Authors: Suzanne Lazear
Tags: #Juvenile Fiction, #Fantasy & Magic, #Steampunk
Innocent Darkness (9 page)
Inwardly Noli sighed as she focused on yet another bowl of bland food. Ever since Margaret realized Noli and Charlotte were friends, she’d tortured Noli, too. She’d make stains on her clothes and fuss when Noli couldn’t get them out. Track dirt in on clean floors. Claim to be allergic to the flowers. Find fault with the way Noli made her rickety cot.
“Yes, Margaret?” Miss Gregory looked up from her conversation. She, Miss Henderson, and Miss Nelson, sat at the head of the table. Next came the fancies, the blues in the middle, new girls at the end.
“I believe Magnolia has an illegal piece of jewelry. A necklace.” Margaret smirked. “New girls aren’t permitted jewelry.”
Noli writhed in embarrassment in her hard wooden chair. How did Margaret know? She’d been so careful to keep it hidden.
Miss Gregory’s eyes narrowed as she looked down her pointed nose. “Does she? Thank you, Margaret. Magnolia Braddock, come here.”
Margaret beamed, probably imagining her reward for telling.
The fancies continued their inane conversations, completely ignoring everything else around them. The blues whispered clandestinely as Noli left her seat, making her way shamefully to the head of the table. None of the greys spoke, since they weren’t permitted to speak unless spoken to at meals, but Charlotte flashed her a worried look.
“What is this?” Reaching out, Miss Gregory grabbed her pendant and yanked it clear off her neck, breaking the chain in the process.
Noli tried to maintain a facade of calm. Anger—or tears—wouldn’t get her anything but extra lessons and punishments.
Miss Gregory clucked her tongue. “I’m disappointed in you. What do you have to say for yourself?”
“Miss Gregory, this isn’t a piece of jewelry but an amulet to protect me against aether. I’m afraid of it, you see.” She kept her voice soft, and eyes downcast as she told the headmistress about her father. “They say the aether did it. Dr. Martin said I could keep the amulet for now.”
“Did he now?” Miss Gregory blinked in surprise. Her chin jutted out. “If you’re lying, it’s the water room for you.”
“Rosemarie, please fetch Dr. Martin,” Miss Gregory ordered.
“Yes, Miss Gregory.” In a flurry of pale blue skirts, she got up from the table and left.
While they waited, Noli stood while everyone else ate; enduring hard looks and smirks, especially from Margaret. She got a compassionate look from Claire. Claire never made any outright overtures of friendship, but she’d never been mean and occasionally passed on small bits of advice or warning.
Dr. Martin finally entered the room. He inclined his head. “You called, Miss Gregory.”
“Indeed.” Standing, she handed him the broken pendant. “Magnolia Braddock had this. She claims it’s a medal to protect her against aether and
you
permitted her to keep it.”
Noli prayed with all her might that he told the truth.
“Why, yes, Miss Gregory. I did permit Magnolia to keep her amulet.” His unnerving, beady eyes looked Noli up and down in a way that seemed highly inappropriate. A knowing smile played on this thin mouth. He turned the gold sunburst over in his sweaty, meaty hands.
“You did?” Miss Gregory’s thin lips pursed together.
“Indeed. She has a deep fear of aether—and this city. I didn’t wish her fear to impede her initial treatment. I decided it would be better for her overall adjustment for her to keep it until we are ready to deal with her deep-set fear.” He smiled at Miss Gregory. “But what god-fearing woman isn’t a little afraid of aether? Plenty of ladies wear protective amulets.”
By the look on Miss Gregory’s face, she wasn’t one of them. Her lips formed a hard line. “I see, Doctor. I know you wouldn’t allow such a breach of rules unless you found it absolutely necessary to aid her course of treatment. Next time, please inform me.”
“Why yes, Miss Gregory. It must have slipped my mind.” He handed Noli the broken necklace. “There you are. Will that be all?”
“Yes, that will be all.” Miss Gregory’s lips puckered as if the words tasted bad.
He left the room. Charlotte shot Margaret a triumphant look. Noli tried to keep her expression bland as she made her way back to the table, belly unknotting. She’d won, but she knew there’d be a price to pay for her small triumph.
As soon as Noli sat, Miss Gregory clapped. “Lunch is over, ladies.”
Her belly rumbled in protest as she looked forlornly at her half-filled bowl. With a sigh, she followed the girls out of the room, still hungry. She’d be punished if caught eating anything out of the vegetable garden.
“Good job,” Charlotte mouthed.
Carefully, Noli knotted the broken ends of the chain together; it now barely fit over her head. She tucked it back under her dress.
Claire stopped her on the way to the garden shed. She probably wanted her to tend to the vegetable garden or pick something for the cook.
“Watch out for Margaret.” Claire’s blue eyes darted around nervously. “She didn’t get in trouble, but she didn’t get a reward either. She might try something.”
She hoped Claire’s warning proved incorrect. But she had a suspicion it wouldn’t.
“Quinn, I need a new sigil.” Steven sat hunched over the desk in the library working on his lessons. Quinn was many things to his family. Right now he played tutor. Hopefully, he wouldn’t ask many questions.
Tall and pale with naturally silver hair, Quinn had an air of dignity about him, though he didn’t look older than twenty. His eyebrows arched. “How exactly did you manage to lose it?”
It wasn’t that he regretted giving it to Noli, but he didn’t look forward to explaining, either. They weren’t exactly easy to procure. It would be simpler to say he lost it, but if his father discovered he’d lied and given it to Noli … well, only the Bright Lady could help him then.
“If I don’t tell you, you can’t tell my father,” he replied instead.
Quinn gazed at him with sharp eyes the color of flint. “I’ll get you another, but you have to pay attention. What has gotten into you?”
He hadn’t anticipated Noli’s absence to affect him so much. But it had. According to her mother, he couldn’t even write her. “I promise to try.”
“Good. Now, let’s get back to our lessons.”
Once again, his mind wandered to Noli and that dreadful place. Should he hope she did well or poorly? Not that it would change anything either way. He just hoped she was safe.
The Spark
Should we go for a walk?” She shot Kevighn a winsome smile. Her name was Annette, or was it Maryanne? He couldn’t remember. Whatever the mortal called herself, she was charming, curvaceous, and flexible. Very flexible.
Truly, he should be out hunting and not drowning his sorrows in opium and women. But after the last missive from the queen, he needed to indulge briefly. Essentially, the message read
if you don’t find a girl soon, I’ll find someone else who can.
Few possessed the ability to see the Spark in mortals, but he wasn’t the only one. He just happened to be good at tracking and seducing young women and stealing them away.
Well, he used to be.
There weren’t fewer girls with the Spark in the mortal realm. They were more wary of running away with him, especially with all this emphasis on virtue and chastity. What nonsense.
Also, after Annabelle, he simply lacked the motivation.
“Briefly, if you wish.” He’d rather take the harlot back upstairs. After perhaps.
They walked outside, the afternoon overcast. She carried a lace parasol like fine lady. To give the strumpet credit, she didn’t prattle on as they strolled around the gardens of the Red Pearl, his favorite opium den.
“Poor girls.” She jerked her chin towards the other side of the tall fence.
Two girls in grey silently hung laundry on a line. The tiny one had freckles and red hair. The other possessed a mop of chestnut curls and eyes like steel. They were about the age he usually stole. The land preferred girls who hovered on the brink between child and woman.
Personally, he couldn’t fault the land for her good taste.
“What precisely is this place?” he asked.
“They take willful girls and beat them until they become submissive, fine ladies.” Taking her fan, she fluttered it. “Horrible, terrible, place. I know the cook. The doctor there is creepy. He seems to enjoy his job of treating the girls a little too much.” She shuddered slightly, making her large bosom shake in her tight, pink, dress.
A place where they actually sucked the life out of young girls in their prime? Terrible. He never claimed to understand mortals.
The girls on the other side of the fence continued to hang laundry. The eyes of the girl with the redhead went alight with mischief. She whispered something to the other girl and grinned. They both laughed. Kevighn winced as if the sun came out from behind the clouds.
The Bright Lady herself seemed to smile upon him. Both girls possessed quite a bit of the Spark. One of them shone with it. With them so close he couldn’t tell which one. Either would do. Maybe he’d bring both. After all, how hard could it be to lure girls with the Spark out of a place designed to drain them of just that?