Wrede, Patricia C - Mairelon 01 (4 page)

           
The creak
of the public house door swinging open filtered into the alley. Mairelon
flattened himself into a niche along one wall and motioned to Kim to do the
same. She complied, still puzzled. Then she heard the skinny toff's
unmistakable whine.

           
"--don't
expect such treatment! You haven't heard the end of this!"

           
"Mebbe,"
the gravelly voice of the publican said. "And mebbe not.
Evenin'."

           
Kim heard
the door shut, then the toff muttering curses under his breath. A moment later
came the incongruous sound of a small silver bell ringing.

           
A large
shadow passed the mouth of the alley. "There you are, Stuggs!" the
toff said pettishly. "Did you catch the boy?"

           
"I
ain't seen 'im," said a deep, slow voice.

           
"Not
seen him? But he left just a few minutes ago."

           
"I
ain't seen 'im," the second voice reiterated patiently.

           
"You
fool! He must have gone the other way."

           
"Couldn't 'ave. Street's blocked."

           
"Then
he slipped by you in the dark. Idiot! Nothing has gone right tonight, simply
nothing! We've spent five days tracing the wrong man, my clothes are ruined,
and on top of everything else you let the boy escape!"

           
"I
never seen
'im. If I'd seen 'im, I'd a catched 'im."

           
"Oh,
well. Under the circumstances, it hardly matters. But if it
had
been
Merrill's wagon, we would have needed the boy. You're lucky."

           
Something
in the man's voice made Kim
shrink
back against the
wall of the building, trying to become one with the bricks and half-timbering.
Why were they so interested in her? Surely five pounds wasn't worth such
trouble to a swell!

           
"You
want I should look for 'im?" Stuggs's deep voice said and Kim held her
breath.

           
"Weren't
you listening? There's no need; he didn't find anything. And I'm not going to
stand here smelling like a brewery while you blunder about. Come on."

           
Footsteps
clicked against the cobblestones, passing the end of the alley. Gradually they
died away, but Kim did not move until she heard the distant rattle of carriage
wheels. Then she looked across at Mairelon.

           
The
magician motioned to her and started off, but instead of heading back out to
the lane, he went farther into the alley. Kim followed with some trepidation.
The cramped maze of garbage-strewn alleys that twisted through the spaces
between the main streets was no place for anyone who didn't know where he was going.

           
Mairelon,
however, chose his course without hesitation, and in a few minutes they emerged
on a side street two blocks from the Dog and Bull. "You can talk
now," he said.

           
Kim was
silent for a moment, trying to decide what to ask first. "Why was that
skinny toff so wishful to get his dabbers on me?" she said finally,
starting with the question which was of the greatest personal interest.

           
"I
rather think he was afraid you might come and tell me what he'd been
doing," Mairelon replied.

           
Kim did a
quick review of the conversation they'd overheard. "He thinks you're this
Merrill cove?"

           
"Not
any more," Mairelon said cheerfully. He tipped his cap to a heavily
rouged, overblown woman in an exceedingly low-cut gown. She eyed his shabby
raiment and wrinkled her nose, then hurried past in search of more promising
customers.

           
"So
that's why you was so set on me gammoning the cull I'd done what he
wanted," Kim said. She looked at Mairelon thoughtfully. "Are
you?"

           
"Am
I what?"

           
"Are
you Merrill?"

           
" 'What's
in a name? That which we call a rose by any
other name would smell as sweet.' "

           
"Huh?"
Kim said, thoroughly confused.

           
"Not
literary, I take it?
No, of course not, you wouldn't be.
We shall have to do something about that."

           
"About what?"

           
"Teaching you to read."

           
"Read?"
Kim's eyes
widened,
and she stopped short.
"Me?"

           
"Why not?
It's bound to be useful. Come along; you
don't want to spend the night standing in the street, do you?"

           
Kim
nodded and started walking again. It was a moment before the novelty of the
idea wore off and she realized that she had been very neatly distracted from
her original question. She scowled and kicked a pebble. It skittered over the
cobblestones and disappeared into the damp and foggy darkness in the middle of
the street.

           
Mairelon
looked across at her and raised an eyebrow. Kim's scowl deepened. "You
knew all that was going to happen!" she said accusingly.

           
"Hardly.
I was suspicious, that's all."

           
"Then
what were you doin' down at the Dog and Bull?"

           
"I
was looking out for you," Mairelon said promptly.

           
"I
don't need no lookin' out for," Kim retorted. She was suddenly tired of
all these swells talking her into things without telling her enough about them
first. Of course, her own curiosity was at least as much to blame as Mairelon,
but that only made her more irritable.

           
"I'm
inclined to agree," Mairelon said. He raised his hand and touched his
right eye gingerly. "I believe you blacked my eye with that last
swing."

           
"Too
bad," Kim said callously. "It wouldn't
of
happened if you'd of told me you'd be there."

           
"If
I'd told you I was planning to follow you, you would have told me to be off
about my own business," Mairelon pointed out. "Which, as things
turned out, wouldn't have been at all wise, now, would it?"

           
"Huh."
Kim couldn't contradict him, but she wasn't willing to admit it.

           
"Besides,
it wouldn't have been at all the thing to have sent you off into trouble
without warning you
and
without sending along anyone to help in case
there was trouble."

           
"Then
why didn't you warn me?"

           
"About what?
I wasn't
sure
anything was going to
happen. And would you have listened?"

           
"If
you would
of
explained--" Kim started with some
heat, then stopped, her brain working rapidly. Mairelon had caught her rifling
his wagon; he would have had to be very stupid to give her any explanations
without learning more about her first. And however careless he might seem, he
was not stupid. The thought crossed her mind that he had been watching to see
whether she would tell the skinny toff the whole truth about what she had found
in his wagon.

           
Curiously,
the idea that he had been testing her drained away most of her anger. Caution
was a thing she understood; if she wanted Mairelon's trust, she would have to
earn it. She wasn't about to admit she knew it, though. "You shouldn't
of
gone," she said grumpily.

           
Mairelon
gave her a quizzical look. "I couldn't let you go alone, and there was no
other choice. I simply couldn't send Hunch."

           
Kim
stared at Mairelon. Then her mind brought up a picture of Hunch, drooping over
the skinny toff's shoulder and chewing on his mustache while he tried to tip
over a beer mug. It was too much for her sense of humor; she burst into
laughter. "No, I guess you couldn't. I bet he didn't want you goin' off in
them flash togs, neither."

           
"You're
right about that," Mairelon replied cheerfully. He raised his hand to
touch his eye again, and winced. "He's going to be simply delighted about
this, I'm sure."

           
"
Not hardly
he won't."

           
"He'll
say it's what I deserve for going off without him. He may, just possibly, be
right," the magician added thoughtfully.

           
"
You goin'
to tell him how you got it?" Kim said.

           
Mairelon
looked at her and blinked; then he grinned. "Oh, I see. I hadn't thought
of that." The grin widened, giving him a strong resemblance to a
mischievous small boy. "Well, such things happen quite frequently in
taverns, particularly the less respectable ones. I don't think there'll be any
need to go into details, do you?"

           
Kim
shrugged, sternly suppressing a flicker of relief. "It
don't
matter to me."

           
"Quite
so," Mairelon said gravely. They walked a block in silence, watching the
heavy, wide-wheeled drays clatter by over the cobblestones. Then they turned a
corner and the sights and sounds of the Hungerford market washed up to greet
them.

           
To Kim's
surprise, Mairelon did not go directly to his wagon. Instead, he led Kim around
the fringe of the market to a cramped alley. He paused in the shadows, watching
the lamplit shops. Though the twists of the buildings hid them from sight, Kim
could hear the calls of the costermongers clearly. It was a good place to hide;
Kim had used it herself a couple of times. She was surprised that Mairelon knew
it.

           
Kim heard
a scratching sound behind her and tensed. Mairelon smiled and turned, his
shoulders brushing flakes of paint off the building on his right. A moment
later, Hunch appeared from an even skinnier opening near the back of the alley.

           
"Well
timed, Hunch!" Mairelon said in a low voice. "You brought
everything?"

           
"Right
'ere," Hunch said, lifting a large canvas bag in one hand and scowling as
if he wished he could disassociate himself from such undignified proceedings.

           
"Good!"
Mairelon stripped off his cap and dropped it, then pulled off his tattered
jacket. He wiped his face and hands on the shreds of lining, which seemed
relatively clean, then dropped the jacket on top of the cap and begin pulling
off his heavy workman's boots.

           
"Master
Richard!" Hunch's voice was not loud, but it expressed volumes of
scandalized disapproval.

           
Mairelon
paused and looked up. "What is it?"

           
"You
ain't never
going to just--" Hunch stopped and
looked at Kim. "Not with 'er standing there!"

           
"Oh,
is that all that's bothering you?" Mairelon looked at Kim and grinned.
"Turn your back, child; you're offending Hunch's proprieties."

           
Kim
flushed, as much from surprise as embarrassment, and turned away. "I ain't
no
child," she muttered under her breath.

           
"Under
the circumstances, that's so much the worse," Mairelon replied cheerfully.

           
Kim
snorted. She could hear various scraping and rustling noises behind her, and
Hunch muttering through his mustache. She frowned, certain that at least some
of the mutterings were derogatory comments directed at her. She couldn't quite
hear them, and after a moment she was glad. If she knew what Hunch was saying,
she would have had to answer in kind, and she couldn't see arguing with someone
while her back was turned. It was too much of a disadvantage.

           
The
rustlings stopped, and Mairelon said, "There, that's better. You can turn
around now."

           
Kim did,
and blinked. Mairelon still smelled faintly of beer, but otherwise he was once
more the well-dressed stage magician she had first seen.
Top
hat, cape, mustache--mustache?
"How'd you do that?" Kim
demanded.

           
"The mustache?"
Mairelon said.
"Spirit
gum and horsehair.
It isn't crooked, is it?"

           
"Not
as I can see," Kim replied.

           
"Good!
I was wondering; it's a bit tricky to do without a mirror. Still, it only has
to last until we get back to the wagon."

           
"What
about
them
things you was wearing?" Hunch demanded.
"You 'adn't ought to be leaving them 'ere."

           
"No,
I suppose not," Mairelon said
,
nudging the little
pile of dirty, beer-scented clothing he had been wearing. He glanced at Hunch's
face and turned to Kim. "Can you get rid of them?"

           
"I
could pitch them in the river," Kim offered, eyeing the clothes almost as
dubiously as Hunch.

           
"No,
no, sell them somewhere or give them away.
Preferably not in
this market."

           
"Huh.
You don't expect much," Kim muttered, but she picked up the clothes and
wadded them into a compact bundle. The boots were in fairly good shape; she
might actually be able to turn a few shillings on them.

           
"We'll
see you at the wagon in an hour or so, then," Mairelon said. He smiled as
he followed Hunch out the back of the alley.

           
Kim
whistled softly through her teeth as she finished making up the bundle. The
secondhand clothes dealers on
Petticoat Lane
ought to fit Mairelon's requirements. Tom Correy would be the best; he was sure
to take the clothes in order to get the boots. He'd think Kim had stolen them,
so he wouldn't pay much, but he wouldn't ask questions, either. It evened out.

           
She swung
the bundle to her back and hesitated. Mairelon had sounded casual enough, but
he'd nonetheless been taking fairly extreme precautions against being seen.
Maybe she should do the same. She slipped easily through the crack at the back
of the alley and worked her way among the courtyards to the street.

           
She was
turning to head for
Petticoat Lane
when she remembered the money she'd collected in the Dog and Bull. Tom was a
good fellow, but some of his customers weren't. She didn't want to lose her
five pounds before she'd even gotten used to the idea of having them.

           
Changing
direction, she circled the market until she came to the hidey-hole where she
spent most of her nights. It was little more than a few rotting boards leaning
against a tenement, but it provided privacy and a minimum of shelter. Kim
wormed her way inside,
then
set about redistributing
her newfound wealth. She buried a few shillings in the corner of the hidey-hole
and slipped a few more into her shoes.

           
After
some consideration, she tore a strip of cloth from the bottom of the shirt
Mairelon had been wearing and bound the rest of the coins tightly around her
bare waist. She pulled her own shirt down over the resulting lumpy wrap and
belted her breeches. She studied the effect, then smiled and patted her belt
with a sense of satisfaction. In the dark, and with her jacket over the top of
everything, even old Mother Tibb would have been hard put to notice anything
unusual.

           
She
rebundled the clothes and set off. Near Holborn Hill she swung herself onto the
rear end of a farmer's wagon that was heading in the right direction. She
hunched down behind the hay, clinging to the backboard and hoping she would not
be noticed. Her luck held; not only did the wagon continue east, but the driver
did not see her until she jumped off. She darted into the gloom, pursued by his
angry cries. He'd settle down once he realized that all she'd stolen was a
ride.

           
Petticoat
Lane was only a few minutes' walk. Tom's shop was closed, but Kim had expected
as much. She slid around to the rear of the building and rapped at the
weathered oak door. She had to repeat her knock before a stocky, grizzled man
opened the door and peered out at her.
" 'Oo's
that?"