The Damnation Affair (5 page)
Read The Damnation Affair Online
Authors: Lilith Saintcrow
Well, first things first.
“Now,” he said quietly, “you’re perfectly safe, Miss Barrowe, I ain’t about to let no creatures gnaw our schoolmarm. You can rely on that. Nod if you hear me.”
She did nod, precisely once. Her breath was a hot spot in his palm, her lips still moving soundlessly. There was a scorch to the right of the door, still crawling with mancy—she must have thrown something at the corpse. Looked like her aim was put off by the thing busting through the door.
That
was interesting. So she had a full-blown Practicality, did she? She could have found a decent living in one of the cities back East; why on earth would a girl with a skill like that want to come
here
?
That’s a riddle for another day.
“Now, I’m gonna take my hand away, and you can faint if you want, or whatever it is ladies do in this situation. But you can’t go screamin’ or runnin’, because that will just complicate things. Nod if you agree.”
Another nod. Well. He’d see if she was lying. He peeled his fingers away from her mouth, conscious of the fearsweat on his nape and the small of his back, the smell of horse and exertion that clung to every man out here. She smelled of rosewater and fresh air, sunlight and clean linen and the flesh of a clean healthy woman. Her hat was askew, and she reached up with trembling fingers, her broken parasol dangling sadly from a thin leather loop around her wrist. Her fingers moved gracefully, settling her hat, and she took one step to the side. Gabe twitched, but true to her word, she didn’t run or s/i>t runcream. She simply swallowed very hard, lifting her chin, and that spark was back in her dark eyes.
“Good.” He almost said
good girl
, as if she were a frightened horse needing soothing, stopped himself just in time. “Did you open the door?”
“I th-thought it was a p-prank.” She sounded steady enough, though her color was two shades whiter than a bleached sheet. “M-my b-brother…”
So you had a brother. Maybe you’ll take to the little demons we’ve got for children out here.
He waited, but she said nothing else. He cleared his throat, and she jumped nervously. He half-turned, his back to her as soon as he judged she was unlikely to bolt, and eyed both open doors. “You heard something?”
“S-scratching.” Another audible swallow. The corpse ceased its jerking, but you could never tell with wanderers like this. Even with half their head gone, they were still dangerous. “R-rattling the door.”
That’s interesting, too.
“Charter’s still solid,” he muttered, more because he fancied she needed another voice to steady herself than out of any real need to say it out loud. “Was this morning, I rode the circuit myself. This place was cleaned three times before we laid the foundation. Huh.”
“If you are s-suggesting
I
—”
Well, she was brighter
and
braver than he gave her credit for. “You ain’t got no bad mancy on you, sweetheart.”
I’d smell the twisting a mile away. It’s what I do, curse me and all.
He pushed his hat farther up on his forehead, wished he could just decide which one of the two doors was the worse idea. If the corpse had gotten its teeth into her, he would have had to put her down, no matter if she had enough of a Practicality to shield her from the worst effects. “Just stay still a minute while I—”
“Sir.” Dangerously calm. “You shall address me as
Miss Barrowe
, thank you.”
Oh, for the love of…
His hand twitched. The gun spoke again, deafening, and the shadow in the door didn’t duck.
That’s a bad sign.
“Stay
here
.” He launched himself for the back door, worn bootheels cracking against the boards, clearing a desk in a leap he was faintly amazed to think about la
ter, and out into the bath of dusthaze and glare that was a Damnation afternoon full of the walking dead.
C
runches. Howls. Terrible sounds, and gunshots, spitting crackling mancy and thuds against the walls. Cat stood locked in place, trembling, staring at the body on the floor, her gloved fingers working against each other.
Walking dead. Here. Oh, God.
The graveyards were well-policed in Boston, and bodies properly handled. Still, sometimes the more amenable of the wandering dead were set to work—supervised, of course, but used for brute and drudge tasks. There was a Society for Liberation of the Deceased, but Cat’s mother had always sniffed at such a thing.
Liberation indeed
, she would say.
Next they shall be wanting franchise.
And her father would chime in.
Though how that would differ from the usual ballot-box stuffing, I cannot tell. Come, Frances, speak of something less unpleasant.
She had watched as they put the true-iron nails in her father’s palms, but she could not bear to see such an operation performed on her mother. Nor could she bear to witness the other appurtenances of death—the mouthful of consecrated salt, the branding of dead flesh with charter-symbols, the sealing of the casques. Thankfully, the Barrowe-Browne name, not tthe
o mention the estate’s copious funding, meant her parents would not be set to drudgery but instead locked safely in leaden coffins inside a stone crypt, with chartermages making certain of their quiet, mouldering rest.
Oh, for heaven’s sake, do not think on that!
Cat squeezed her eyes shut, but the darkness made the sounds worse. So she opened them wide, and counted dust motes in the air. Why she did not find a spot more conducive to cowering and hiding was beyond her, unless it was the sheriff’s queer certainty.
Stay
here
.
Said very decisively, the gun smoking in his hand, then he had been gone, moving faster than she could credit.
If this was a prank, it was a very good one. The body on the floor was certainly none too fresh. Would someone cart a corpse all this way, and charm it, too—a dangerous occupation, to be sure—all for the sake of a laugh? Not even Robbie would go so far.
Though there had been the episode with the frogs, long ago in their childhood. And their dry-rusty dead-throat croaking. Robbie’s Practicality was just barely acceptable in Society, and their father had more than once reminded him
never
to allow it rein outside the house. Especially after the poor frogs, the nursery full of the stink and…
Oh, I wish I had not thought of that.
A shadow filled the doorway. She had to swallow a scream, but it was merely Mr. Jack Gabriel, hat clamped on his dark head, his eyes narrowed and his hands occupied in reloading his pistol with quick, habitual movements. She supposed he must do so often, to be so cavalier during the operation.
“You can move now,” he said, mildly. “Don’t think there’s more, but we should step lively back closer to town.”
“Is this…” She had to cough to clear her throat. “Is this
normal
, sir? I cannot be expected to teach if—”
“Oh, no, it’s not normal at all, ma’am.” His eyes had darkened from their hazel, and his gaze was disturbingly direct. “Matter of fact, it’s downright unnatural, and I intend to get to the bottom of it. You won’t be setting foot out here, teaching or no teaching, until I’m sure it’s safe.”
Well. That’s very kind of you, certainly.
“That is a decided relief,” she managed, faintly. “I am sorry for the trouble.”
“No trouble at all, ma’am. You’ve a good head on your shoulders.” A high blush of color—exertion or fear, who knew—ran along his high, wide cheekbones.
For a single lunatic instant she thought he was about to laugh and tell her it
had
all been a prank, and she was, in Robbie’s terms, a blest good sport. But his mouth was drawn tight, he was covered in dust, and there was a splatter of something dark and viscous down one trouser leg.
“Thank you.” She tried not to sound prim, probably failed utterly. And who wouldn’t sound a little faint and withered after this manner of excitement? “I don’t suppose you, ah, knew the…the deceased?”
He actually looked startled, his gaze dropping like a boy caught with his fingers in a stolen pie. “Can’t say as I looked to recognize them, ma’am.”
“Oh.” She found the trembling in her legs would not quite recede. Her throat was distressingly dry. “I suppose you must have been…yes. Busy.”
“Very. You’re pale.”
I feel rather pale, thank you.
“I shall do well enough.” She took an experimental step, and congratulated herself when she did not stagger. “Returning to town does seem the safest route. Shall we?”
There was a dewing of blood on his stubbled cheek. Where was it from? “Yes ma’am.”
Cat decided she did
not
wish to k wai> wishnow precisely what the stains on him were from, and set off for the rectangle of dusty sunlight that marked the front door, her bootheels making crisp little clicking noises. The sheriff caught her arm, his grimy fingers oddly gentle.
“Just a moment, Miss Barrowe. I’ll be locking the back door, and then you’ll let me go through that’un first.”
Oh.
“Yes. Of course.”
Please let’s not dally.
“Just you stay still and don’t faint. Don’t want to have to carry you over my shoulder.” He paused, still gazing at her in that incredibly
odd
manner. “Would be right undignified.”
“That it would.” She clasped her gloved hands, her heart in her throat and pounding so hard she rather thought a vessel might burst and save the undead the trouble of laying her flat.
What a charmingly gruesome idea. Use that organ of Sensibility you so pride yourself upon, Cat. Behave properly.
The trouble was, even Miss Bowdler’s books, marvelous as they were, had nothing even
remotely
covering this situation. She decided this fell under Extraordinary Occurrences, and checked her hat. An Extraordinary Occurrence meant that one must take care of one’s person to the proper degree, and simply avoid making the situation
worse
.
Her gloves were in good order, though her parasol was completely ruined. Her dress seemed to have suffered precious few ill effects from scurrying across the floor. A few traces of sawdust, that was all.
She found the sheriff still staring. “Sir.” It was her mother’s
There Is Much To Be Done
tone, used whenever something had gone quite wrong and it was Duty and Obligation both to set it right, and it was
wonderfully
bracing. “Do let’s be on our way.”
At least he stopped staring at her. “Yes ma’am.” Another touch to the brim of his hat—and by God,
must
he wear it inside? It was insufferable.
He approached the body cautiously, grabbed it by the scruff of its rotting shirt, and hauled it outside through the back door. It went into the sunshine with a thump that unseated Cat’s stomach, and despite his shouted warning, she fled the barnlike schoolhouse. She leaned over the porch stair railing, and she retched until nothing but bile could be produced.
* * *
He wished the wagon wouldn’t jolt so much. She was paper-pale, trembling, and had lost damn near everything she’d probably ever
thought
of eating. She clutched at the broken stick of the parasol like a drowning woman holding on to driftwood. Damp with sweat, a few stray strands of her hair had come free, and now they lay plastered to her fair flawless skin. He wished, too, that he could say something comforting, but he settled for hurrying the horse as much as he dared.
He’d lied, of course. There hadn’t been just a few undead. He’d stopped counting at a half-dozen, and there was no way a single man could put down that many.
Not if he was normal. And Jack Gabriel had no intention of letting anyone think he was otherwise. Not only would it cause undue fuss among the townsfolk, but it might also reach certain quarters.
The Order did not often give up its own, and he suspected they would be right glad to know his whereabouts.
Her charing-charm glittered uneasily. His own was ice cold, and it should have warned him long before the undead came close enough to sense a living heartbeat. Which was…troubling.
Not just troubling. It was downright terrifying, and he was man enough to admit as much.
Had it happened, then? Had he lost his baptism? Did grace no longer answer him?
Litsidth="1oss of faith was one thing. Loss of grace was quite another.
She swayed again as the wagon jolted, her shoulder bumping his. Did a small sound escape her? He racked his brains, trying to think of something calming to say. Or should he just keep his fool mouth shut?
“Mr. Gabriel?” A colorless little ghost of a voice. Did she need to heave again? It was unlikely she had anything left in her. And she was such a bitty thing.
“Yes ma’am.” The reins were steady. He stared ahead, most of his attention taken up with flickers in his peripheral vision. If there were more of them, they would cluster instead of attacking one by one, and that was a prospect to give anyone the chills.
Even a man who had nothing to lose.
They won’t get you.
He decided it wouldn’t be comforting at all to say that to her, and meant to keep his lip buttoned tightly.
“Thank you. For saving my life.” She stared straight ahead as well. The tiny veil attached to her hat was slightly torn, waving in the fitful breeze. The heat of the day shimmered down the track, and the good clean pungency of sage filled his nose.
It was a relief. At least he didn’t smell like walking corpse.
“My pleasure, ma’am.” As soon as the words left his mouth he could have cussed himself sideways. He could have said,
It weren’t nothin’
, or even,
You’re welcome
. But no.
My pleasure?
Really?
They’d be lucky if she wasn’t on the next coach to the train station in Poscola Flats, retreating to Boston. And that thought wasn’t pleasant, if only because of how that bat Granger would complain, and the rest of the fool Committee of old biddies as well.