Page 36 of The Starling and the Hatter

She shook her head and then dropped her gaze. “It’s a gift from me.”

“Elise, I can’t let you give me such a thing—”

“Please,” she interrupted him. “Please let me do this.”

To his credit, he looked unsure for at least a moment. “Very well. Thank you.” He pulled his watch from his pocket. “I’ll have it affixed immediately.”

“I’ll join you in a moment,” she said, and as soon as his back was turned to her, she looked over at me and mouthed the words, I’ll pay for it.

A grim smile crossed my lips as I watched her retreat to the back corner of the tent, likely intent on switching outfits.

I turned away, fixing my eyes on my work. Robert wandered up next to the table, but I ignored him until he spoke up.

“Elise said you might attach this watch and chain for me.”

I looked up, resisted the urge to sneer at him, and took the watch and chain from his hands instead. I took out a couple of tools from a box and pulled my candle closer. I should remain silent. I should, but the question wouldn’t leave off. “You know her last name?” I said as I manipulated one of the links in the chain.

“Of course.”

My stomach dropped. Of course, he’d said. As though it were completely natural for this puffed-up pretender to know something as important as Elise’s last name when I didn’t.

Why didn’t I know it? Why had I never asked?

I looked at Robert, tempted to ask him what her last name was right there and then, but I stopped myself. I didn’t just want to know things about Elise. I wanted her to confide them in me. I wanted the intimacy of knowing she trusted me with everything, and that I’d earned that trust.

If only she would.

Robert’s eyebrow rose in smug curiosity. “How long have you known her?”

I focused back on his cursed chain. “Three years.”

He sucked at his teeth, and when I glanced up at him, he looked away, smirking. “And she’s never told you her last name?” He looked pleased at that bit of information.

My hand fisted around his watch. “It never came up.”

The way his mouth curled, I could tell he was only barely holding back a laugh. “Sure it didn’t. Or perhaps Elise just likes to keep her secrets.”

I chose to glare down at the chain instead of at him. “Or perhaps she wants to forget her old life.”

I heard him suck in a breath, but he didn’t say anything, and a moment later, Elise bounced up beside me. “Is it going to work?” she asked.

“Of course,” I said, wishing she didn’t sound as if she was doubting my abilities. I quickly hooked the link around the loop of the watch and squeezed it shut with my tools. “Here.” I tossed it to White and he barely caught it. I couldn’t remember a time when I’d treated a customer so poorly, but then again, White wasn’t a customer. He was a man willing to take gifts from a girl who was in no position to throw money away.

“Will that do?” Elise asked, sounding worried that somehow he would reject the gift she’d freely given.

“It will do very well,” he said, smiling down at her. Then he looked down at the watch. “And speaking of time, I must be off.” He took Elise’s hand and pressed a quick kiss to the back of it.

I had to look away, fixing my eyes on the wooden surface of my work table with such intensity that my vision blurred.

“Thank you for a lovely day,” he said.

I heard her move even closer to him. “I’ll see you tomorrow?” she asked him, and her voice sounded so vulnerable and unsure that it made me dislike him even more.

“Of course,” he said, and I heard him walk away.

I didn’t say anything, choosing instead to stand so I could close the flaps of the tent since any revelers were either gone or too lost in drink to want to purchase anything but more drink. Elise helped me, then continued to tidy even after I’d sat back at my work table. She’d changed out of her costume and looked like her usual self, comfortable.

Eventually, she jumped up onto the stool beside me and reached over to steal a biscuit from my plate. Not that I could complain. She’d made them, after all.