Persuasion in the Pantry [Maid for More #1]

Chapter 44: Part 2 - The Spider to the Fly

Verushka spotted Jay loitering under a lamppost dressed in a serviceable lawyer's suit. He caught sight of her and snapped shut his watch fop, tucking it sharply back into his breast pocket.

"Let's go," he ordered.

Her brother, she had learnt, was rarely superfluous with his words.

Verushka felt the worn soles of her boots clunk methodically beneath her as they walked briskly through the quiet streets of Mayfair towards the bustling brawl of town. She had forgotten how the heel always bit into her ankle and the toe pinched at the tip. Still, it was a comfortable awkwardness that made her reminisce on days past. The cracked lines of leather were a far cry from her recent satin slippers and it was a startling reminder of how quickly her life had changed.

Jay grabbed her elbow once they reached the boundary of the Garden to prevent losing his cargo and Verushka tucked her injured palm elusively into the folds of her apron. The wound Edward Oxford inflicted was still healing beneath bandages and silken gloves. At times she could feel it split open and serve as yet another metaphor for the damage a memory could inflict. And yet the world moved on.

The press of the crowds increased as traders began to pack up carts from the day's sales and whistle tunes of fortitude to carry them homes to wives and babes. Verushka craned her neck around to see if Mina was in the milling masses but to no avail. She partly wished it and partly feared it. What would Mina say? How could she explain why she had had no contact with one of her best friends for a fortnight? How could she hope to share the feelings which she still had not deciphered herself? Despite Verushka's best efforts though, the sharp eyes and full pockets of a maid who had stuffed them with pastries was nowhere to be seen, not that Jacob gave her much of a chance to linger.

"What on earth are you doing, Verushka?" Jay barked as he yanked on her uninjured hand.

"What? Nothing," Verushka coughed sheepishly.

"Are you trying to shop right now?"

"No,of course not. That is insane. Why would you say that?" Verushka's nose crinkled in distaste.

"Because you have been trying to inspect every stall since we entered Covent Garden. Now, if you are not intent on purchasing something, could you please try to keep up?" Jacob arched a patronising brow at his ward.

"Keep up? Keep up? Watch this old man!" Verushka snickered and dashed in front of him, the ties of her apron flying in the wind as she ducked and weaved her way around the south side of the Royal Opera House without so much as sniffing the jasmine perfume of Liara and her compatriots within. She barrelled through the soot of several chimney sweeps and skirted Chancery Lane with her brother close on her heels. Verushka followed a trail of lawyers navigating Temple District before heading north on the Old Bailey until Newgate Prison loomed perilously on her left. She screeched to a sweaty, tangled stop and swung her head around looking for the doubting duke.

It took several long minutes of standing on the street corner like a common stale, no offence to Liara of course, for Jacob to emerge from the ordered lanes of the law courts with an expression of deep displeasure.

Verushka tapped her boot impatiently until he reached her. "Now who is stalling?"

"I am supposed to appear as Oxford's legal counsel. I could not be seen making a mad dash with a dishevelled maid through Temple without someone noticing. You, however need only pose as a Newgate servant- notoriously filthy, low bred and pungent creatures. So, my dear ward I think you should do just fine as you are." Jay's lips broke out into a rare wide grin.

"Sometimes Jacob you can be quite unpleasant." Verushka tried to assess her delicate aroma without too obvious a sniff.

"What can I say, 'little cousin'- you bring out the best in me. Come on then." Jacob thwacked her on her behind with the flat of his briefcase. "Let's not keep the killer waiting."