Free A Season to Be Sinful by Jo Goodman Page A

along the wall.
    He carefully let himself into her room. His crossing to the bed was not soundless. The floor creaked as his weight further depressed the sagging boards. Candlelight flickered when the wobbly bedside table shuddered.
    Sherry lifted the candlestick and held it over her. She was quiet again; indeed, he was uncertain now that what hed heard had come from this room. Was it you? he asked quietly. Her translucent skin seemed to reflect the flames pale yellow glow rather than absorb it. He moved the candlelight over her face and down the length of her unnaturally still form.
    She looked only marginally less feverish than she had earlier. Sherry thought any improvement was more illusion than real and credited the comb that was run through her matted hair and the change of her bed linens for bringing it about. Kearns had removed her stained shirt and soiled trousers, but it had been Sherry who cut away the strip of linen binding her breasts and who dressed her in his own nightshirt.
    What were you doing there that night? he said. It was ridiculous, he supposed, to pose the question when there was no reason to expect she would answer him. Did you mean to rob me? He paused as though giving her time to consider her response. Or kill me?
    The widows daughter had found a chair in one of the other rooms and suggested they place it near Miss Roses bed. It lightly scraped the floor as Sherry pulled it to him. He protected the candle flame as he sat. In profile she was as still as death.
    Im done with that life, you know.
    She didnt know, of course. Hed only recently decided. Saying it aloud to her, to someone who was insensible of him and of that profoundly secret life hed led, was a test of his own resolve. That he felt not the slightest regret proved that hed made the choice he could live with.
    He wondered about the life she had been living. Teacher of young thieves. Participant in the abovestairs trade at the Blue Ruination. What cause had she to bind her breasts and dress herself in boys clothes when she ventured into the street? And the blacking in her hair? What purpose had that served?
    He had not known she was female when she lay full on top of him, but he had known she was French.
    Je n avais pas un couteau. Quel dommage!
    The words, her last before she slipped into unconsciousness, revealed something more than her disguise had hidden. The accent was impeccable, the ironic intonation perfect. Why wouldnt she speak these words, he thought, the ones she believed might well be her last, in her native tongue?
    I didnt have a knife . Then even more softly, confirming her regret, What a pity .
    For days he had considered what she had been trying to tell him. As last words, their absurdity could not be questioned. As the truth, well, as often was the case it depended on ones perspective. The knife she said she did not have was buried deep in her side. Perhaps she was only communicating surprise and a sense of loss that it was no longer in her hand.
    Sherry did not like that explanation. The ironic edge to her words still gave him pause. It was almost as if she were castigating herself for not having a weapon. That at least would fit what Pinch had said and his companions had supported: Miss Rose did not carry a blade.
    It was this construction that troubled him. He knew he had not put the knife to her, and if she had not caused the injury herself, then
    The most logical conclusion was that there had been a third party involved. When Sherry considered the number of people rubbing elbows that night, the idea of identifying a single suspect was daunting. As little as a week earlier he would not have been caught so unaware or unprepared. He would have noticed individual faces in the crowd and not been fooled by his assailants less than perfect disguise.
    But by then hed made his decision to leave London for Granville. That night he had been strolling in Covent Garden, it was as if hed had one foot and almost all of his mind in