Emma Holloway - A Study in Ashes

A primitive instinct made Poppy crouch, her skirts pooling over the flowerpots. She could hear the growl of the propellers as the gigantic ship sailed overhead. The blood-red balloon told her it was more of Scarlet’s forces—one of a trio hanging over the nearby rooftops. “Go, go, go,” she whispered, urging it to pass by, now too scared to even wonder why the airships were there. She just wanted them gone.

The streets below were emptying as the gawkers ran for cover. Her curiosity crumpling, Poppy began to climb back inside the attic window, but not before she saw a black victoria pull up in front of the house. She paused long enough to untangle her skirts from the flowers, and glanced down to see Jasper Keating jump from the carriage and stumble to the front door. Something about the way he moved didn’t look right.

Poppy gave the airships one last baleful look and closed the window. She didn’t like the Gold King, but maybe Keating was there to take them someplace safe—or at least he might take her home. She clattered down the attic stairs, but slowed when she got to the carpeted hall that ran past the bedrooms. She could hear the nurse singing to Jeremy, trying to hush the baby as he made small, uneasy noises.

Instinct told her to move quietly as she descended to the drawing room. Perhaps it was the same sense of self-preservation that told her when her parents were arguing, because she could hear the Gold King’s raised voice as she drew near.

“The laboratories are destroyed,” Keating barked.

“I know,” Alice replied. “I read the newspaper.”

Poppy paused just outside the door, which was slightly ajar. She’d heard about the business with the secret labs as well, and had been hugely interested in the few news reports she’d been able to read. But why are they arguing about this when someone is bombing London? Surely the immediate threat of destruction was more important?

And yet nothing tempted her to interrupt the conversation. The air in the drawing room nearly glittered with tension. Poppy could see both speakers, but at an oblique angle. Alice was standing with her back to the tall window, the daylight embracing her like a cloak. She clasped her hands in front of her, standing close to her father.

Keating’s black suit looked rumpled and his temper was in even worse condition. “They were all party to it!” he fumed.

“Who?” asked Alice.

“The Baskervilles. Holmes.”

Poppy tilted her head, pushing the hair away from her ear to listen. Now the servants were hurrying to and fro upstairs, probably packing, and their heavy tread was making it harder to eavesdrop.

Alice’s voice fell to a pleading tone. “You’re not making sense, Father. Sir Charles is dead, and Mr. Holmes is investigating his murder.”

Keating was pacing, moving in and out of Poppy’s line of sight. By the way he was moving, she could tell he’d been hurt. He was holding his arm at a strange angle, and then she realized that it was in a hastily tied sling. “I know that, girl. But Holmes requested that niece of his, and I sent her there with your husband.”

“I still don’t understand the problem.”

“It’s plain,” he snapped. “The Cooper girl disappeared the night the laboratories burned, and the survivors claim it was magic that brought them down. Madam Thalassa was seen in the neighborhood.”

Poppy gasped, creeping a step closer. Madam Thalassa? And Mr. Holmes was in the area as well. Had they been working together?

“Are you saying Evelina Cooper played a role in the destruction of Her Majesty’s Laboratories?” Alice asked incredulously.

“Don’t underestimate her.”

Poppy was too close now, but she couldn’t bring herself to back away. She had to hear this. And she was beginning to worry, because Keating was waving a finger just under Alice’s nose. “And your precious husband let her go.”

“Impossible!” Alice protested, her voice rising again with anger. “Why would he disobey you?”

“The Cooper girl couldn’t have escaped without his aid. She was wearing restraints and he had the key. And she had to have an accomplice because these restraints have the means to tell me where she’s gone. She left so fast, so secretly, and went so far she had to have someone waiting to take her away.”

“Where is she?” Alice sounded incredulous.

“So far away that she’s beyond the range of my device. But she was heading west when I lost her. And it’s all Roth’s doing.”

“But …” Alice trailed off, and Poppy caught her breath, suddenly terrified that she would give away the fact that Tobias was in town. All the more because it was plain that Tobias wasn’t looking for Evelina. Whether he’d been responsible for her escape or not, he had let her go—and Alice would realize that.

But instead, the red-haired woman rounded on her father. “Have you stopped to think that the reason Tobias has his reservations about you might be because you threatened his family and bullied him into working for you?”

“Forced him to marry you, you mean?” he said with oily sarcasm.

Poppy gasped, clasping a hand over her mouth to stop the sound. How can he say that to his own daughter? If she were Alice, she’d be mortified.

But Alice was braver than that, unclasping her hands and pulling herself straight. “We’ve made a home.”

“Yes, I can see that,” said Keating quietly. “I would be proud of you if it was anyone else.”

“The marriage was your idea. There was a time when I would rather have crawled home in defeat, but you wouldn’t hear of it. So I stayed and made it work.”

Oblivious, Keating paced in a tight circle, his coat furling behind him, and then suddenly stopped to lean with his good arm braced against the wall. “I thought he’d come to heel. God knows there is enough money and power to tempt him, but I see what he’s thinking behind those fine manners. And so I don’t trust him.”

Alice said nothing.

“And I don’t trust you. Both of you know too much for me to leave you like threads waiting to unravel. I need to tie you off in a sturdy knot.”

Alice stiffened. “What does that mean?”

What did that mean? Poppy suddenly sensed danger in the air like something she could taste. The fear she’d felt on the balcony quickened again, but this time it was more immediate. I don’t know what to do , she thought desperately. These were deeper waters than she’d ever experienced before.

“Tobias knows far too much about my army. He built the damn thing,” Keating growled, leaning in so his face was just inches from his daughter’s. “And there aren’t many ways of guaranteeing his silence.”

“Guaranteeing his silence?” Alice repeated incredulously.

Keating’s voice turned to ice. “I had to rethink my position about your little family, Alice. It’s amazing what passes through one’s mind while a medic is digging a bullet from one’s flesh. This afternoon changed everything. I concluded I need to be more careful about my enemies right now.”

“Since when am I your enemy, Father?”

A cry of surprise came from upstairs. The nurse . Poppy spun and rushed toward the stairs. Right then she realized what the Gold King meant. Three of his Yellowbacks were hurrying down the stairs in their long black coats. They must have gone upstairs using the servants’ staircase, because Poppy hadn’t seen them enter. But that’s what I heard. Those weren’t servants thundering overhead .

She’d almost recovered from her surprise when the next shock came. Behind the first two Yellowbacks was the much smaller figure of Mrs. Polwarren, holding Jeremy cradled in her arms. The third had his weapon drawn and pointed at the pale-faced figures of the other servants who stood clustered on the landing above.