Page 53 of The Fulbourn: Pitch & Sickle
‘Oh god, stop.’ Silas clamped his hands over Tilly’s ears, nearly dislodging the other earring in the process. He coughed down his laughter, his cheeks growing rosy under the daemon’s bemused gaze. Tilly shook him off, brushing at her pale hair and checking to make sure he’d not thieved the earring from her lobe. ‘A hansom cab it is, then.’
He set Tilly down so he could pull on a robe. When the young fae wandered back to her pile of gathered jewellery he decided it safe enough to ask a very personal question of the prince. ‘You’re not terribly sore, are you? I mean I didn’t—’
‘I am, which is exactly what I wanted.’ He stood up, rising to his tip-toes, and planted a firm kiss against Silas’s cheek. ‘Let’s go and get this over with so you can set about making me sorer still. Perhaps nail me to another wall or three.’
Tilly clapped her hands. ‘Nail.’
Silas nearly tripped over himself in his haste to bundle her up.
‘High time we get you back to your mothers,’ he declared, though very much enjoying the tingle of the daemon’s kiss against his skin.
‘Tell them she needs more sunshine,’ Pitch said, offhand, opening the wardrobe where Ada said there were clothes they were welcome to. ‘She’ll not thrive otherwise.’
Tilly tried to wriggle out of Silas’s arms, intent on the daemon once more.
‘Hug.’
Silas sighed. ‘I’m afraid that is not going to happen, little one.’
By the time he found Nancy downstairs, Tilly was red in the face from crying, clinging to her amber earring like it were a favoured toy.
‘I’m so sorry,’ he said as Nancy peeled Tilly’s hands off his lapel. ‘She wanted Pi…Thaddeus, to hug her but he’s not one for children or hugs, I’m afraid. And Tilly was adamant.’
Nancy smiled. ‘She’s a stubborn one, that’s for sure. She knows her own mind.’
‘She and Thaddeus have that much in common, then.’
Silas passed on Pitch’s advice about the sunshine, leaving the sniffling child with her mother. As he headed back up the stairs Nancy asked Tilly if she would like to take a trip to the seaside when it was sunny once more. The little fae agreed, but on one condition. The fire man must come too.
‘He is very sad, Mumma.’
It rent at Silas to hear it. For he knew the changeling was right. And though he’d fight the gods if it would change things, Silas feared the path of Prince Vassago was set, and had very little room for happiness.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
SILAS ASKEDPitch to read out the sign at the Fulbourn’s front gate.
‘The County Pauper Lunatic Asylum for Cambridgeshire,’ the prince said, lacing his words with acid.
Silas shuddered. ‘How awful.’
Though admittedly the grounds were not so. There was no sign of the actual asylum, named the Fulbourn for the village nearby, with only an expanse of greenery and a low stone fence in sight.
The coachman set them down at the front gate just after ten in the morning. They’d sent him on his way with a considerable tip for his troubles. He’d driven his roan hard at their request, after they had departed Ada and Nancy’s residence later than intended, even having declined breakfast. Pitch was partly to blame, with his fussing over his clothes. He’d not wished to wear tweed, and was tending towards the most lavish of costumes that Ada laid out for them until Silas pointed out that they were trying to be furtive in this visit. Pitch stood out at the best of times, let alone without wearing a stunning teal coat with fur trimmed cuffs.
With time on his hands, Silas had decided on a change of clothes after all. He opted for a plain brown frock coat with black velvet lapels and cuffs, essentially the only size he found that would fit him, and deep pockets that held the bandalore and the watch in its lead box.
Pitch kept on the black corset of course, and laid it over with a cotton shirt and plaid tailcoat of navy and subtle lime green, and matched those with pale cotton twill trousers. Ada had provided a man’s short black wig when requested and was too discreet to enquire as to why Thaddeus chose to hide his brown-and-gold-tinged waves beneath it.
Silas had been a curious combination of tension and happiness on the carriage ride. He was nervous about whether they were still concealed by the elixir, among other things, but very happy to sit so close to the prince on their way. Pitch did not seem to mind too much either, not protesting when Silas’s hand rested against his thigh.
As it turned out, contrary to Silas’s fears, the elixir was in fact still serving them well. They came to a stop at an intersection, where another hansom pulled up alongside. Its passengers were two women dressed in sombre church-going shades. The one in a severe black bonnet was a dokkaebi, according to the notes that trilled in Silas’s mind, a mischievous member of the goblin family originating in the Orient. She offered only the barest of nods when Silas bade them a good morning. Pitch assured him the creature would have done far more than that should it have recognised them. Mostly in her own drawers. Daemons tended to frighten many of the naturals, evidently.
They walked down the asylum’s long drive. The road meandered past an established apple orchard and a kitchen garden that backed onto a small, open field, where winter wheat showed off fledgling stalks. Dotted around the grounds were several brick houses, presumably for the employees of the Fulbourn, nurses and doctors perhaps, or groundskeepers for what seemed to be an extensive estate. A gardener was hard at work trimming back a camellia bush, but the man didn’t even glance their way as they passed by.
Silas kept his eye on Pitch as they walked, the prince not protesting when the ankou brushed his hand on occasion and or touched the small of his back to ensure he did not trip on the uneven surface. In truth the prince’s limp was not too bad this morning. But his distraction was very evident. He withdrew something from his pocket, twiddling it between thumb and forefinger with his gaze fixed on the road ahead. It was the earring Tilly had given him.
‘I thought you had left that on the dresser?’ Silas nodded at the teardrop and gold leaf setting.