Circle of Stones by Catherine Fisher Read Free Book Online

opened.
    Now, Forrest always has a cup of chocolate about this time each morning, & whether Cook had forgotten there were visitors I don’t know, but when he turned furiously to bark at the maid for interrupting, it wasn’t the maid at all.  .  .  . It was Sylvia.
    She stood in the doorway holding the tray with the silver chocolate pot in her hands, frozen, as if in terror. The men all stared at her.
    She wore an oyster silk dress Forrest had insisted on buying for her. It was ridiculously expensive & yet it suited her. She was clean & her red hair was arranged neatly, but now her face was nearly as flushed. For a moment I thought she’d drop the tray.
    I jumped up, just as Forrest snapped, “Zac.”
    I took the tray from her; she let go quickly, bobbed the speediest of curtseys & would have fled, but Lord Compton said, “So this is the young  .  .  . woman.”
    He edged me aside with his cane & stared at her. “Very pretty.”
    His gaze was appraising & bold. Not like you’d look at a lady. Sylvia held his eye a frightened instant, & the thought came to me like a flash of light from nowhere. She knows him.
    Then she looked deliberately away from both of us to Forrest. “I’m sorry for interrupting, sir,” she said. “I didn’t know  .  .  .”
    â€œThat’s all right. Thank you, Sylvia.”
    Her dress rustled as she turned; she caught at it as if to keep it quiet. Ralph Alleyn held the door for her. She might not be a lady, but he was certainly a gentleman. I cleared some papers & dumped the tray on the workbench, but when I looked up something had changed in the room, as if the girl had left more than her faint rose perfume behind in the air.
    Then Greye said, “Well, I’ll have to give this some thought.” He looked at Compton. “Are you coming, sir?”
    His lordship was staring at the closed door, & I didn’t like his face. Then he tapped his boot with the cane & looked up, hard, at Forrest. “I’ll think about it too. Perhaps . . . there may be something here that interests me after all. Good day, gentlemen.”
    â€œShow them out,” Forrest snapped at me. But they were already halfway down the corridor, so I shuffled past them & got to the front door & opened it.
    The rattle of carriages sent a wave of dust into my face.
    Greye lumbered down the steps, but his lordship stopped by me. He said quietly, “Forrest must be a difficult man to work for.”
    My desire to punch him came right back.
    He gave his cool smirk, took something out of his pocket & handed it to me. “Meet me tonight at ten. I have an offer to make you. I think it will interest an ambitious man.”
    I took the card. That was my big mistake. I turned away. Then back. “What offer?” He just smiled. We stood face-to-face, & we were the same age, & the same height, & if my father had not gambled everything away, we would both have been wealthy young men. But he was richer than Satan & I was a madman’s apprentice. He sauntered off down the street.
    I shut the door & stood in the dark hall & read the card. It said:
    GIBSON’S ASSEMBLY ROOMS
    Pursuits & Refreshments for Gentlemen of Taste
Hot Bath Street, Aquae Sulis
    I scraped my cheek with it thoughtfully. The very place Sylvia had fled from. Probably a gambling den. Hardly the place for Compton to offer me a job. Still, anything would be better than this madhouse.
    In the workroom I could hear Forrest raging against his fate. “Ignorant, arrogant fools . . . surely we can do without their stinking money . . .” Fragments of his wrath came scorching out, but he had brought it all on himself, with his druid folly & his naive kindness. I leaned against the door & listened. Ralph Alleyn’s soothing tones oozed through the opening.
    â€œThey will reconsider. Be calm, John. It will work out.”
    I heard