Free The Strangely Beautiful Tale Of Miss Percy Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber

replied that she had a strange manner of dreams. I tried to clarify whether these were dreams or visions, but she didn’t know or want to admit.”
    Elijah snorted. “Damn Catholics. Don’t they all think they see things—Christ in a spoon or the Virgin in a crumpet? Delusional fanatics. God bless Mr. Darwin for setting us straight.”
    Michael waggled his mustache. “Please, Elijah, your compassion is leaking onto the tablecloth, and it’s making an awful mess.”
    Elijah’s hand hovered over a butter knife.
    “No silverware duels today, gentlemen. Please,” Rebecca implored.
    Michael leaned over the table, not to be dissuaded. “Mr. Darwin, Lord Withersby, was a man of God. As a scientist,he believed in the sacred process of life designed by an omnipotent Creator. Men who lack imagination will say he’s not of God for their own purposes.” He turned away. “Now, what of this girl’s dreams, Rebecca?”
    “I wasn’t at liberty to press her. Timid as she was, I doubt she’d have shared.”
    “You are rather intimidating on the job, Headmistress Thompson,” Elijah mocked, though kindly. “You and Alexi, both—our resident gargoyles.”
    Rebecca offered Elijah a cold, cautionary smile.
    “Did Alexi think anything of the girl?” Michael asked.
    Rebecca shook her head. “I’ve no idea. The students are simply our employment, and bless them for that. We decided long ago that we should bring none near our madness, and that has served us well. I therefore leave Alexi to his own impressions regarding her. The girl was nothing to bring to account, merely interesting, that’s all.” When Michael raised an eyebrow she added hastily, “But I do worry about a girl like her, and about all of my students in this increasingly dangerous city.”
    There was a long period of silence as the three friends picked like birds at the dry biscuits before them.
    “We’re overdue for a meeting. The air is sick with forces. There may yet be more murders,” Michael finally said. “Supernatural or no.”
    “Two less harlots on the streets,” Elijah offered, his bony fingers toying with his fork.
    “Sunshine, you are,” Michael replied. “A joy to all mankind.”
    “I do my best,” laughed his friend.
    Elijah punctuated his words by threading his dessert fork into the lace of Rebecca’s cuffs. She responded by tossing a piece of biscuit at his head. It bounced and hit the window, and a voice scolded suddenly in a thick French accent.
    “ Mon Dieu! No refinement! Even you, Rebecca, whom I hold to a higher standard than these heathens at your side.You let them goad you into misbehaving?” Josephine strode toward them, cradling a bottle of fine sherry upon her arm.
    “Josie, now, don’t curse your kin,” Rebecca replied, blowing the other a kiss.
    Josephine glared, but the men at the table gasped. “Did you see, Josie?” Elijah exclaimed. “Her Arctic Highness just sent you a token of affection floating on an icy breeze! Come, a smile is due at least for such a novelty.”
    “You give me no credit!” Rebecca cried. “I’m never as frigid as you all make me out to be.”
    Michael clapped his hands to his arms and rubbed them furiously. “Elijah, what on earth could be causing that draft?”
    Rebecca folded her arms and scowled.
    “She simply awaits a man’s embrace,” Elijah blurted. “That alone will remedy her chill.”
    Michael choked first on his biscuit, then, taking a drink of tea, choked once more—this time due to Elijah’s work with the peppermill.
    Rebecca’s hand flew to her snug collar, her heart seizing. She masked her sudden wound with bluster. “If I wasn’t bound to you by damnable fate, if you were proper gentlemen, you might consider etiquette, for such talk surpasses scandal!” She rose from her chair, throwing down her napkin, trying to deter further scrutiny. “I’ll never know why you tease Alexi and I so, Elijah, when you are the impossible one!”
    Elijah grinned,