Free A Study in Silks by Emma Jane Holloway Page A

He staggered backward, crashing into the plywood waves. He caught his balance in time to see the baritone charge, head down like a bull. Tobias raised his fists.
    Hands grabbed the back of his coat, yanking him away. “Don’t be an idiot,” Bucky hissed, dragging Tobias into the wings.
    “This is just getting good!” he said, as the baritone floundered headlong in the scenery.
    “They’re going to drive a bullet into your idiot hide.”
    Bucky’s words barely had time to sink in before the soldiers stormed toward them. Edgerton stood in the wings, waving frantically.
    Tobias gave up and ran. The three friends pelted through the theater and into the alley, a flock of police and soldiers behind them. Muck and mud splattered under their pounding boots, smelling of offal and worse. A police whistle shrilled through the night. He had a horrible vision of one of his friends catching a bullet in the back. “Split up!” he cried.
    It was risky, here in King Coal’s alleyways, where the Blue Boys reigned over a patch of London little gaslight ever reached. Barely half a mile from the Royal Charlotte, the homes were a honeycomb of broken-down tenements and twisted alleys. Edgerton disappeared to the north. Bucky vanished into a tavern. They wouldn’t pass for working-class Londoners, but in their dull brown jackets, they hoped no one would notice them right away.
    Tobias kept running, leading the police away from his friends. He was young, fast, and a natural athlete. His pursuers fired but night and speed were on his side. He ducked and wove, making it impossible to aim. Curses filled the air.
    A lunatic laugh escaped him.
    The first few streets were empty, but the next was filled with traffic. Streetwalkers idled on the corners. Crates and barrels clogged the narrow throughway. Normally, no stranger could walk here in safety, but this time Tobias had a pass. The locals were all too happy to get in the way of pursuing coppers, resulting in a shoving match. A fist was thrown by a drayman, a copper’s lip split, and chaos erupted. The chase was over.
    Tobias plunged on with the instincts of a fleeing fox.
    Eventually, he dodged through a gap-toothed fence, emerging into a cobbled alley scented with stewing lamb. With a jolt of surprise, he realized this place was behind a restaurant he knew well. Directly above him, a curtain fluttered from an open window, the source of the enticing smell.
    Tobias stopped, trying to listen past the heaving of his breath. The globes on the gaslights here were Keating Utility gold, indicating a much better neighborhood. He couldhear two men passing on the nearby street, amiably chatting about a whist party. A hackney went by in the other direction, drowning out their words. From above, a dull hum of conversation floated from the window, punctuated by the clatter of the kitchen.
    No sound of pursuing feet. For the moment, he was safe. He wondered, with a wrench in his chest, if his friends were all right. There would be no way to know until morning.
    Tobias shut his eyes, feeling the beat of his slowing heart.
We did it. I won the bet
.
    Scandal. Soldiers. There was no way the event would fail to make the papers. Abercrombie had lost.
But was it worth it?
    The question hung in the chill air, draining the energy from his limbs. Suddenly, Tobias was bone-tired. The destruction in the theater had been pointless. The whole wager had been a mindless lark. So much of his life was.
    But he’d planned and executed a mission fraught with both scientific and logistical complexity. He’d
done
something.
    Satisfaction bloomed in his chest like a small, private sun. It was a new and wondrous sensation.
    His pleasure deflated just as quickly. The four friends had forgotten one detail. With the exception of Smythe, they hadn’t planned on splitting up. Now they couldn’t vouch for each other’s whereabouts. If they met someone they knew, their unfamiliar clothes would be hard to explain. In fact, the