Emma Holloway - A Study in Ashes

Lord Bancroft frowned, but for once it was sympathetic. “I’m afraid it’s true. He destroyed this district as an act of retaliation against Spicer Industries. It seems the Green Queen was responsible for the damage to the Palace of Westminster.”

Poppy’s stomach roiled with anger and disbelief, and suddenly she was too hot. She leaned against the wall to stop her head from spinning.

Alice made a sound like someone had punched her in the stomach. “Papa took Jeremy!”

Tobias drew in a quick breath, his already pale face draining to white. “What?”

But Alice was crying too hard to answer. Tobias held her, murmuring shushing noises that only seemed to make things worse. Poppy’s father shot her a look of inquiry.

“Mr. Keating came to the house in Cavendish Square,” Poppy answered, her voice ragged. She could feel the tears crawling up her throat, but they were met by a hot anger that kept them at bay. “He took Jeremy and Mrs. Polwarren as insurance.”

“Against what?” Bucky asked, sounding bewildered.

“To keep Tobias and Alice loyal because Tobias knows too much about his army. I think Keating’s afraid because someone shot him.”

“Who?” demanded Lord Bancroft. “How badly is he hurt?”

Not badly enough , Poppy thought. “It’s just his shoulder.”

Alice pushed away from her husband, her face twisted with pain as she looked into his eyes. “The Blue King’s men shot Father. But that’s not the only reason he’s taking action. Her Majesty’s Laboratories burned down. You were gone and Evelina Cooper is missing.” She stopped speaking and swallowed hard. “He thinks you helped her escape.”

By then, Tobias had gone very still. “Me? He took Jeremy because of my actions?”

Alice took a painful-sounding breath, wrapping her arms around her ribs. “Yes, he’s taken Jeremy and his nurse because he believes you have betrayed him and you will again.”

“Damn him!” Tobias was swelling with anger, his pale face flushing a hectic, mottled red. “Where is Jeremy now?”

“I don’t know, Tobias,” Alice cried. “What are you going to do?”

SPEECHLESS, TOBIAS STARED at his wife, her soot-smudged features drawn into a mask of grief. She looked up at him, her blue eyes bright in the lantern’s glow. “How do we get our son back?” she asked, her voice sunk to barely more than a whisper.

She’d been one of those papa’s girls right until Keating had sold her into a loveless marriage. The shock of this second betrayal had to be even more profound. She only needed one thing from her husband now—reassurance that he would stand by her and make things right. Yet it was the one thing he couldn’t give her—at least, not for long.

Tobias felt a strange numbness in his chest, the residue of grief. He’d exhausted all emotion in the last few days, and what was left was a primitive roughness. She’d come to him . After all he’d done—after all he’d done to her, in those early days of their marriage—she trusted him with the one thing that mattered most to a mother. It was a sacred trust he didn’t deserve, and it went without saying that he would tear London apart stone by stone to get to his son.

Something shambled to life inside that was stronger than hatred or even outrage at his own doom. It had the feral will of a curse. “I will get him back for you. Whatever it takes.”

“How?” She was looking into him—not at him—and speaking directly to the naked, raw will he’d somehow found.

He glanced around the room, seeing the faces of the others. Poppy was slumped against the wall, Bucky’s hand on her shoulder, her face stricken. She shouldn’t be seeing any of this . He turned to his father. “I’m going to have this conversation in the back.”

Bancroft nodded, for once not arguing.

Tobias led Alice to a small room that had a threadbare sofa, table, and a litter of dirty cups. The smell of fresh wood and turpentine vied with the strong scent of cheap black tea. Alice sank onto the sofa, heedless of the sawdust coating every inch of it. “What do we do?” she asked.

“We fight.”

She’d stopped crying, but her face was still smudged with tears. “How?”

“Keating is on the defensive. That means he’s worried, and that can only happen if he’s vulnerable. We may not see a weakness in his forces, but he knows it’s there.”

Alice’s eyes narrowed. “What are you doing in London? What happened in Dartmoor?”

Tobias sat next to her, careful to sit on her right so that he could take her hand with his left. The hand that had touched the poison had become weak and painful inside its glove. “Evelina is free and the laboratories were a vile abomination. I wasn’t behind it, but I’m not unhappy that they were destroyed.”

“But Father is.” Alice’s eyes flashed. “Until he feels safe …”

“Alice,” Tobias began, knowing he was at the edge of a precipice. “Your father isn’t going to be safe. The Blue Boys simply pulled the trigger first, but after today there will be others who want to settle accounts. I came back to London because I believe your father and the rest of the steam barons must be stopped.”

“Then he’s right about you,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “You’re not loyal.”

“No, I’m not.”

“He’s my father,” she said softly, tears glittering in her lashes.

“He …” Tobias faltered, and then recovered himself. “You see what he’s done. You came here through those fires. What kind of a man takes his own grandson? And what sort of a world is he making for Jeremy?”

“Yes, I know,” she cried, her fingers convulsing in his. “I’m not a fool. He’s my father and he has stolen my boy. I don’t know how to act or what to think. I just want Jeremy. He’s only a baby!”

Blood and thunder . Tobias pulled her into his arms, the numbness inside him cracking open again to let fresh anger rise up, raw and terrible. “You know your father better than anyone. He has properties all over London, but we will find them and search them one by one until we get our son.”

“But he has properties all over the Empire,” Alice protested.

“He won’t be far from the war. Keating needs Jeremy close by to keep us in line.”

Alice pushed him away, giving him another searching gaze. “You’ve turned rebel.”

“Maybe.” Tobias’s thoughts went sideways. In the past, he’d tried to be a better man for Evelina. He’d used her as a touchstone and measure, and he’d liked who he’d been at her side. But now opinion and measurement didn’t matter—everything was simple because Alice and Jeremy needed him. “I’m going to do what needs to be done. If that means calling myself a rebel, so be it.”

“You went to work for my father to protect your family,” she said softly. “What if the rebels lose?”

“You are my family, and I have to believe doing the right thing will be its own protection. I’ve tried to play by your father’s rules and he still took our son. It’s time I changed the game. We’ll get our son back. You’re going to help me do it. And we’ll win in the end because you and I are going to make a plan that won’t let the Gold King stop us.”

She gave a slow nod, and he could see her shifting her view of the world as he watched. They remained just so, their hands linked, long enough for him to kiss her gently on the lips. He felt the relief of confession, or maybe it was that he no longer had to pretend to her or anyone else where his sympathies lay. He hadn’t given her the full truth, but it was more than they’d shared before.

“I’m so glad you’re home,” she said.