I almost felt like running out and looking for one of the beasts. “What if he hits back?”
“No worries.” Docket picked up a sledgehammer, and before I could do more than shriek he slung it at my chest plate. As the metal collided with it I felt a mild nudge, as if he’d prodded me with his elbow. “The stabilizers kick in on impact; you’ll not tip over. But if you should get your feet tangled in something, like this”—he hooked his leg behind mine and gave me a shove, toppling me over—“just relax.”
I lay on the floor looking up at him. Although the fall hadn’t hurt me I felt ridiculous. “Relax like this?”
“Well, relax and press the green button on your left forearm.” Docket bent over me to tap it. I turned my head as two struts emerged from the sides of the harness and began maneuvering me and it upright. Before I could blink I was standing again.
“I can’t believe it.” I held out my arms. “What else does it do?”
“That’s all for right now, but I’ve a list of improvements to work out.” He walked round me. “I haven’t devised a helmet yet, so remember that your head is unprotected. Also, you’ll not want to take it in water; the motors and the clamps will seize, and you’d sink to the bottom and drown from the weight anyway.”
“No going for a swim, right.” I extended my arm and turned it to watch the mech in motion. “What if I’m caught in the rain?”
“Cover it fast with a waterproof, or you’ll become a very pretty statue until I can cut you out of it,” he advised me. “You might also put a loose cloak over it when you wear it outside. Keeps people from staring.”
“You’re not really giving this to me,” I said. “Doc, if you sold this design to the queen’s army, you could make your fortune.”
“I’ve already gone through several fortunes, my gel, and I didn’t make it for money or barter.” His merry expression turned serious. “You’re to wear it when you go out after dark. And if you come up against those beasts again, you give them what for.”
“Doc,” I said, smiling. “Thanks to you, I think I can.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Docket agreed to deliver the strong suit to the Eagle’s Nest that afternoon, and I went up to the office. The pile of post waiting in the tube contained enough business to keep me busy until summer, and it hurt to set it all aside in favor of the list of the Wolfmen’s victims.
I scanned the addresses first, and used my map of Rumsen’s streets to work out a route for my calls. Nearly all the women lived in one of the least affluent quarters, which was conveniently located half a mile from the White Lupine.
I pushed aside the map and sat back in my chair. “So you have them attack harlots and poor women, and one lady.” On one hand it made sense to target the unfortunate; they couldn’t afford physicks or a hospital; they’d most likely keep their pregnancies secret until they gave birth at home. Lykaon could easily have them watched until they delivered and he could snatch the babies from them.
But Lady Bestly was hardly without resources, and could afford the very best of care during her confinement. How did she fit in with the other women?
A groaning sound drew my eyes to the closet, and when I went to open it I found Gert huddled inside. “Now how did you get in here? No place to sleep again?” I saw a bruise on her temple and lost my smile. “Who hit you?”
“Well, I do have a place to sleep, and plenty of work, thanks to you telling me about that tinker. As for this, I was watching for you this morning, miss.” She accepted my hand and struggled to her feet. “Down the end of the hall, like always. Only this old bloke comes up and waves a stick and strolls right in, bold as you please. Couldn’t let him rifle through your things, could I?” She touched her temple and winced. “When I braced him he turn round and whacked me. That’s all I remember.” She gave me a surly glare. “Must have dragged me in the closet, the filthy heathen.”
“Heathen.” I helped her sit down in my visitor’s chair. “You mean he was a native?”
She nodded. “He’d put on regular garms, and tucked his knotty under the collar, but I could tell straightaway. Dark as Lucifer himself, he was.” She spied my tea cart. “Could you make us a brew, miss? My throat’s like sand.”
I put on the kettle and brought her some water and a pain powder. “Here, this will help with your head.” I waited until she swallowed the bitter stuff before I sighed. “Gert, you shouldn’t have come after him. He might have done much worse.” Which puzzled me, now that I thought about it.
“I reckon I deserved it, for what I done to you.” She took out a crumpled rag and blew her nose. “Some of the mages near me old place, they made up like friends to me, and said terrible things about you. Told me it would be a favor to them, me getting rid of you. Only I couldn’t, and then when me luck turned, I went to them asking for paying work. They called me beggar and chased me out of their shops, all of them. I never begged in me life, miss.”
“I know, Gert.” Pity made my anger recede, and I heard the echo of what I’d said to Lady Bestly in her words. The reason I had always been kind to the old woman was because I’d been the same when I’d come to Rumsen—alone and without prospects, but determined to live with dignity. “I’m sorry.”
“You’ve no reason to say that, or to help me find work, but you did. You’ve ever a kind word for me, no matter what I’ve said to you, and always handing me coin for tea and such when all I’ve done . . .” She shook her head before she looked up at me. “I don’t know what you are, miss, but there’s no evil to you. No evil at all.”
I made her tea and found a tin of biscuits to go with it, and then asked her if she remembered anything more about the native intruder.
“That stick of his might have been some sort of wand, for how he used it to get in, waving it over the lock.” She frowned as she thought. “Had some odd beads and feathers hanging from it.”
“Blue feathers?” When she nodded, I perused the floor of the office and wondered if another rat bomb had been set loose. “Did he have anything else?”
“Just that stick. When I came after him he was already in here, rifling through your post.” She turned her head to my tube port. “Took something out of there. A little parcel, I think.”
“Excuse me.” I got up and performed a quick search of my port and both rooms, but found no parcel at all. I had to assume the shaman had taken it with him. Since Dredmore had forced the second rat to name him as its maker, that made the situation even more bewildering.
I returned to refill Gert’s cup. “You’ve been very helpful, thank you. One more question: did the native say anything to you?”
“He did mutter some nonsense before he hit me.” Gert took a sip of her tea. “Heathens never do speak the queen’s English as they should.”
“Did you understand any of it?” I pressed.
“He might have let loose an animal.” She made a contemptuous sound. “He said to me, ‘Where Little Fox?’ ”
• • •
I offered to take Gert to a physick to be checked, but she insisted she was fine. I was able to convince her to ride with me in my hired carri to her new room in a cheap but relatively clean boardinghouse a mile away.
“I’ve never ridden in one of these horseless contraptions,” Gert confided in me, her eyes almost glowing with excitement. “You should buy one for yourself, miss, and save the cost of the fares.”
“A recurring dream of mine, Gert. Unfortunately women are not allowed to purchase driving permits. Oh, that reminds me.” I took the envelope of coins I usually kept in my desk and handed it to her. “This is for you.”
“What for?” She glanced inside and shook her head. “Oh, no, I can’t, miss. Really.” She tried to give it back.
“It’s compensation for your courage in defending my business establishment,” I told her. “That native might have stolen everything I owned of value, if not for you scaring him off.”
“Compensation.” She pronounced the word the same way she m
ight a disease, and gave me a suspicious look. “I didn’t do much scaring from inside your closet.”
“If you had been conscious, I’ve no doubt you would have chased him off smartly.” I closed her hand over the envelope and patted it. “It will buy you a few days to rest and recuperate. You shouldn’t be out scramming for the tinker until your head feels better. You truly did keep me from losing my valuables.”
“In that case, I guess I’ve earned it.” She tucked the envelope into her bodice before she climbed out of the carri. “While I’m recouping as such, I’ll expect you to have that lock warded. Else that heathen comes back for more mischief. Good day, miss.” She swept like a grand lady into the boardinghouse.
From there the driver took me to the working quarter where the Wolfmen’s victims resided, and left me off in front of the first address on my route, one of a dozen narrow split-houses built of graying clopboards. As I walked up the sagging planked steps to the entry I heard a child screaming in a tantrum, and smelled fish and boiled cabbage. Since there was no bell, I knocked and stepped back enough that I could be seen from the side window.
The iron-haired woman who opened the door had the shrieking child on her hip and shouted to be heard over him. “What do you want?”
Although I’d planned to use my Middy accent while calling on the victims, something told me that speaking like a lady might serve better to give me an air of someone visiting in some official capacity.
“My name is Charmian Kittredge,” I said, and at the sound of my voice the little boy immediately fell silent. “I would like to speak with Mary Cauld—is that you, madam?”
“No, I’m her mother, and you can’t.” She began to shut the door in my face.
“Has she been ill?” I asked quickly. “Since she was hurt?”
Mrs. Cauld peered out at me. “What do you know about that?”
“I may be able to help,” I said carefully, “but first I must speak with Mary.”
Mrs. Cauld inspected me again. “She’s got the belly gripe,” she warned me. “And me with six more to look after, it’s all I can do to keep her cleaned up. Come in then.”
I followed Mrs. Cauld through a dank but tidy hall to the back rooms, where she nodded toward one that stood closed.
“In there.” She jiggled the still-quiet boy, patting his back with an absent hand. “Mind your step. She don’t always make the bucket every time.”
I knocked and stepped into a windowless room lit by a blackened keroseel lamp. The smell of puke was so strong I had to breathe through my mouth. On the rumpled bed lay a young woman in a stained nightdress, who turned away from me as soon as I stepped into the flickering light.
I introduced myself quickly. “I am sorry to bother you, Miss Cauld, but I need a word.”
“Mum shouldn’t let you in here,” Mary Cauld said in a fretful voice. “I’m dreadful sick.”
I went round the bed and, finding no chair, knelt down beside it. “This won’t take long. I must ask you about what happened last Tuesday night.”
“What about it? I got rolled coming home from work,” she said, closing her eyes. “I didn’t have nothing to take, and I didn’t see no one. Now go on.”
“I know you were attacked by one of the Wolfmen.” I nodded as she stared at me. “So was I.”
She rose up on one elbow and turned her head to the door before she said in a furious whisper, “I told the police, I’m not married yet. If me lad knew what that thing did to me, he’d call it off. Me parents’d toss me out. You can’t say nothing to Mum.”
“I won’t tell anyone,” I promised her. “But I have to know, did the creature bite you?”
“I’m going to puke again,” she said, her voice strangling on the words, and when I picked up the bucket on the floor she snatched it from me and wretched into it.
I held the bucket for her, and once she’d emptied her stomach found a rag and a basin of clean water. After I wiped her mouth and face, she fell back against the pillows and groaned.
I took the bucket to empty it in the loo, and when I came back Mary was sitting up, her pale face drawn. “How did you know it bit me, miss?”
I set the bucket next to the bed and considered how much I should tell her. “I was bitten, too, on the arm.” I lifted my sling.
“I thought I was. I mean, I felt it here.” She touched the side of her neck. “Bloody monster. I was sure he meant to tear me head off. Only when I got home, there weren’t a mark on me. Just this bump.”
I watched her run her fingers over the slight bulge beneath her skin. “Mary, are you and your beau planning to marry?”
“Sure, soon as I’m better. Can’t wait much longer to be a proper wife and start a family.” She met my gaze. “Neither should you, miss.”
I didn’t have to tell her she was pregnant; she already knew. “I’d like to leave my card with you. If things . . . don’t go as you’ve planned, will you contact me? I may be able to help.”
“If you like.” She took the card. “Thanks for emptying me bucket. Fine lady like you shouldn’t be doing that.”
“I’m a working lass,” I admitted. “Same as you, Mary.”
“Not for long, miss.” She pressed a hand over her midsection. “God help us.”
Mrs. Cauld stood waiting at the other end of the hall, this time with a basket of folded garms instead of the boy. “Told you it were the belly gripe. She’ll be all right in a few days, and then she’ll be married.”
I saw the same knowledge in the mother’s guarded eyes as had been in her daughter’s. “Your daughter is frightened, Mrs. Cauld, of things that I daresay you would never permit to happen. Perhaps you might ease her mind and tell her so.”
Stepping out of the Caulds’ home was like being able to breathe again; at least until I saw Chief Inspector Doyle waiting at the curb. “I did apologize to Dredmore’s driver, Inspector.”
“You must have done it by dream, then. His lordship dropped the charges last night.” He surveyed me. “You’re looking much smarter today.”
“A new gown always boosts the spirits,” I confided. “Matches my sling, too. So if you’re not here to arrest me as a fugitive from justice, to what do I owe the pleasure?”
“You’re in a terrible neighborhood, by yourself, on foot, wearing a dress that cost more than my carri.” He took my good arm in his. “You’re a crime waiting to happen.”
“That’s not why you’re here,” I guessed as I walked with him. “What have I done now? Embezzled millions? Abducted a crown prince? Started a war?”
“Lord Dredmore requested I accompany you on your visits.” He nodded down the street. “The home of the next victim is one block that way. Did you buy the list from the desk sergeant, or one of the clerks?”
“Inspector, I should never bribe one of your staff.” I stepped round a pile of trash. “Among other things, that would be illegal.”
“You’re sounding very honest again,” Doyle said dryly. “Very well, why are you visiting the victims?”
“We need more information about the Wolfmen. Which I will not obtain if you’re with me.” I watched a boy sitting on the curb using a twig in a vain attempt to wind up a badly battered animech parrot. “The women aren’t going to talk about the beast who assaulted them with a man in the room.”
“I’ll wait outside,” he offered. “Is Mary Cauld pregnant?”
I stopped and turned to him. “Dredmore didn’t tell you that.”
“If that’s what you’re asking them, you can strike Lucy Ennis off your list. She’s in hospital after a suicide attempt, and also with child.” He cocked his head. “Are you pregnant?”
“Absolutely not.” As we continued on, I asked, “Why did Lucy Ennis try to kill herself? The baby?”
He nodded. “The husband is a mariner, and he’s been at sea for six months.”
I could well imagine how Mr. Ennis would react when he arrived home from his lengthy voyage to find his wife expecting. “Will she recover?”
/>
“She has.” Doyle held up one hand to stop an approaching horse cart before guiding me across the street. “Lucy’s neighbor found her hanging from a clothesline in her yard this morning. When he cut her down, she began to breathe again.”
I grimaced. “She must not have been there long.”
“She told the doctor she went out at midnight to do the deed. Something revived her, in the same way the Wolfmen at Saint Albert’s were, even after they’d been cut open and their parts taken out.” He gave the horse cart driver a wave. “Any theories?”
“Yes. Dredmore didn’t send you to escort me. You came on your own to ferret out as much information from me as you can.” I checked the houses until I found the number I needed. “You’ll wait out here?”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Doyle assured me.
• • •
I concluded my visits shortly before tea time, and accepted a ride from Doyle to the Eagle’s Nest.
“My friend Gert thinks I should buy my own carri,” I mentioned as I adjusted my sling and shifted into a more comfortable spot. “I might manage an older model. Can’t afford a driver, though, so I’d need a permit of my own. Of course it’s illegal to issue them to unmarried women . . .”
“You can save your hopeful hints. I’ve naught to do with permit regulations or carri licenses.” Doyle checked his watch. “We’ve less than two hours before dark, when more women will be hurt. Care to chat about that?”
“And relive my own unpleasant experiences? No, thank you.” I kept my expression bland. “Can you announce a curfew? No women in the city to go out after sunset, or something of that sort?”
“Kit.”
I couldn’t keep him in the dark any longer. “With the exception of me, all the Wolfman victims are pregnant. Their children were conceived to serve as hosts for Aramanthan immortals, which the women also carry in their bodies at present. Lucy Ennis survived hanging because, like the others, she has a spirit stone in her body. It wouldn’t let her die.”