Free Revenge of the Brotherhood (Book 3 in the Tom & Laura Series) by John Booth

experience before marriage.
    The carriage bumped along the Oxford Road to stop outside a store with an impressive sign. This was the coming thing, a department store as they were known. It was the only one in Reading and already it was attracting attention to the county town.
    “It feels so good to be out of those barracks and back among ordinary people,” Laura said, her enthusiasm bubbling over. “Do you think they will have the latest fashions?”
    “There is only one way to find out,” Daisy replied.
    The correct way for a lady to enter a store is slowly, waiting for a gentleman to open a door for them, but Daisy and Laura ran inside as if they were naughty children.
    It took a long time to find an appropriate dress for Laura. As a Class A her status in society was close to nobility. Nobody would officially know who she was, and yet everyone in the church would know. Her dress had to match her status and her personality and those two things were hardly complementary.
    Daisy found a dress without effort. She possessed a natural beauty and was no longer as gaunt as she’d been when Laura first met her. Almost anything would hang well on her.
    Laura’s dress required alteration. While she was engaged with the seamstress, Daisy slipped away to another part of the store selling writing materials for the discerning gentleman. A little old man, stooped with age, ushered her into the storeroom as soon as she arrived. He checked to see that no one had seen them enter before he closed the door.
    “Mr. Timothy, it is good to see you again.”
    “Do you have the money?” he asked eagerly.
    “And you the goods I desire?”
    “Better than that, I have a new invention. A fountain pen that can take the special inks Spellbinders use. For the first time they will be able to write as the common folk do.” He offered Daisy a pen.
    “Unscrew the end. It uses a new seal which prevents the ink from drying on the nib.”
    Daisy did as she was told. The nib was gold, something she had never seen before. Mr. Timothy grabbed a sheet of paper and put it on the table in front of her.
    “Write, write.”
    As she wrote, copper ink flowed onto the paper without blotting. This was certainly an extraordinary pen.
    “I have provided a small phial of ink. That plus what is in the pen should meet your needs.”
    “And paper?”
    He opened a brown envelope and slid out a sheet of paper. When Daisy touched it she was amazed at how it felt, thin and yet very strong. It reminded her of something, but she couldn’t think what.
    “Pure linen, much stronger than cotton or paper-based products,” Mr. Timothy explained. “More like banknotes.”
    “But will it last?” Daisy asked.
    “Military Magic is moving over to it. Short of writing on copper you can’t get much stronger. They would have moved earlier except it is highly expensive.”
    “How much do I owe you?” Daisy asked.
    “Twenty pounds.”
    That was a laborer’s wage for a year and more. Daisy handed over four five pound banknotes without a word of protest.
    “There’s only five sheets of paper, mind,” he warned her.
    “That will have to be enough.”

7.    Disaster
     
    Tricky and Alice made their way to Soho after leaving school. Tricky used the clocks on various buildings to keep track of the time. He worried that they were going to be late and the clocks did not reassure him, with differences as big as fifteen minutes between them. It was certainly half past five, but it could be as late as quarter to six.
    “Slow down, mi feet are killin’ me,” Alice protested. “Mi new shoes are agony.”
    “We ain’t got the time.”
    “They all’as comes out late, them office workers.”
    Tricky disagreed and dragged Alice along as fast as she would allow. It took another ten minutes to reach Mercury House. He stayed on the other side of the road and pulled Alice into the entrance to a small door. Putting his arms around her, he squeezed her to him.
    “Not so ’ard. It