At first, I didn’t get up. “Bring him here. I’ll see him.”
“He won’t come to the gate, mum. It seems to frighten him.”
“Can’t you go ask him nicely? I’d be afraid too, if I had all you men round me.”
Honor gave me a surprised glance.
But the man simply shrugged. “I’ll go ask him again.” He squatted down before the boy, who backed off. After some time, the man returned. “He says he’s gonna leave if you don’t want to talk to him.”
I sighed. “Oh, very well.”
A carriage passed by on the other side of the street as Honor, Amelia, and I went down the path. One of the men opened the gate.
The boy stood directly across the sidewalk, in the gutter, peering at me warily. “You the Lady? Miz Jacqui?”
I stepped onto the sidewalk, bent over to speak to him. “I am. What's your name?”
The child glanced fearfully at the men towering over him.
I straightened, waved them off. “Give the boy some room.”
“But mum, I —”
“I saw you pat him down. He has no weapons. I’m twice his size, and he's all the way over there. What harm could he possibly do me?”
They didn’t move.
This was ridiculous. “Am I your Lady, or not? Let the boy speak.”
The man who’d been across the street shrugged and returned to his post, crossing just before a carriage drove by.
The others also returned to their posts, the ones manning the gates moving two or three paces away.
Amelia and Honor didn’t move from beside me.
“You too,” I said. “He’s just a boy.”
Honor moved to the gate hinge, as did Amelia, each just out of arm’s reach.
I stepped forward, bent over to speak to him, hands upon my knees. “What’s your name?”
The boy was about as far as Honor and Amelia were from me, still standing in the street several steps from the curb.
He had what they call here strawberry blond hair, with blue eyes. His skin was tanned and dirty, as was his clothes. His voice was high-pitched, and a bit too loud. “They say you’re looking for me.”
“That depends on who you are. What's your name?”
“Ante.”
“Who said I’m looking for you, Ante?”
“People. I got told you and that Morton was a-searchin’.”
“Did you use to be in the Red Dogs?”
His little face turned evasive. “Maybe.”
“And you were with Stephen. And Clover.”
He seemed surprised that I knew about them. “Yeah.”
“Well, Stephen and Clover are dead.”
The boy didn’t flinch, as if he knew that already.
“You need to be careful, sweetie. We were looking to warn you. Bad men hunt you. They want you dead, too.”
Ante’s face didn’t change.
“Aren’t you worried?”
The boy spoke proudly. “I got plenty of protection. I’m a Spadros messenger for East 19th.”
That wouldn’t help if Frank Pagliacci got hold of him. That was right in the middle of his hunting grounds. “Ante, these men tell me you know where Miss Josephine is.”
The boy nodded. “I seen her. I live over on East 15th, and —”
“How’d you get all the way here?”
“On my bike.” He pointed across the street. “I left it over in the bushes there.”
“From 15th?” I stared at him, mouth open. “That’s over ten miles!”
“I didn’t come straight. I went to the messenger stand and told them I had a message for you. They brought round the truck.”
I squatted down, which left me shorter than his head, but was more comfortable. “How did this happen? Tell me everything.”
The men around me glanced at each other, clearly able to hear what we said.
“Okay,” Ante said, taking a step forward. “Today’s my day off. I was a-walking round with my ball, over where I’d not been afore this, and it went down some steps. I went to get it and I heard a lady calling for help. So I went around the outside and I climbed on some stuff stacked up and looked in.” He took a step back away from the gutter and into the street, eyes wide. “A lady was there, chained up!”
I stood and moved forward to the curb. “What did she look like? What did she say?”
“She said go get help, go to Spadros Manor,” he glanced past me at the mansion, “and go the Lady, Miz Jacqui, and get help. She said it just like that.”
The sounds of a carriage approached from my left. “Do you remember where it was exactly?”
“Not the street name, but I can find it again.”
The carriage came closer. The boy moved towards me to get out of its way. I turned to face the men, my back to the street. “We need to protect this boy.” I pointed to the men closest to the stables. “You there. Get a carriage —”
The men turned to each other to confer.
I pointed to one of the others. “You send word to my husband.”
The carriage stopped, and a door opened.
The other men looked past me. One said, “Hey! You can’t —”
A gunshot, and he fell at the same time someone grabbed me from behind. Ante shrieked in terror.
Footsteps, fast. A hard blow to my head. I felt sick, and the world turned gray.
More gunshots. Blood splattered across Honor’s face as I was lifted, put somewhere dark.
Amelia’s screams were the last thing I remember.