Lord of Darkness (Maiden Lane #5)(68)

She stopped and was nearly run down by a porter carrying two geese on his back.

“Watch out, luv,” the man flung over his shoulder, not unkindly, as he stepped around her.

Artemis swallowed and started forward again, moving easily in the stream of shuffling, stomping, running, strolling, limping, and tripping people. London’s streets were like a great river of people, constantly flowing and ebbing, joining into greater rushing courses, parting into side streams, getting caught in whirlpools of milling humanity.

One swam or ran the risk of drowning.

If Penelope married the Duke of Wakefield, in the best case Artemis would join her in her new home, a constant, pale wraith, as His Grace had put it. Continuing to be Penelope’s handmaiden, eventually perhaps, the kind aunt to their children. In the worst case, Penelope would decide that she no longer needed a companion.

Artemis inhaled shakily. But those worries were for the future. She had more immediate problems to deal with.

Twenty minutes later, she at last neared her destination: a small jeweler’s shop in a not very fashionable area of London. It had taken Artemis months of carefully worded questions among the ladies of her acquaintance to get the address of a suitable shop. Her queries could’ve caused comment and started gossip if she’d taken a more direct route.

Artemis glanced around cautiously and then pushed open the door to the little shop. The interior was very dim and almost bare. An elderly man sat behind a high counter with a few rings, bracelets, and necklaces displayed. She was the only patron in the shop.

The shopkeeper looked up at her entrance. He was a small, stooped man with an overlarge nose and leathery, wrinkled skin. He wore a worn gray wig and red waistcoat and coat. His gaze seemed to appraise her clothing: not rich. Artemis stopped the urge to lower her head.

“Good morning,” he said.

“Good morning,” she replied, taking her courage in her hands. She needed to do this—there was no other way. “I am told that you sometimes buy items of jewelry.”

He blinked and said cautiously, “Yes?”

She approached his counter and withdrew a small silk bag from her pocket. The strings were knotted and it took her a minute to untangle them, tears pricking at her eyes. It was her most treasured possession.

But need outweighed sentimentality.

The strings finally gave up their struggle and she pulled open the little bag, sliding out the treasure within. Green and gold sparkled, even within the dimness of the shop, belying the necklace’s true worth: she knew the stone was really paste, the gold merely painted gilt.

Still, she gazed with as much awe upon the little pendant as she had when it had first lain in her hands, nearly thirteen years ago on her fifteenth birthday. His dear eyes had gleamed with eager anticipation as he’d given the silk bag to her, and she’d never asked how he’d come by the necklace, almost afraid to.

She watched now as the jeweler fixed spectacles over his eyes, pulled a lamp closer, and bent forward, a magnifying glass in his hand. The delicate gilt filigree around the green stone glittered in the light. The pendant was in the shape of a teardrop, the chain it hung from much cheaper and duller.

The jeweler stiffened and bent closer, then abruptly looked at her. “Where did you get this?” His tone was stern.

She smiled uncertainly. “It was a gift.”

The elderly man’s eyes, sharp and clear, lingered on her admittedly pedestrian clothes. “I doubt that.”

She blinked at his rudeness. “I beg your pardon?”

“Young lady,” the jeweler said, sitting back and gesturing to the necklace still lying on the counter. “This is a flawless emerald set in what I suspect is nearly pure gold. Either you are selling this for your mistress or you stole it.”

Artemis acted without thought. She snatched up the necklace and, clutching her skirts, ran from the little shop, ignoring the shopkeeper’s shouts. Her heart was beating like a deer in flight as she darted down the street, dodging carts and chairmen, expecting any moment to hear shouts of pursuit from behind her. She didn’t stop running until the breath caught in her throat and she was forced to walk.

She hadn’t left her name with the jeweler. He didn’t know who she was and thus couldn’t send a thief catcher after her. She shuddered at the thought, and then surreptitiously glanced at the emerald still in her hand.

It winked slyly at her, a fortune she’d never wanted, a treasure she couldn’t sell precisely because it was much too dear. Artemis laughed bitterly. The necklace had been a gift, but she had no proof.

Dear Lord, where had Apollo gotten the necklace?

*   *   *

DUSK WAS FALLING when Megs went into the garden for a walk after an early supper. Higgins had cleared the paths and laid down fine gravel, weeded the beds and neatly edged them. A few faltering daffodils trailed bravely near the house, planted and then forgotten by some ancestor of Godric’s.

Megs paced and thought. Gardens were such peaceful spots, even half-naked ones such as this. But soon she and Higgins would be able to add roses and irises, peonies and Michaelmas daisies.

If Godric let her stay that long.

She frowned. He’d shut himself in his room since his early morning appearance, ignoring both luncheon and the dinner summons, although she’d noticed that trays of food had been brought up to him. At least he wasn’t starving in there.