Read His Lordship Possessed for Free Online Page B

left?
    “Kit?”
    “Th e main shutoff valve for the pipes is out by the
    boiler,” I told Doyle. My voice sounded fl at and hollow,
    echoing in my own ears. “Or whatever is left of it.”
    “Kit.” He put a hand under my elbow. “Come away
    now.”
    I pulled my arm away. “Go and shut off the water
    before the place fl oods out. Please, Inspector.”
    As soon as he left I went to my cashsafe to see if I did
    have anything left. Th e door had been badly dented, but
    it had not been opened; the locks had held. Quickly I
    used the combination to release them and clean out the
    safe, putting all the cash I had to my name in my reticule.
    42
    Viehl_DisenchantedP2_EG.indd 42
    7/15/13 10:25 AM
    Disench anted & Co., Part 1
    Happily I’d never trusted banks, and kept only a small
    amount of funds in my business account, to which Walsh
    had likely already helped himself. Th en I went upstairs to
    see what more he’d done.
    Doyle stood waiting at the bottom of the stairs when
    I came back down. “Did they get at the rest?”
    I nodded. “He must have sent in a whole gang. By the
    look of things they were well-paid, too.”
    “I’ll have my men question the neighbors,” he assured
    me. “We’ll fi nd them, Kit.”
    “Don’t bother.” My heart felt like a stone in my chest.
    “If you would post a beater outside to watch the place,
    I’ll have someone over before nightfall to board up the
    windows and doors.” I walked out.
    “Where are you going?” Before I could answer, he
    said, “Wherever it is, he’ll fi nd you.”
    I didn’t look back at him. “Not this time, he won’t.”
    Wrecker met me on the street halfway to the Eagle’s
    Nest; he removed his cap and held it between his hands
    but couldn’t seem to get any words out.
    “I’ve seen it,” I told him. “I need someone to board up
    the place.”
    “Already on his way.” He scuffl ed his heels round the
    snow a bit. “I’m real sorry, Miss Kit. No call to be doing
    such things to a lady like you. Carri’s over here.”
    Wrecker drove me the rest of the way to Rina’s house,
    where I found her wrapped in furs and pacing back and
    43
    Viehl_DisenchantedP2_EG.indd 43
    7/15/13 10:25 AM
    LYNN VIEHL
    forth in the alley. As soon as she spotted us she ran to the carri and practically dragged me out of it.
    “Bugger all, Kit. Someone said you’d nearly been shot
    outside court. I nearly worried myself into the vapors.”
    She smothered me with her furry collar before holding
    me at arm’s length. “Inside. Now.”
    I followed her inside, up the stairs and into her
    chambers, where she divested me of my cloak and used
    her fi ngers to loosen the icy tresses round my face.
    “I’ve put a tray upstairs, madam,” Almira said as she
    came out of the kitchen. “Miss Kit.” She folded me into
    her arms and gave me a tight hug. “Go on with you.”
    Rina guided me upstairs to her chambers and forced
    me to drink a cup of tea so hot it scalded me into silence.
    Which was handy, as she had a great deal to get off her
    chest.
    “Bleeding Walsh’s going to pay for this, I swear on the
    cross.” She threw her furs over a chair and kicked a tuff et across the room. “Having you tossed out your offi ce, then
    taken in to court like some two-pence alley-tart—and
    then, while you’re ducking bullets, razing your place?
    It’s too much, even for a nobheaded, tightassed son of a
    poxbox like him.”
    “No, it wasn’t.” For some reason I couldn’t stop
    thinking about Dredmore, and how quickly he had killed
    the snuff mage outside court. Why had he come there? To
    see me convicted, and applaud as I was sent off to prison?
    Or to bribe someone to place me in his custody? Why
    had he bothered to defend me?
    44
    Viehl_DisenchantedP2_EG.indd 44
    7/15/13 10:25 AM
    Disench anted & Co., Part 1
    “Wrecker’ll do him in a minute,” Rina was still
    ranting. “No, I think he’ll do him in hours and hours,
    while we have a bottle of wine and watch and