Page 48 of Lord Gabriel’s Undoing

Left-handed, Abner scribbled something on a crumpled bit of paper he extricated from his pocket. “What else yer got?”

Gabriel produced the rivière necklace that matched the garnet ring, running it through his fingers so it caught what light there was. Phoebe knew for a fact that Mama had not liked this necklace so felt no guilt at having handed it over to Gabriel. Although seeing it in the grubby hands of his fence did not provoke quite the same reaction. Perhaps, after all, Mama might not be so complicit in the redistribution of her wealth.

To her surprise, Phoebe discovered that she no longer cared.

Abner snorted. “Garnets agin. You need to be a sight more picky where you gets your winnings. Look at a place before you decides on the scrap.”

He also seemed to be speaking a different language. This couldn’t be English, could it? However, Gabriel at least appeared to understand him. He gave a nod. “Maybe I will next time.”

Abner narrowed his eyes at him but nevertheless hung onto the necklace and wrote another sum on the bit of paper. “Wot next?”

As she’d only given Gabriel three items, this must be the third and most valuable of the three.

It was. Gabriel produced, with something of a flourish, the sapphire and diamond earrings she’d never worn. They were beautiful, but long and heavy and she only had small earlobes which she didn’t want stretching. She’d added them in at the last minute, her head full of small orphans in need of sustenance and shelter. Right now she could quite see that her impulse had been the right one, but how she and Gabriel were going to be able to help all the poor children of the rookery, now she’d seen how many there were, she had no idea.

“Aah,” Abner intoned, his eyes lighting up as he picked up the earrings. “Now these is somethin’ better, Joe. More up to your usual standard. I c’n get a fair bit for these uns, once I get ’em broken up. See how many diamonds there is?” Whereupon he must have realized he’d been badly over enthusiastic, for his face changed. “But they’s still stolen goods, an’ don’t you forgit it. So the price I can offer’s not goin’ to be so high as you might want. Don’t you get your hopes up too high, just on account of them bein’ diamonds, an’ all.”

“How much for all three?” Gabriel asked.

A bit more scribbling and the paper slid across the table.

Gabriel flicked his eyes over it. From where she was sitting, Phoebe couldn’t see what was written and didn’t dare lean over to look. She had a feeling Abner might view that as suspicious.

Gabriel frowned, picked up the stump of pencil and chewed the end for a moment, which made Phoebe’s stomach churn at the thought of putting anything in this room into one’s mouth, and wrote quickly on the paper. He then slid it back to Abner. A kind of silent auction.

Abner’s turn to frown. After a long minute though, he wrote something else and slid the paper back over.

This time Gabriel gave a quick shrug, wrote again quickly, and shunted back the paper.

Abner, a glint in his eye, glanced down at the paper and gave a resigned nod. He rose to his feet with difficulty, gathered up all three of the jewels, and hobbled to a small door in the corner that Phoebe hadn’t even noticed until then. Glancing over his shoulder, he opened the door only wide enough for him to sidle through, then shut it behind him.

Phoebe looked a question at Gabriel.

“He doesn’t want us to see where he keeps his money, nor how much he has in there. Nor what other valuables he’s got in storage.” He kept his voice down but his eyes danced with enjoyment. “We’re lucky he lets us up here. He doesn’t do that for most of his customers. But he trusts me to a degree. I’ve been most useful to him in the past.”

Phoebe would have liked to have asked him how he’d been useful and when, but the reopening of the door kept her silent. Abner sidled back into the room once again, holding a small bag in his hand. The heavy chink of coins was evident. How much had he and Gabriel agreed on for her jewels? Enough to help Gabriel establish another orphanage, she hoped. But as she had no idea either how much was required for that, or how much her jewels would have brought when sold in a reputable dealer’s, she gave up trying to work it out.

After pausing for a moment to survey his two visitors, Abner hobbled back to the table and sat down. He must indeed trust Gabriel to have revealed where he kept his money, for surely if she and Gabriel had been of a mind to do so, they could have overpowered him and stolen all his loot.

This thought might have communicated itself to the fence, because he turned his head with slow deliberation and fixed his gaze on her. “And as fer you, my lad, donchyou go getting’ no ideas about a-comin’ back an’ robbin’ me. I doan keep all my blunt in there. Jest enough to tide me over an’ do a few deals. Most o’ the time it’s empty as your head.” And he leaned over and dealt her a rather more than light clip around the ear.

Never having been struck in her life before, and certainly never touched by so lowly a personage, Phoebe must have given away her shock by her expression.

Gabriel chuckled. “You don’t have to worry about my brother. He’s a good boy and he does as he’s told. He wouldn’t dare do anything on his own, nor tell anyone about where I go and what he sees with me. He knows I’d kill him if he tried it on.”

Abner grinned, revealing yet again his lack of teeth. Those that he still possessed didn’t look as though they had long for this world. “You got a lot of brothers, ain’t you, Guv’nor. An’ in my experience, which is extensive, I’ve yet ter meet anyone’s brother what does as he’s told. Don’t expect me ter believe yours’re any diff’rent.” He gave a bark of laughter.

Gabriel shook his head. “I’ve only the two, and they do as they’re told or feel the back of my hand and the strap of my belt. They know better than to cross me. They’re both grateful I’m teaching them the ropes. Aren’t you, Will?”

Phoebe gave a hurried nod, keeping her head bowed.

Abner chuckled hoarsely. “Looks a bit of a tender parnell to me, that one. Wouldn’t say boo to a goose.” He chuckled a bit more, perhaps at his own wit. “And them’s the ones you gotta watch, in my experience. If the Runners get a hold of boys like this un, they sing like canaries. You mark the words of someone as is older an’ wiser than you, young Joe.”

Most of this exchange left Phoebe confused, although she had an idea it wasn’t flattering to her, or rather to Will.

Gabriel gave a chuckle as well. “Don’t you worry. I’ve got my eyes firmly on young Will here. He’s not going anywhere without me. Now, what about the readies we agreed on?”

Phoebe watched Abner empty the bag and count out the coins, a large number of which sparkled like gold so must be guineas, into Gabriel’s outstretched hand. She had no idea what the jewelry was really worth, but no doubt if one sold it illegally to someone like this in a garret in the St Giles Rookery, one didn’t get its full price. Although Gabriel had haggled, she supposed, and had seemed pleased with his bargain.