A Scandal in Battersea (Elemental Masters #12)(36)

“Oh aye, Mistress!” said Roan quickly. “Us hobs like you Big Folk, allus have! All we need is a corner to oursel’n to tuck into out of sight.”

“And a bit of somethin’ now and again . . .” said Durwin wistfully. “We can feed ours’l’s, ’deed we can, but Big Folk food be . . .” Roan elbowed him hard, and he fell silent, blushing harder, this time with embarrassment.

“If you’re sure,” Nan said. “We’d love to have one of you, and . . . someone . . . can introduce you to Memsa’b who runs the School, and she’ll see to it that whichever of you goes with Suki is settled happily.” She glanced at Sarah. “How . . . exactly would that work?”

Robin chuckled. “You leave that to me, Daughter of Eve. I’ll have a word with Memsa’b myself, tell her what’s what, and get Roan settled.”

And I’ll send a note to make sure Memsa’b knows to have someone in the kitchen leave out food for him. “I hope you like Indian food, Roan,” she cautioned. “That’s almost all that’s served at the School.”

“We hobs aren’t par-tic-u-lar,” Roan replied, but from the way his face lit up for a moment, she rather fancied he did. And where would he have tasted Indian food, I wonder? Another mystery. Did hobs serve English folk exclusively, or were they inclined to move into any household where they were welcome? Was there an Indian version of a hob?

“Meanwhile, would you both like to stay with us until Suki goes back?” Sarah asked—impulsively, Nan thought, although she didn’t dislike the idea. These two little men did not seem disposed to mischief.

Now the faces of both little men lit up like the sun. “Oh, yes, Mistress, please!” Roan spoke for both of them. “That would be excellent for us. Thank you!” And then, they vanished. Between one blink of the eye and another, they simply disappeared. Now, Nan was quite used to seeing Elementals fading from view, or whisking out of sight, but just vanishing into thin air was not something she would have expected.

Nan blinked in astonishment. “Do they do that a great deal?” she asked. “Just pop out of existence, I mean.”

“It’s a hob’s way.” Robin shrugged. “They like to get out of sight as quickly as they can. They’re shy. They don’t much care for being seen at all, and then only when it’s only likely to be by one or two Big People. And it’s not as if they needed to come home with you in a hansom; they know how to find where you live. In fact, they’re probably already there.”

Nan and Sarah exchanged a wry look. So . . . now strange little Elementals could appear in their flat whenever they chose! Nan turned back to Robin. “I have to say,” she said, “It is distinctly unfair how your kind can just flit wherever you choose.”

Robin shook his head mockingly. “And when, Daughter of Eve,” he replied, “Has life ever been fair?”



Sure enough, when Nan unlocked the door to the flat, she could hear deep chuckles, the lighter laughter of Grey imitating Sarah, and the distinct chortles of the raven. So, Robin had been right. The hobs had managed to get to the flat long before the girls could, and must have spent the time since making the acquaintance of the birds. Suki squeezed into the flat before Nan could fully get the door open and made a beeline for the bird’s room.

Once there, she broke into peals of laughter. Curious now to discover just what was so funny, Nan tossed her cloak and hat aside on the nearest chair, and hurried into the room herself.

There she found Roan and Durwin, each with a bird balanced somewhat precariously on the top of his head, performing a sort of pavane to music that was coming out of thin air. Suki bounced on her toes with delight. The birds were clearly enjoying themselves. And Nan’s worst fear—that the birds would somehow resent or even dislike the hobs—was assuaged. In fact, from the look of things, the birds found the two hobs to be the most entertaining things to come into their lives in a long time.

When the music stopped, the birds flapped into the air and went to their perches, and the hobs looked with alarm at Nan, as if they were afraid they had somehow offended her. It even looked as if they were going to vanish.

“Don’t go just yet,” Nan told them, as they were poised to flee. “You said you needed a little space to make your own. Let’s find that corner for you. How much room do you need?”

The hobs relaxed slightly. “Just enough to curl up in, Mistress,” said Roan. “Out of the way where we won’t be a bother to you by day.”

“With a book?” Durwin added hopefully. Roan elbowed him hard again. Nan did her best not to laugh. This was certainly a distraction from worrying about Amelia’s visions.

“Then I have just the thing, and Roan, for now, and later if you come visit Durwin, there is room enough to share.” Sarah flung open the doors to the huge old linen cabinet in which the bird’s toys, their traveling carriers, and their extra dishes were kept. “Look,” she said, pointing to the bottom, where there were two shelves, completely empty, that probably had been meant to store very bulky things like pillows, blankets or heavy coverlets. There was about as much space for the hobs as there would have been for a sailor in his bunk. “There’s plenty of space for both of you down there, we never use it, and I’m sure we have pillows and shawls to make it comfortable for you.”