Wicked Intentions (Maiden Lane #1)(49)

“All right! All right!” the boy panted. “You got me fair and square. Let me go an’ I’ll talk.”

“I think not,” Lord Caire drawled. “I’d rather keep a firm grip on you while you talk.”

Pansy had watched this byplay with narrowed but unsurprised eyes. She stirred now. “Tommy’s night isn’t over yet, my lord. I do hope you’ll bear that in mind when you handle him? His price goes down if he’s bruised.”

“I have no intention of hurting your employee as long as he tells me what I want to know,” Lord Caire said.

“And what is that?” the dwarf asked softly.

“Marie Hume,” Lord Caire said. “What do you know about her death?”

For a boy who made his living in a St. Giles brothel, Tommy was a terrible liar. He looked away, licked his lips, and said, “Nothing.”

Temperance sighed. Even she could see that Tommy had some knowledge of Lord Caire’s mistress’s death.

Lord Caire merely shook the boy. “Try again.”

Pansy raised her eyebrows. “I’m afraid your use of Tommy’s time is costing me revenue, Lord Caire.”

Without a word, Lord Caire reached into his coat pocket and withdrew a small purse. He tossed it at Pansy and she caught it deftly. After peering inside, she closed the purse again and hid it on her person.

She nodded at Tommy. “That’ll do nicely. Now talk to the gentleman, my lamb.”

Tommy sagged in Lord Caire’s grip. “I don’t know anything. She was dead when I found her.”

Temperance looked quickly at Lord Caire at this news, but if he was surprised to hear that Tommy, not Martha Swan, had found Marie, he gave nothing away.

“Were you the first to find her dead?” Lord Caire asked.

Tommy shot him a confused look. “Weren’t no one else there, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“When did you find her?”

Tommy screwed up his face. “It was a while back—two months or more.”

“What day?”

“Saturday.” Tommy darted a look at Pansy. “Saturday morn is my day off.”

“And what time did you arrive at Marie’s rooms?”

Tommy shrugged. “Maybe nine of the clock? Or ten? Before noon anyway.”

Lord Caire shook him again. “Describe it.”

Tommy licked his lips, glancing at Pansy as if for permission. The little woman nodded her head.

He sighed. “Her rooms were on the second floor at the back of the house. ’Twern’t no one about when I went to climb the stairs, save a charwoman scrubbing the front step. I was going to knock at her door—Marie’s—but it gave under my hand. It wasn’t latched, so I went in. The front room was neat as a pin; Marie liked to keep her things orderly, but the bedroom…”

Tommy halted his narrative, staring at the floor. He gulped visibly. “There was blood all about. On the walls and floor and even the ceiling. Lord, I’ve never seen such blood in my life. Her mattress was black with it and Marie…”

“What about Marie?” Lord Caire’s voice was soft, but Temperance didn’t mistake it for gentleness or pity.

“She were slit open,” Tommy said. “From throat to her privates. I could see her insides peeking out like gray snakes.”

He gulped once more, his face having turned ashen. “I cast up what I had inside me then, all over the floor. Couldn’t help it. The smell was that terrible.”

“And what did you do then?” Lord Caire asked.

“Why, I ran from the room,” Tommy said, but his eyes slid away again.

Lord Caire shook him. “You never thought to search the room? She had jewels—a diamond hair pin and pearl earrings—as well as diamond chip buckles for her shoes and a garnet ring.”

“I never—” Tommy began, but Lord Caire shook him so hard he couldn’t speak.

“Tommy, my darling lamb.” Pansy sighed. “Answer Lord Caire truthfully or I won’t have any use for you.”

Tommy hung his head sullenly. “She didn’t need them no more. She was dead right enough. And if I’d left them there, they would’ve just been stole by her landlord. I had more right to them than anyone.”

“Why is that?” Temperance asked.

Tommy lifted his head, staring at her as if seeing her for the first time. “Why? Because I was her brother.”

Temperance glanced at Lord Caire. He was expressionless, but he’d frozen as if in surprise. She returned her attention to Tommy. “You were Marie Hume’s brother.”

“Aye, haven’t I just said so,” the boy sputtered. “Had the same mother, we did, though Marie was ten or more years older than me.”

Temperance frowned. She caught a fleeting glance between Lord Caire and Pansy. Something didn’t make any sense. She felt like she was missing some information that everyone else had in the room. “Then you knew her well?”

Tommy shrugged uncomfortably. “Fairly well, I guess.”

“Did she have any other visitors other than Lord Caire and yourself?” Temperance asked.

“As to that, I don’t know,” Tommy said slowly. “I saw her but once a week.”

Temperance leaned forward. “But surely you talked about each other’s lives? She must have told you about her days?”