Kitty Peck and the Child of Ill-Fortune by Kate Griffin Read Free Book Online Page B

hide from you.’ I glared at Joey and I must admit I was quite gratified when his eyes slipped away first.
    I took a deep breath.
    ‘He didn’t bring me here. I got this address from Lady Ginger. I think we need to talk family business, don’t you?’
    *
    Joey didn’t say much as I rattled on. He sat very still in a high-backed chair to the left of the fire and listened. Occasionally, he glanced at Lucca who was next to me on the sofa, leaning forward with his head bowed so that his hair covered his face. His hands were never still – all the time I talked I was aware of Lucca picking at his nails and worrying at scraps of skin.
    I told Joey almost everything that evening. I told him about the cage and about the girls who’d gone missing from the halls. There were some things I left out – the kind of things a brother wouldn’t want to hear of his little sister, even when he barely seemed to know her – but I tried to tell him enough to make him understand what I’d done for him, right down to how I, Lucca that is, had dealt with the bastard who had corrupted those boys and murdered them – the man responsible for the fire. That made Joey sit up.
    ‘You killed him?’
    Lucca nodded. ‘ Sì. I did not work alone, but yes, the shot was mine.’
    He raised his head now and stared directly at Joey.
    ‘It was an execution.’ Lucca’s voice was oddly flat.
    Joey nodded curtly, just the once.
    Now, there was a world of story in that little sentence of Lucca’s. Justice, I called it – and God forgive me, I didn’t feel guilty. I didn’t delve too deeply into what Lucca called it. Whatever it was, we could sleep at night.
    Of course, there was the final kick to my story, the one that had brought me to him. When I told him about Lady Ginger and about me and Paradise, his face went stiff like a mask. He turned away and stared into the fire. The room was completely silent except for the crackling of the logs. There was something I had to know.
    ‘When . . . when did you find out she was our grandmother, Joey? You were working for her for a long time before you . . . went.’
    He didn’t answer. Instead he stood and lifted an iron to poke the grate. A shower of sparks burst from the logs and leapt into the throat of the chimney. Despite the fire, the atmosphere in the room was as cold as a workhouse itch ward.
    When he spoke he didn’t look at me.
    ‘It was Nanny Peck,’ he paused. ‘Just before she died I . . . found some papers in her purse – chits signed Elizabeth Redmayne. I thought it might be something to do with our father and his family, some payment to keep us quiet, and I was angry with the old girl for keeping him from us so I confronted her.’
    I stared at my brother’s back. I thought I’d known him through and through, but the person standing in front of me now was as foreign as skinny old Frenchie with the scent and the lace.
    ‘You went through her purse! You know she would have given us anything. I didn’t have you down as a thief, Joey, whatever else you—’ I buttoned it before I said something wrong. I looked down and plucked at a fraying loop of brocade detaching itself from the upholstery of the couch.
    ‘You don’t have to tell me that, little sister. Don’t you think I knew how low it was to steal from my own grandmother?’ He rolled his shoulders and muttered something under his breath.
    ‘At the time I was in a deal of trouble. I couldn’t tell—’ He stopped and shifted a small china ornament on the marble fire surround an inch to the right.
    ‘I didn’t know what to do – you don’t need to know the details, but please believe that I meant to pay her back. Then, when I found the notes in her purse I thought I could use them. I was harsh. I made her cry and I bitterly regret that because she was kind and good – the closest thing we’ll ever have to a grandmother. When I forced her she told me about The Lady and our . . . connection and so I went to The Palace