All is Fair (7 page)

“Yes, ma’am, I’m one of their best. And, begging your pardon, I can think of nothing more worthwhile than protecting the Duchess of Londinium.”

“Right...” Cathy marvelled at how sincere he seemed. She chewed the inside of her lip. Sneaking out to call her mundane friend was not something she wanted to be witnessed by a man in the pay of her husband who was probably spying for Bennet too. She couldn’t trust any of the staff now. She wondered if she could give him the slip but it would be hard in her current state. No doubt he had something to protect himself against Charms, otherwise he’d be a poor guard. “Well, I don’t want to be rude, but your being here isn’t necessary.”

“As I said, ma’am, that’s up to the Duke. He said you might not be very enthusiastic.”

“What else did he say?”

“That if you want to go into Mundanus, I’m to tell you, politely, that it isn’t permitted.”

“But what about Sophia? She needs to be there.”

“Other provisions have been made for her. I won’t inconvenience you, your Grace. It’s my job to protect you. I’d like to think my being here would make you feel better.”

She repressed the desire to unleash her arguments on him. He was just doing his job. It was Will she had to work on. She breathed in, reassured herself that she’d find a solution and then forced a smile. “All right then, Carter. Let’s try to get along until Will realises he’s being an idiot.”

He raised his eyebrows.

“Are you supposed to tell him everything I say, too?”

There was the briefest pause and then he shook his head. “No, your Grace, of course not.”

She smirked. “If you’re going to follow me everywhere, I’d like to know a bit more about you. Come and sit down.”

He didn’t move and looked decidedly awkward when she looked at him expectantly. Cathy knew she was crossing a social line; asking a member of staff to come and sit with her like a guest was not the done thing. Sod convention, she thought, it does nothing but keep people miserable.

She sat down and gestured at Will’s chair. “Come in, Carter, please.”

He jerked forwards and closed the door after a glance down the hallway, probably to check if anyone else saw. Cathy wondered what Morgan made of it all; if Carter answered directly to Will it broke the normal hierarchy of the butler being in charge of the male household staff. Being seen to enter her company in such an informal way wouldn’t help any tensions between them, but it was the perfect opportunity to learn more about the Agency.

“I never knew the Agency provided personal bodyguards,” Cathy said. “How long have you been one?”

“Since the age of twenty, your Grace.”

“What made you decide to go into security?”

Carter looked confused. “I was assigned to that specialism, your Grace.”

So he didn’t choose it. “Would they retrain you in something else if you didn’t want to be a security guard?”

The skin between his eyebrows pinched and a muscle worked in his jaw. After a few seconds he cleared his throat and said, “I’m very sorry, your Grace, I don’t quite understand what you mean. I’m doing what I was always meant to do. What more could a person want?”

Even though his confusion fascinated and chilled her, Cathy didn’t want to make him any more uncomfortable. “Indeed. How did you come to be in the Agency? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“Not at all.” He smiled, starting to relax. “I was born there.”

Cathy hadn’t expected that. “There are children born at the Agency?”

“Oh, yes, your Grace.”

The thought made her uncomfortable. If the Agency was willing to effectively wipe away Miss Rainer’s personality, would they be capable of providing a good environment for children to grow up in? As she was trying to settle on her next question three loud knocks reverberated throughout the house. She heard one of the maids squeal and run past the room. Carter jumped to his feet. “An Arbiter.”

“It’s all right,” Cathy said. “It’s probably someone following up on the attack. There’s nothing to worry about.”

Carter wasn’t reassured. He opened the door and looked down the hallway. Cathy could hear Morgan opening the front door but before anything was said Carter closed the library door behind him.

Cathy strained her ears but couldn’t hear anything except the front door close. Then footsteps approaching the library, and Morgan’s voice, which was too low for her to be able to discern individual words.

“That’s not possible.” She heard Carter perfectly well. “You’re not on the list of approved visitors.”

There was a list? There was little to distinguish between Will’s desire to protect and a means to control her and it made her feel nauseous. I bet Dame Iris is on that bloody list, she thought. There was the sound of another man’s voice, also too low to hear properly, then Carter again. “By order of His Grace the Duke of Londinium.” Cathy shook her head. Carter was so keen to do a good job he was even willing to try and keep an Arbiter away from her. Surely he knew no one in Nether Society had the right to do that?

Morgan and the Arbiter spoke. There was a pause and then a knock on the door. Morgan entered. “Excuse me, your Grace, but an Arbiter is here to see you. He says he needs to speak to you specifically.”

Carter stepped in behind him. “I’ll be present the entire time, ma’am, there’s nothing to–”

“Don’t be silly,” she interrupted. “Show him in, Morgan. Carter, you stay outside. An Arbiter is hardly going to hurt me, is he?”

Carter’s frown was quite dramatic, it couldn’t be otherwise with a forehead of such size. “I’ll be on the other side of this door, ma’am, if you need me–”

“I’ll be sure to squeal like a helpless princess, yes, thank you.”

She wasn’t expecting Max, not after the last time she saw him, but she pretended to adjust her blanket to disguise any emotion she might show in front of Carter. Morgan promised tea, a staple of any visit, which would also give him a good excuse to check up on her.

Carter closed the door slowly, the shadow cast by his frown making his nose appear even smaller.

“Good afternoon,” Max said in his usual monotone.

She beckoned him close and whispered, “The big man will be listening through the door, so we need to keep our voices down.”

“I have a better solution.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a slender box from which he took something that looked like a hatpin and stuck it into the door’s keyhole. “That will muffle our voices. May I open your window?”

“Of course.”

Max left his hat on the chair and lifted the sash window. The gargoyle climbed in, landing silently on the wooden floorboards, making it seem like it wasn’t really there. It came straight over to her as Max closed the window.

“How are you?” it asked in its smoker’s voice. “Was it bad? You’re thinner.”

She looked for any signs of the anger it had expressed with claws around her throat the last time she saw it. “I’m all right. Still recovering. Yes, it was very bad.”

“Sorry we were horrible to you,” it said, resting its stone chin on the arm of the chair, like a dog hopeful for a pat. “We thought you’d lied to us.”

She slowly reached across and stroked the top of its stone head as Max settled into the opposite chair. “All right. It’s all in the past. Thanks for the file, it’s been very useful.”

“The last information you got to us was good,” Max said. “We found Thorn. He confessed and it helped us progress our investigations, so as far as I’m concerned we’re even.”

“What did Thorn do?”

The gargoyle and the Arbiter exchanged a look. “You don’t know?” Max asked.

“Thorn was the one who tried to kill you,” the gargoyle said.

Cathy felt breathless as a memory of the knife returned with horrific detail. “But Will said it was a Rosa sent by Bartholomew. He didn’t say it was Lord Thorn himself.”

“He disguised himself with a Glamour,” Max said. “He wanted your husband to think it was a Tulipa. It seems it worked.”

Cathy realised she was shaking. “Oh, God, that’s awful. I mean, it was awful already, and I knew it wasn’t Bartholomew, but Will was convinced…” She had to tell him as soon as he got back. They had to tell Margritte. “Hang on, why did Lord Thorn attack me?”

“To get your husband into a lot of trouble with Iris and Poppy and thereby stop him from taking the throne.”

“And probably breathing too,” the gargoyle added.

“But that’s not why I’m here,” Max said.

She was still reeling from the news. “What about Lord Thorn? Is he still set on killing me?”

“He isn’t in a position to do anything.”

“The Sorcerer put him in a special box,” the gargoyle added. “You don’t have to worry about him. And his brother is still in Exilium. We checked.”

“We understand Sam saved you from Thorn,” Max said. “Have you been in contact with him?”

“He did? No one has mentioned him at all. I’m not sure they even know he was there, otherwise Will would have said something. I haven’t seen him since the attack. Oh, God, do you think he’s all right?”

“He survived and he’s been back home since then,” Max replied. “I just wanted to ask him some questions. His wife died whilst you were both in hospital, so he wasn’t in a state to talk about Thorn’s attack.”

“Shit.” Cathy shook her head. “So much has been going on. Poor Sam. He was worried about her boss, did you know about that?”

Max nodded. “That’s another thing I wanted to discuss with him.”

A gentle knock on the door brought the conversation to a halt. The gargoyle scampered behind the curtains and Cathy called Morgan in. The tea was arranged and Carter had a good look at her before Morgan left. She tried to look fine, but felt like all the blood in her had sunk into the floor.

“I’ll pour,” Max said. “You look like you need a moment.”

“Will killed Bartholomew and took the throne because he thought he tried to have me killed. If he’d known it was Thorn, Bartholomew would still be alive.”

The gargoyle returned and sniffed at the cake next to the teapot. “This is only half of all the shit that’s been blowing up over the last few weeks, believe me.”

“What else is going on?”

Max was giving the gargoyle a familiar hard stare. “Not everything is suitable for discussion here,” he said as he handed her the tea.

“But you came to see me for something,” Cathy said after a couple of sips. “It wasn’t just to tell me about Thorn, was it?”

Max shook his head.

“I wanted to see if you were all right,” the gargoyle said.

She smiled at it and tickled behind its ears, liking the way its muzzle wrinkled.

“We need your help,” Max said.

“Is this where you offer me the mythical help from the Sorcerer again?”

“We can’t offer that,” the gargoyle said. “He doesn’t know we’re here.” It looked at Max. “I know that was top of your ‘things not to talk about with Cathy’ list but there’s too much going on for us to be all secretive and crap. You know it.”

“I know you talk too much,” Max said.

“We can’t ask her to breach the Split Worlds treaty without an explanation,” the gargoyle replied.

“You want me to do what?”

Max looked from the gargoyle to her. She thought she was getting used to his total lack of emotion, but it seemed odd when there was a clearly disagreement between him and his… pet without any corresponding irritation or anger. Max didn’t say anything for a moment, which made the gargoyle groan. “There’s corruption in one of the London Chapters. They were told to ignore any breaches made by the Rosas.”

“Holy crap! Really?” Cathy had been taught the Arbiters were incorruptible. It was one of the reasons the Great Families were so afraid of them.

“Yep,” the gargoyle replied. “And there’s something dodgy going on with the ex-Sorcerer of Essex, so we need to find the Chapter as soon as we can and look into it.”

“But why isn’t your Sorcerer involved?”

“He’s too busy fighting a war. And he’s as mad as a bag of cats if you ask me.”

So there was a war amongst the Sorcerers. Cathy wondered if her uncle knew about that. Should she warn him?

“That’s enough,” Max said. “There’s something seriously wrong in London and you’re the only person in the city and in Fae-touched society we can ask to help. I can’t promise Mr Ekstrand will help you if you do this for us, but–”

Cathy held up a hand. “I don’t need his help any more. I’ve decided to stay.”

“Why?” the gargoyle asked. “You were dead set on getting out.” It narrowed its eyes. “You haven’t fallen in love or something?” It looked at Max. “You should check her for Charms, maybe–”

“It’s not that,” she interrupted. “I wanted to leave because it sucks to be a woman here. But it’s better to change it for everyone, than to just run away. And it’s the Agency too.”

“What about it?” Max asked.

Cathy feared the curse would kick in if she said anything negative about it. Was it only to stop her telling anyone about the blackmail, or speaking ill of the Agency too? Then she remembered Bennet’s warning about thinking twice before saying anything about them. He wouldn’t have said that if the curse prevented it. With the artefact in the keyhole, she decided to take the risk. “It’s dodgy.” She told them about Miss Rainer without coughing once.

“That’s nothing compared to what we saw last night,” the gargoyle began but Max held up a hand.

“That’s off-topic,” he said.

“Is it?” Cathy put her cup down. “You want me to breach the Treaty in the city of London when I’m supposed to be the Duchess of Londinium. It’s a big risk – what if I’m delivered to bloody Dame Iris by the local Arbiters? Lord Iris would kill me. No, actually, he’d do something worse.”

“I’ll be watching,” Max said. “When the Arbiter comes I’ll step in and handle it.”

It was still a huge risk. She’d have to do something very obvious and very public to get the immediate attention of the London Arbiters, and what if they didn’t listen to Max? He was working without his Sorcerer’s knowledge, after all. “I’ll do it –
if
you tell me more about the Agency and get me any files I need.” There were names in Miss Rainer’s file she wanted to follow up, including other former students. Max was the only way she could find out more about them.