A Thief of Nightshade(19)

“I’m all right.” She closed her eyes and breathed through it.

Aislinn hung his head, frustrated.

“And just how do you think Jul ... the Prince would feel about what you’re wearing?”

Aubrey arched a brow. “Jullian? You almost said his name again instead of forcing yourself to address him as Prince.

Sounds like—”

Aislinn growled, “Fine! Stick to the alleyways. I won’t be far behind you but I have to stay in the shadows. Once you are on the south side of the city, you’ll find her den by those who loiter around it.

Don’t do anything stupid or draw attention to yourself. Find her, trade the button and get out of there. We’ll meet back here.”

Aubrey smoothed down the wrinkles of the dress and ran her hands through her

hair. She hadn’t thought much about her appearance in awhile. Now that he’d brought to her attention that Jullian wouldn’t have approved, it made her feel vulnerable.

Aislinn took note of her fussing. “Go, that tawdry rag doesn’t do you justice.”

Aubrey was astounded. Horses’ hooves clopped all around her as carriages made their way down cobblestone streets. Men and women were dressed with equal splendor in full formal hats and tails, dresses and gloves.

This is the world Jullian grew up in.

It felt like she had stepped into a Sherlock Holmes book. She took a moment, hidden by a veil of shade, to look around. Streetlights gave off a soft golden glow,

illuminating

finely

stocked

windows and seemingly euphoric citizens in their evening merriment. Rheavon was nothing like she’d expected, based on how medieval Tabor’s kingdom had been, but then again Aislinn himself had said that the animals had forsaken the ways of Man.

Quietly, she made her way through the back alleys and narrow side streets until she came to a much seedier part of the city. Here, windows hid behind locked bars; men and women alike hurried to get where they were going and just as the bear had said, those who loitered near the doorways gave far more indication of the building’s contents than their signs. She’d expected to feel timid, too shy even to speak to the girls who would lend her entrance, but in such strange surroundings, dressed in such foreign apparel, she felt like someone else entirely.

Three girls and two men lingered beneath a bright red sign with the words “Crimson Stair” etched into the wood.

Aubrey approached the slightest of the three women. “Pardon, but I am looking for Lady Crimson?”

The girl giggled as she twirled a lock of oily blond hair around her finger. She wore a bright blue bustier, laced in silver and edged at the bust line in bright white.

Her eyes were rimmed in red, her mouth dry and caked with lipstick. She shook a little from the cold wind that suddenly swept in from the alley nearest them. “She doesn’t need you or what you can offer our house.”

The second girl was tall and far too slender. Her strawberry blond hair hung just to her collarbone. “Lady Crimson is inside, I could get her for you,” she said meekly.

The shortest and oldest of the girls, with ginger hair and a healing bruise that Aubrey could see beneath her makeup, stepped beyond the rest of them. She reached out and took Aubrey by the chin, turning her head to the left and right.

“We’ll see. Turn around, let’s have a look at you.”

Aubrey graciously smiled, spinning deftly and bowed ever-so-ladylike when she was through. “I traveled quite a ways to come here. I’ve heard there isn’t any house as skilled or as prestigious as this.

Please, if I may have just a brief word with the madame?”

“Where are you from?” The ginger-haired girl asked.

They hadn’t discussed this and Aubrey ran through Jullian’s books in her mind, searching for the name of a town or city. He’d been so vague about the human part of Avalar. “Trace, it’s a little town at the base of the—”

One of the men cut Aubrey off, “She knows where Trace is, you twit. Everyone does.” He was tall, maybe six-three or more and had clean-cut, curly red hair. He was dressed well. He pulled Aubrey to him with one arm and began a slow seduction of her exposed throat and chest with his free hand. His fingers traced her neckline and dipped to just between her breasts.

Aubrey

closed

her

eyes,

memories

she’d

buried

long

ago

resurfacing. She was willing to bear his touch as long as it took to get past those two doors, regardless of how much pain it caused her, but just as he had the fabric of her dress in his fist, ready to tear it away, a low growl sounded from behind them.

Aislinn.

The man didn’t immediately drop her as she’d expected. The girls screamed and fled, leaving only the man and his companion to face whatever threat was baiting them from the dark. Clearly, she had caught the attention of a man who liked a good chase.

The man sneered, “You’ve brought a pet, I see. Something about you told me you were special.” He leaned in, tracing the line of her jaw with his thumb. “Not like all the others.”

His friend stepped back. “Let’s go.”

“Shut up. We’ve nothing to fear.”

“I see a ring on your hand,” Aubrey started, “If I were you, I’d let me go if you want to return to your wife and ... God, I hope you don’t have any kids.”