did you see his face when you grabbed him?’

Silas’s tension eased at the daemon’s evident amusement. ‘I thought he was going to shit his britches, to be honest.’ He laughed. ‘Am I truly that terrifying?’

‘When protecting those you pretend dear to you, very much so.’