Three Nights of Sin (10 page)

Noble made himself comfortable, removing his mask, as Alcroft already had. Marietta perched on the chair and kept her mask in place.

“What specifically did you need?” he asked.

Noble lifted a glass and leaned back. “A way to hold off the trial. We need more time.”

Alcroft nodded and sat back in his chair as well, steepling his fingers in front of him. “You’ll need someone from Parliament to place pressure. Lords would be better at the moment, though someone in the Commons would do if you have a power player.”

Noble shook his head. “I have a couple of very big favors owed me by power players in both. I could call one in, but it wouldn’t be commensurate with the request. And creating a debt is out of the question.”

Alcroft smiled. “Always wanting the upper hand, never wanting to be the one to owe. Nothing changes. I do have a favor I can bring due with the Home Office head, Casenton. Do you want it?”

Noble nodded and relaxed a bit more into his chair, swirling the Madeira. “That would be perfect. Is it enough of a recompense for the favor owed?”

“Yes. And I was wondering if it was ever going to
be used. He doesn’t deal in the horses I love, and a favor from him is by far closer to your area than mine. Frankly, I will be well rid of the tie to him. He is keeping it hidden well, but his creditors are knocking. He will be more than willing to pay a debt without having to draw a draft.”

“I suppose you want the Newmarket favor?”

Alcroft tapped his fingers together. “You know I do.”

“Excellent. I was going to gift it to you the next holiday anyway. As if I care about the races.”

“You bastard.”

“Yes. Wonderful, isn’t it?” Noble gave a cheeky grin, which Alcroft returned. Marietta felt as if she had stepped into another country where she didn’t speak the language.

“You will let me know what Casenton says?”

“Of course.”

“The quirks and quillets will be out for this one.”

“Yes.” Alcroft shot Marietta a speculative glance. “It should prove entertaining at the very least.”

She didn’t see anything entertaining about the situation, and it must have shown on her face.

“No offense meant to you or your brother, Miss Winters. I refer to the game of manipulating the law and enforcers of such until such time that Gabriel can absolve your brother.” He tilted his head. “Gabriel always finishes the tasks set before him. Do not despair.”

She looked between them. “How long have the two of you known each other?” Alcroft was part of society, and though Noble seemed able to hold his own, he hadn’t been born to it, that much was obvious. It
seemed likely they had met through business, no matter the easy friendship between them.

“Oh, we have known each other for what now, twenty years?”

Noble agreed to her right, but she didn’t look his way. Alcroft seemed amused, and she couldn’t understand why.

“Quite the puzzle, is it not, Miss Winters? I will leave you to suss it out.”

She looked to her right. Noble seemed equally amused, but there was a fine line of tension about him.

Alcroft’s eyes changed. Noble tensed even further. She hungered to know what was behind that look. “Did I ever tell you that I begged Lord Dentry to allow you to attend Eton?”

Noble snorted. “I’m sure that was a scene you’d like to re-create.”

“No, no I would not.”

Noble looked to the long case clock at the side, tension visibly strumming through him. “We’ve kept you too long.” He rose and started retying the strings on his mask. “Let me know about Casenton. We are staying on the row.”

Alcroft rose too and rounded the desk, bowing to Marietta and shaking Noble’s hand, his mask held loosely between his other fingers. “I will. Perhaps I’ll drop by sometime this week as well. I admit that Jeremy has infected me with his excitement about the case. I will send a note first. But there might be something further I can do.”

Noble nodded and they exited the room, leaving Alcroft behind.

Noble slipped his hand around her waist as they walked down the hall, bypassing the ballroom and heading straight for the door.

“And now, my dear, it is time for you to become my wench.”

M
arietta removed her mask in the carriage. Utilizing the light from the gas lamps and her small pocket mirror, she attempted to smooth away the smudges beneath her eyes.

“The extra kohl is perfect. You look smoky and sensual.” Noble leaned languidly against the back of the seat across from her.

Her cheeks warmed. She had never been called smoky or sensual—not that it would have been at all appropriate. But she found that it suited her sensibilities just fine. She smoothed her fingers down the low-cut dress and watched the man across from her.

Noble had changed into an outfit fit for a laborer. It was too big for him, hanging from his defined edges, but she had a feeling it was that way on purpose. He had another cap on, this one set at a jaunty angle. It would allow him to hide his eye color mostly in the shadows. His cheekbones appeared flatter. She hadn’t been paying close attention, but he’d done something
with the kohl. He was still going to turn women’s heads, but in the guise of a rakish longshoreman instead.

He looked like the kind of man ladies had strict orders never to talk to.

The carriage turned a corner. They had to be close. “Remember that we are just here to soak up information and to see which patrollers and night watchmen are friendly and which are not. If the chance comes to ask questions, or the topic of the murderer is broached by someone else, you have to be enamored with everything about the murders and murderer. Like one of the women who attend every execution and then touches herself on the spot.”

Her hand holding the mirror dropped into her lap as she stared at him. “Pardon me?”

He waved her off. “Just be enamored and try not to act too bright. I know it will be difficult for you.”

She held her tongue at his obvious amusement and stowed the mirror without looking at him. She decided to change the subject. “Does Alcroft owe you favors as well?”

“No. We trade them as a matter of course, but I’ve never done a job for Alcroft in the way I’m doing this one for you. Alcroft’s jobs are free.”

“So once you become friends with someone, you are free to hire?”

“Are you looking to become my friend, Marietta?” He looked amused. He didn’t give her a chance to answer. “Alcroft enjoys intrigue and gossip. So does Jeremy. Those two will try to get under foot. Shoo them away if they bother you. They know how I work
and will push as much as they can to be included, like toddlers trying to find their limits, even though they know better.”

They pulled up on a street one over from Greville Street and the White Stag. They couldn’t very well exit an expensive carriage in front of the pub looking as they were currently dressed. Noble spoke with his driver for a minute.

Marietta took a deep breath.

He slipped an arm around her shoulder and she leaned against him as they walked around the corner toward the pub. The pub where Kenny had been arrested. She suddenly had a horrible thought.

“What if Mr. Penner is here tonight?”

“I made him an appointment to receive a certificate of merit from a group in Windsor today. Festivities to last through the night. He’ll never make it back in time to visit the pub this eve.”

Relief rushed through her, and she had to admire Noble’s forethought. She wondered again why he was doing this. Why he took cases like hers where he wouldn’t get paid. Unpaid cases where he would have a toehold into a future spot ripe for favors, she could understand. Hers, she couldn’t.

They entered the pub and Marietta was surprised to see the number of people inside. She didn’t realize so many people could fit in one space. No wonder Kenny had been drawn here. She was jostled and Noble pulled her more securely against his side, fitting her under his warm arm.

Sheer luck found them next to a table that was abandoned just as they walked by it. It wasn’t situated in
the best spot in the room, out in front as it was, but it was a place to hunker down and see how the different groups interacted in the pub. Thankfully, even though it was far from a corner, it was against a wall. Noble pulled one chair next to the other so they were both sitting side by side facing outward.

He leaned toward her and tipped her chin up. “Are you ready, Marietta?”

She swallowed. Kenny. She was doing this for Kenny. No one would recognize her here. She had no future to preserve now. The cacophony of the pub blurred into the steady beat of her heart. She had expected it to be racing, but it was just beat, beat, beating in expectation.

She gave a jerky nod.

“Give me a smile.” His fingers traced a line from her jaw to the back of her neck and down around her collarbone. His fingertips were light and comforting, and at the same time they made her body lean into his for more.

She could almost find it laughable that he had called her smoky and sensual when it was obvious those were qualities
he
exuded. His eyes pinned hers and the only things she could think about were more S words like stunning, sexual and sinful, strong and steadfast. The last one would have provoked more thought from her if Noble hadn’t all of a sudden laughed lightly.

His eyes changed to a more roguish bent. “I’m forgetting myself. These aren’t the actions I’m supposed to be taking dressed as I am.”

His hand abruptly switched to her thigh and started
stroking her leg. He caught her body’s jump beneath his fingertips and held her in place.

“Come now, luv, we are playing a part remember?”

Her smile strained as his fingers traced a pattern up and down her thigh, working her dress up as he went. Her mind rebelled as her ankles came into view. Her calves. The bottoms of her knees. His fingertips dipped under the material and between her knees, and she slapped his hand in instinctive reaction, then pushed her dress back down.

He gave a raucous laugh, the sound foreign to her ears and entirely unnatural on him, then pulled her in for a hard kiss that left her dazed. Instead of the subtle surrender of his earlier sensual domination, this one was brusque, harsher, and lacking in any type of subtlety. But even though he was obviously doing this as a way to create a character, his actions still sent her heart racing and her cheeks warming. She thought it might be distinctly impossible for the man to kiss badly. Not that she had much experience, but sometimes intuition never lied.

There were parts of this role that were really not difficult to participate in at all.

When she looked up, a waitress stood across the table. Marietta was impressed with how fast she had gotten through the mob. The woman wore an outfit similar to her own, her body packed tightly into it, her ample bosom pushing out the bodice, but her face was hard, the lines around her eyes and mouth strictly set.

“What can I get ya?”

“Two ales, please. Whichever you recommend,
darlin’.” Noble had a cocky expression on his face and was looking at the woman through his lashes.

The waitress raised a brow, though her eyes softened a bit, as if he was just the type of character that made her compliant. “Right away, dearie.” She gave him a wink and barely spared Marietta a glance.

He leaned back in his chair and splayed out with his arm across the back of hers. He shot her a hot glance beneath his lashes. It made her skin heat and her toes curl, even though she knew it was for show. Noble had said in the carriage,
I’m going to be the worker who is trying to worm up the pretty tavern girl’s dress. I’m wooing you
,
after a fashion. After we have a drink or two
,
who knows what position you’ll find yourself in outside in the alley.

She could only imagine.

He leaned closer to her, so that they were touching at the shoulder, his head dipped toward hers. He wasn’t going to try that again, was he? She felt exposed and uncomfortable, and was horrified to be the slightest bit excited. From the corner of her eye she watched some of the patrons give them a look.

“What are you doing?” she hissed. “Didn’t we just establish ourselves?”

“I’m making us invisible to the rest of the pub, except to those lechers that get off on this kind of thing.”

“I beg your pardon?”

He nodded to the corner. Through the shifting bodies she could see a man and a woman writhing against one another, their mouths fused and their hands in motion. No one was paying them any attention.

“We are not doing that.”

He had the temerity to laugh, a warm, rich sound this time.

Soon they had their drinks. Marietta thought she hadn’t tasted anything quite as awful as the ale in front of her, but she forced herself to take small sips.

Noble and she whispered back and forth as they sipped their ale and watched the regulars. Every so often he pulled her into a mind-drugging kiss, if they’d gone too long without one.

His strategy seemed to be working. They had passed the initial inspection and were now mostly ignored.

The hierarchy in the pub became obvious. The men around the bar area were clustered around a few central figures—the leaders—while a few men by their sides—the main lackeys—held their chins aloft. The other men vied for attention or listened attentively.

The men seated at the tables looked to be a bit more democratic in their groupings. Still, the main cluster at the bar held the power. That was where they would find their information without asking direct questions, as those men looked as if an audience was their most desired commodity.

She hadn’t even needed Noble’s subtle finger pointing to tell her that. And when another bunch of men squeezed into the bar area looking similar to the band of men already there, it was like seeing two sides square off for a prize.

Noble leaned into her and nuzzled her neck. He captured her hand in his when she jumped. “Just relax, Marietta. Watch the two men near the edge of the bar. The ones who lead their groups. Don’t make it obvious. Tip your head back. That’s right.” The side of his
face rubbed along her throat, his lips dropping kisses as he mapped the area. She couldn’t think while he was doing this. He clamped his lips around her pulse point and the men wavered in her vision. “No,” he whispered. “Don’t close your eyes. Tell me what you see. Softly.”

“The man in green is—” Her breath caught. “—arguing with the man in blue.”

The conversation filtered a bit their way. The bodies shifted and the noise dimmed, as if everyone else in the pub wanted to be privy to what was happening too.

“I don’t care what you
think
you can do, magistrate, we handle that area.”

“Who said that?” Noble whispered into her ear as his hand worked up her side and one thumb grazed her breast.

“Green,” she choked out.

“—as if you can handle your own district, watchman.”

Noble’s thumb began a slow circle around her breast through the dress, stays, and chemise. Thin protection against his warm, moving fingers, his hot palms. “Blue.” The word got strangled in her throat as he brushed the tip.

“Shhh, shhhh.” He whispered against the skin under her ear. “I’ve got it. Just relax and watch. I’ll listen.”

She didn’t think that was possible. Any outrage and maidenly virtue had flown right through the pub’s doors. Her body was undulating, sinking into his, like the charmed snake she had seen at a sideshow. Her eyes fought to remain open as his lips moved against
her throat, under her ear, beneath her chin, and his hands spiraled a coil of heat that kept spreading further outward.

“Marietta, stay with me.” His hand moved down along her breast and brushed between her legs. Her eyes flew open. He rested his hand on her thigh, which at this point was about the most innocent placement she was likely to receive.

“Damn magistrates thinking they can run things. Stay in Holborn where you belong.”

“Listen to them whine, Sam, you’d think the poor watchmen didn’t need help with their street fights.” She could barely concentrate enough to see the leader in blue say that to a crony over his shoulder.

The leader in green visibly bristled, his shoulders coming up and flaring out. He took a step forward. “As if you helped in that scuffle. You were in the way. Davey and the boys had it under control. You just made it worse.”

The other man stepped closer as well, putting their noses inches apart. “Dangerously close to Holborn territory. You know that’s our jurisdiction.”

“As if we’d forget, what with you whining about it all the time, as if you miss your mummy and she’s nesting on the line.” A nasty smirk appeared.

“You keep believing you are capable and we’ll keep being amused.” The sentence was delivered calmly, but the man’s knotted fists said otherwise.

“Problem?” A new voice entered the fray, and Marietta got a reprieve as Noble’s lips moved from her neck. A lock of his hair tickled her chin as he stole a glance at the newcomer.

The man was of average height, but the way he carried himself made him seem taller. He stood next to a few of the more hulking men, and even though he was shorter, there was something distinctive about him. Not something necessarily nice, but dignified all the same.

“Here we go,” the man in green groaned, lifting his pint and tapping it against the side of a fellow watchman’s.

“No wonder the crime in Middlesex is so high. Too busy drinking your pints to patrol,” the new man said.

“Here now, the murderer’s been caught. And by one of our own. Didn’t see you catching him, and wasn’t that your job, Runner? Didn’t see you collecting the reward.” The green watchman leaned back, physically taunting the man as well.

Marietta tightened her grip on Noble’s hand and he gave her a comforting squeeze back. They were in the midst of a tavern filled with watchmen, magistrate appointed patrollers, and a Bow Street Runner. And all of them were jockeying for position.

Noble moved so he was near her ear again. “This is exactly what we want. Relax.”

“He was lucky. If Penner hadn’t needed to piss himself so badly, he never would have found him.”

“Call it luck all you want, Runner. But it’s not you that gets the glory. And the patrollers have to continue licking the magistrates’ ballocks just a few days more.”