Jaclyn Dolamore - Dark Metropolis

“I wondered if he had anything to do with the military. If maybe you’d seen the soldiers and just not remembered it. My father looks young in the vision, like he did when he went off to war, so you would have been young, too.”

“No.” Freddy stiffened.

She certainly couldn’t let him stay stiff. She needed him to trust her, so he might tell her more…because there was more. There had to be more. “Well,” she said, allowing some of her sadness and fear to show now. “That’s too bad.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I know losing your father is a terrible feeling. I’ll try to see if I can find out anything for you.”

She nodded, but she wondered if he meant it. Although he seemed interested in her, he still held the cards. He could decide when to return to the club. It could be days or weeks. He could get distracted by society parties, or preparing for university, or whatever boys like Freddy did.

Maybe she shouldn’t have lied to him about Nan. If he was asking, it was because he was either curious about the mystery of her disappearance or sympathetic that Thea might have lost a friend, and neither sympathy nor curiosity would hurt her tonight.

“That girl you were asking about earlier, the one who worked at the club?” she said. “She actually was my friend. My best friend. Nan.”

He glanced quickly at Gerik. “Your best friend?”

“Yes.”

“And you haven’t heard from her?”

“No. And I never visited her at home, so I can’t check on her, but I’m worried sick. I just didn’t want to put a pall on the night.”

“I see. Well, do you know her last name? Maybe I could look in the city records.”

“Davies. And she’s an orphan. Her guardian is named Horst, and I don’t know his last name.”

“I’ll research it for you and find her address.”

Thea didn’t have to feign gratitude. She was genuinely glad she’d told him now—it hadn’t even occurred to her to check the city records, and she wouldn’t know how to go about it. “Thank you.”

Gerik folded his paper and then walked up behind Freddy’s chair. “Having fun, lad?”

“Yes. Good coffee here.”

“You look pale. Maybe we ought to think of heading back.”

Freddy emptied his cup. “Well, I’d better walk the lady home first, don’t you think?”

“But of course.” Gerik winked at Thea. She was in no mood to be winked at, but she forced a smile.

“It’s a long walk from here,” she said. “Maybe I should just get a cab.” She didn’t want Freddy to see that the wooden siding was crumbling off the apartment building and exposing old bricks beneath, or that Miss Mueller hung her underwear out the window to dry.

“We can take you home,” Gerik said.

She shook her head. “I don’t want to trouble you.”

Freddy seemed to understand her reluctance. “She’s a loner, Ger. She doesn’t want to listen to your stories all the way home. I can’t blame her.”

Gerik laughed. “Just for that, I’m going to repeat the one about the ambassador’s horse in excruciating detail.”

Freddy was already lifting a hand to hail a cab for her. When one arrived, he opened the door. “I had fun tonight,” he said.

“Me too,” she said, and it was true, even with all the heavy things they had discussed.

“Maybe I can see you again sometime soon?”

“I’d like that very much.”

“Until next time, then.”

She slid into the backseat. Freddy waved and then turned away, his silver hair bright in the darkness.

“ I’m impressed.” Gerik lit a cigarette. “Where in the world did you learn to flirt?”

“Well.” Freddy shrugged. If it took everything he had, he wouldn’t let Gerik know his interest in Thea was anything beyond flirting. “I’ve had a good instructor over the years.”

“I haven’t instructed you. You never let me.”

“I meant novels, not you.”

Gerik snorted. “This girl—Thea? I like her spunk, but I wonder if there is something too earnest about her.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“You’re already too serious. What were you talking about over there with her?”

“Nothing much. Her family, work…”

“We’re not trying to find you a wife here. Just someone who will bear you a child. Did you see that little blond waitress? She seemed more up for anything, if you ask me.”

“I’m just not sure why you and Uncle are in such a hurry. When has my magic not been enough?”

“Insurance policy, Freddy,” Gerik said. “If, god forbid, we lost you, who would help the dead? And wouldn’t you like a vacation yourself?”

“Not really.”

Gerik sighed. “You ought to be begging me for a vacation. And I’m even telling you to rush into things with a pretty girl. Most boys have to do that on the sly.”

From the moment Gerik first presented this plan, he had made it sound like a privilege and not something Freddy was being forced into. It was so simple, he had said. They could surely find a girl at the clubs. The girls were all pretty and respectable enough to hold a job, but they wouldn’t be working there if they didn’t need money.

“Nothing about this plan is respectable,” Freddy had pointed out, but Gerik had waved him off and said he worried too much.

“It’s very uncomfortable talking to a girl, thinking all the while that you have to ask her if she’d like children, especially when I really don’t want children,” Freddy said.

“She doesn’t have to like children,” Gerik said. “And neither do you. She just has to like money. I told you, we’ve already got a foster family lined up. I’m sure Thea needs money.”

“But—not like that.”

Gerik sighed. “Maybe falling in love would be good for you. And she seemed a little sad. A girl like that would give you something to protect.”

“Please,” Freddy said sharply. “Don’t talk about her that way. For that matter, don’t talk about me that way. You’re making this sound like a game of courtly love.”

“All life might as well be a game of courtly love.” Gerik gave his hand a pat. “I only speak from experience. That was how I felt about the Countess of Ordzy. May she rest in peace. I truly loved that woman. Sometimes you take me so seriously that you remind me of Rory.”

“I’m nothing like him.” Freddy knew comparing him to Uncle was only a distraction from the real topic. “But I don’t think Thea will like this plan any more than I do, no matter how much she needs money.”

“We’ll offer her enough for a brand-new row house with electric lights. She’d never have to work again. I bet she’ll see the wisdom of this plan for that. Just as your parents like the money we give them, eh?”

“Money is nice,” Freddy said. “But it isn’t everything.” It isn’t family. He felt bad lying to Thea and saying he was an orphan, but it hardly felt like a lie to him. He rarely saw them, and he didn’t know them.

Gerik had been bringing up his parents more lately, reminding Freddy of the favors they received in exchange for his service to the government. It made Freddy wonder if he could really trust Gerik, the man who had raised him, the man who had once insisted to Uncle that Freddy must keep his beloved cat and who had gotten on the floor with him to play with trains. Gerik always used to seem like he had Freddy’s best interests at heart, but lately Freddy wondered if there wasn’t something else going on.

“Gerik, you know that girl the other day, the one who attacked me?”

“How could I forget! Sometimes these suicide cases, you wonder if there’s much hope for them.”