Scandalous Desires (Maiden Lane #3)(25)

Silence hitched Mary farther up her hip and tramped determinedly down the overdecorated corridor. “I can’t believe Mr. O’Connor enjoys having a filthy dog running about his house. Besides, you told me he wasn’t home.”

“Expected back any minute,” Bert said with gloomy relish.

Silence suppressed a shiver of alarm at that information. She was sticking to her guns, but all the same she wasn’t sure she wanted a repeat of this morning quite so soon.

She cast an apologetic glance at Bert. “We’ll act swiftly, then.”

She ignored Bert’s continued grumbles as she followed Harry toward what he’d assured her were the kitchens. Lad trotted along beside her, happily oblivious to his impending soapy fate, while Fionnula brought up the rear.

Silence cleared her throat. “Fionnula said that Mr. O’Connor had gone off on some kind of business.”

Harry glanced back at her. “ ’E’s talkin’ to a merchant ship owner.”

“Talking?”

Bert grunted. “More like explainin’ the facts o’ life to ’im—what?”

Harry had stopped short and turned to glare at his compatriot.

Bert shrugged, both hands palms up by his side. “ ’E’s a pirate. If she don’t know that by now she’s either a ’alf-wit or daft.”

Silence cleared her throat to get the men’s attention. “What do you mean by ‘explaining the facts of life,’ Bert?”

“ ’E gets a tithe, right?” Bert said patiently. “From every merchant ship that docks in London.”

“Every ship?” Silence raised her eyebrows.

“Used to be ’e ’ad a bit more competition,” Harry said judiciously. “But a couple o’ years ago Black Jack Wilde took a swim in the Thames—”

Bert tched. “Middle o’ winter it were, too. Didn’t find ’im ’til spring.”

“And Jimmy Barker went missin’, which meant most o’ ’is crew joined us.” Harry pursed his lips as if thinking, then cocked an eyebrow at Bert.

Who nodded. “They was about it. After that ’Imself became the biggest pirate on the Thames. So, yeah, every ship.”

She’d had no idea the extent of Mickey O’Connor’s empire. Silence pressed her lips together as she turned to continue down the hall to the kitchens.

Bert hurried after. “So this owner o’ the ship… er… er…”

“Alexander,” Harry supplied.

“Right ye are,” Bert said, “the owner o’ the Alexander ’as been remiss, as it were, in ’is tithe, so ’Imself ’as gone to see ’im and explain ’is duties to ’im.”

Silence snorted. “You mean he’s gone to threaten the poor man.”

“Bert’s right,” Harry said gently. “ ’E is a pirate.”

And with that flat statement they entered the kitchen. It was a big room, lined in light gray stone, an enormous hearth at one end. Two maids, sitting at a table in the middle of the room looked up at their entrance. A huge, stout man at the hearth swung around. He was entirely bald and the color of a well-cooked lobster, his front and lower half swathed in a not very clean apron.

“ ’Ello, Archie,” Harry said chattily. “This ’ere’s Mrs. ’Ollingbrook what ’as come down to give Lad a bit o’ a bath.”

Archie’s brow beetled ominously and the maids suddenly found the tabletop very interesting. “Ye know I don’t allow that there beast in me kitchen.”

Harry frowned, about to say something, but at that moment Mary Darling joined the conversation. “Down!”

“Shh, sweetheart.” Silence bounced the baby on her hip, trying to comfort her, but Mary’s face was growing as red as Archie’s.

Archie stared at the baby for a split-second, his face entirely blank, before he turned and rummaged in a cupboard.

“Down! Down! Down!” Mary chanted as Silence hugged her.

Archie loomed in front of them. “Sugar biscuit?” he asked gruffly and held it toward the baby.

Mary’s transformation was miraculous. She grinned, showing her four perfect teeth, two on the top, two on the bottom, and grabbed for the sweet.

“Thank you,” Silence said gratefully to the big man.

Archie shrugged. “ ’Spose ye can use the master’s tub for the dog. But ye’ll need to clean up afterward, mind.”

“Oh, of course,” Silence said hurriedly.

In a moment she’d settled Mary, her biscuit, and a tin cup of milk with Fionnula while Bert and Harry dragged out a big copper bathtub. Silence’s eyes widened at the sight. The orphanage had a small tin tub that she could just fit into, but she’d never seen a bathtub as magnificent as Mickey O’Connor’s.

Lad trotted around the room, sniffing at corners and being yelled at once or twice by Archie as the tub was filled. The maids—Moll and Tess—seemed to think bathing a dog to be a great lark. They giggled as they found soap and laid out cloths.

When everything was ready, Harry called Lad. The dog gamboled over, as happy as a lamb, and for a moment Silence had a twinge of guilt.

Then Harry tried to put the dog into the tub.

There was a curse, a bark, and a wild scrambling, and then Harry was down in a puddle on the floor and Lad was across the room, bone dry.