Free Wrede, Patricia C - Mairelon 02 by The Magician's Ward (v5.0)

London ."
                Hunch
choked. Kim eyed him with disfavor. "Well, it ain't," she said.
                " Isn't ,
Kim," Mairelon said.
                "Ain't,"
Kim said firmly. "I got to talk to Tom tonight; if I sound too flash, he
ain't going to be comfortable."
                "Very well. Just don't slip in front of Aunt Agatha,
for I won't be responsible for the consequences."
                Kim
nodded. "I won't. But you still ain't coming with me."
                Hunch
frowned and began nibbling on the left end of his mustache. Mairelon sighed.
"Kim--"
                "If
you try, I won't go. And Tom won't talk to you alone, whatever he's got to say.
If he'd meant for you to come, he'd have let us know somehow."
                Mairelon
studied her for a moment, frowning slightly. Finally, reluctantly, he nodded. "If you're determined. But I still don't like the idea
of you crossing half of London on
your own at that hour. Hunch and I will take you up High Holborn in the
carriage."
                "That's
going to be inconspicuous for sure," Kim said scornfully. "Me, pulling up at Tom's door in a coach at midnight ."
                "Much
as I'd like to do just that, I hadn't planned on it. I have done this
sort of thing before, you know. We'll wait at the bottom of Threadneedle
Street , or somewhere else nearby if you can think
of a better place."
                It was
Kim's turn to nod reluctantly. She had, for a few wild minutes, hoped for a
night run through the back streets of London ,
an opportunity to visit some of her old haunts besides Tom Correy's place. But
Mairelon's points were well-taken. The London rookeries were a dangerous place even for the experienced, and her experiences
were a year out of date. The less time she spent on the streets, the better her
chance of avoiding robbery or murder. Memories were no good to the dead.
                "That's
settled, then," Mairelon said briskly, and handed Kim a stack of wrinkled
clothing. "Now, do go and try these on while there's still time for Hunch
to find more if they don't fit. And for heaven's sake, don't let Aunt Agatha
see you, or we'll both be in the suds."

6
                A heavy London fog had settled over the dark streets by the time Kim approached Tom Correy's
shop in Petticoat Lane .
Here there were no streetlamps to mark the road with flickering yellow light,
and Kim was grateful. In the dark and the fog, she was only a shadow moving
among shadows. This close to the St. Giles rookery, anyone who was noticing
enough to spot her would likely be knowing enough to pretend he hadn't.
                Even so,
the thought of Mairelon and Hunch, waiting in the carriage a few streets away,
was more comforting than she had expected. The smells of coal smoke and
uncollected horse dung, the sounds of drunken revelry from the public house on
the corner, and most of all the penetrating chill of the fog brought back the
constant undercurrent of fear that she had lived with for so long. She had
almost forgotten the fear, in her year of safety and security with Mairelon.
                A church
clock chimed the quarter hour. Kim jumped, then shook
herself. Past midnight already. I'll be home as late as a fashionable lady coming back from a ball. She
frowned at the thought, then dismissed it. Pulling her
jacket firmly into place, she knocked at Tom's door.
                An
unfamiliar dark-haired youth opened it and looked at her suspiciously.
"Who are you and what d'you want ?"
                "I
come to see Tom Correy," Kim said.
                "And
I'm a valet to His Majesty," the youth sneered. "You're lookin' to
unload something you pinched from your betters."
                "What
if I am?" Kim said. "You ain't one of 'em, so it ain't no lookout of yours."
                "Ho!"
The