Her Majesty's Necromancer (The Ministry of Curiosities #2)(62)

"What's he saying?" Lady Harcourt asked. I raised my hand, but she batted it away. "Charlie, you must tell me what he's saying."

"He's a bad seed," Gurry said. "A very bad seed. You can't trust a man with gypsy blood in his veins."

Gypsy! It was the second time I'd heard Lincoln referred to as such. The first time I'd thought it simply derogatory, but now…perhaps Lincoln's mother had been a traveler. She'd been a seer, and he'd told me she had dark coloring, so it was possible.

But it wasn't a word I would repeat to Lady Harcourt. For some reason, I didn't want her to know.

"Nothing important," I told her when she asked again what Gurry was saying. "Cruel accusations, nothing more."

"They are not accusations!" The spirit dashed left and right, around furniture, across the mirror and pictures hanging on the walls, as if trying to disturb them to show his anger.

"Why did Lincoln become distracted?" I pressed.

The spirit chuckled again and came to settle between Lady Harcourt and myself. "It was an annoying little distraction that he was much too fond of. I got rid of it. That's all you need to know."

"Tell me!" I shot up from the chair and faced up to him, but he merely chuckled again.

"Or what?" he sneered. "You can't do anything to me, girl."

"Mr. Gurry, I'm ordering you to—"

The door behind me crashed open. I knew without turning that it was Lincoln. No one else would dare interrupt without knocking. If I needed any further confirmation, I got it from my companions. Lady Harcourt's face drained of color. The spirit of Mr. Gurry flinched and whooshed backward.

My legs felt suddenly too weak to hold me, and I sat down. I wished the armchair would swallow me, but there could be no escaping Lincoln. Fury vibrated off him in waves, leaving me in no doubt that he knew who I was talking to, and why.

Lady Harcourt recovered first. She rose and put out her hand. "Good afternoon, Lincoln. I'm so pleased to have caught you before I go."

"Get out." The quiet order was more brutal than any shout could have been. I held my breath, waiting for him to explode, but he didn't. He merely stood by the door and watched Lady Harcourt with a ferocity that had me trembling.

I knew it would soon be my turn.

She blinked. "Pardon?" Whether she had more nerve than me, or simply didn't see his anger, I couldn't tell. She sailed up to him, smiling sweetly. "Linc—"

"You heard me."

"My dear, what is it? What's the matter?" Her act was a wasted effort, but she didn't seem to realize it.

I did. Perhaps because I knew Lincoln's secret, or perhaps because I knew him better than she did, but I knew he was aware of Gurry's spirit hovering nearby. There was no point in keeping up the charade.

"I said, get out." The sharp edge to his voice cut through me, and Lady Harcourt too, it would seem. She paled even further and stepped around him, keeping her distance.

"I see that I'm in the way here," she said from the door. "Charlie, remember my promise to you."

She didn't want me to tell him? Even now that we'd been caught in the act? But that wasn't fair! I watched her rush out with a sinking heart. She did want me to lie to him. If I didn't, she would tell him about my betrayal at the General Registry Office.

I wasn't so sure it mattered anymore. If he knew about this, then he might as well know about the other. What was one more? From the quiet rage turning his knuckles white and his eyes impossibly dark, I already knew I was condemned.

"Let me go!" Gurry's spirit cried. "I don't wish to see him anymore! Release me!"

"You are released," I said, heavily. "Go away."

The spirit mist sank through the floorboards and out of sight. I was truly alone with Lincoln now, and I wished I could be anywhere else but there.

"Will my apology be enough?" I mumbled. I couldn't bring myself to look at him.

It was a long time before he spoke. I thought he might walk out, or do the opposite and approach; perhaps shake me. But he simply remained near the door, and I had no sense of what he might be thinking.

"What did you learn?" His voice was quiet, but the steely edge was still there, albeit a little tarnished.

"That he beat you." I dared to glance at him, but his face gave nothing away. "And that you had a reason for killing him."

"And that reason?"

"He didn't say. He claimed he got rid of a distraction to your studies."

His nostrils flared. "A distraction."

"Will you tell me what it was?"

Another long pause, and then, "Not today."

I swallowed. Did that mean he would one day? Did that mean he wasn't throwing me out? "I'm sorry, Mr. Fitzroy. I truly am. I don't expect your forgiveness—"

"Good."

That quietly spoken word was enough to shatter my nerves. Hot tears streamed down my cheeks and my chin wobbled. I dashed away the tears with the back of my hand, but he saw them. He folded his arms over his chest and tucked his hands out of sight.

"Tell me why you did it," he said. "Did she coerce you somehow?"

I nodded but stopped. It wasn't entirely fair to lay all the blame at Lady Harcourt's feet. I had got myself into the situation by betraying Lincoln at the General Registry Office, and I had not refused her request. I could have. I should have. "Yes, and no."