Page 102 of When We Touch

“I have no family. I lost my mother years and years ago. My father died recently. He was a tailor in Birmingham. Well, at least, he worked for a tailor in Birmingham. He kept us alive. Friends suggested that I might find work in London, so . . . here I am. I’ve looked on the West Side for a domestic position, but . . . the grand ladies don’t seem to be inclined to hire me.”

He assessed her with his very strange dark eyes.

“Look, I’ve come to you because in the short time that I’ve been here, I’ve seen what happens to young women. I’m not looking for a place with any . . . I’m not looking to work in a brothel. I have some talent as a mesmerist, I believe.”

“You have some talent, all right,” he muttered. “And I’m not looking for a whore. They’re a ha’penny a piece around this place. Granted, not many so young and so fresh. And I don’t give a whit about your so-called talent as a mesmerist. I do need that you keep your mouth shut, that you can play a part, and that you turn a blind eye if you don’t like what you see.”

Arianna smiled to herself. “Are we going to take some of those rich old buggers?” she demanded.

“Exactly.”

She inched closer, leaning toward him across the table. “What if... what if someone comes who expects to be taken? I mean, don’t the bobbies get in on it, now and then—plainclothesmen?”

“Um. And would-be outraged, honest, upright citizens. As it happens, I’m rather hoping to see one I know again. A few, in fact.”

“Really? What if one were a . . . woman?”

His eyes gave her chills. “Why, there are places where such ladies can be taken down a peg.”

“So, is there a . . . place, a house, where we work?”

He shook his head. “We go to places. And avoid being found when it’s over.”

“I’m to be a thief?”

“You’ve a problem with that?”

“Not in the least. I’m quite excited, but . . . quite seriously, I read a newspaper article once about a night when a man was killed, when a woman exposed a fraud, and there was a huge upset. I believe a few are still rotting in Newgate now!”

“I think that I’ve put together quite a fair team,” Jeremiah told her. Smiling, he hiked a brow, suggesting that she look around.

The pub was crowded with men and women alike. It reeked. Men from the slaughterhouses were there, those from factories, and all about. Women drank gin and moaned about the problems of working the street.

And still, Jeremiah’s men were evident. They lolled against walls, sat at the rickety tables, or leaned against the bar. She noted them all for particular reasons. One, they were wary, watching the others around them. Two, as soon as Jeremiah had indicated them, they were all looking at her. Three—they had a certain look about them. Young, strong, sharp, and with a certain glint to their eyes that assured her they would stop at nothing.

A little tremor trilled through her. She was making a mistake. In this crowd, someone could get killed. But in time, Lady Maggie would hear about Jeremiah Heath. And she would come to a séance. And when she tried to show that he was a fraud . . .

He might kill her.

Again, her heart fluttered. Did she really want the woman dead? Last night, she’d run out on her, and never even returned to talk. Of course, it was true that Arianna had merely wanted to probe her for some personal information. But . . . it might have been a chance for the lady to try to redeem herself in her stepdaughter’s eyes.

Apparently, she hadn’t wanted that chance very badly. Her own world had been far too important to her.

What could possibly be so important, now that Charles was dead?

Arianna very purposely hardened her heart. This was the course she had chosen. And nothing could change the fact that her father had married, and died that night.

If it came to it . . .

Lady Maggie had killed her father, as surely as if she had brought a gun to his head, and pulled the trigger.

And still, she wasn’t the type of woman such a business usually killed. There was a market for such fine specimens as her stepmother.

“One more thing.”

“Yes?” Arianna said.

“You ever betray me, and you’ll wish you were dead, long before you reach the peace of that state, do you understand?”