Nine Shillings

Crumpled Paper

London - 1842

'The terrifying... um... terror,' the newspaper boy on the corner shouted. 'Frightful... frights. The epidemic of death!'

I stopped beside him; he couldn't have been more than ten but he was already as tall as me. 'You're new, aren't you?'

'Yes, missus.' He offered me a newspaper hopefully.

'What happened to Tom?' I took two copies and gave him the money for it.

'Caught a chill, missus.'

'I hope he gets better soon.' I opened the newspaper and scanned the first page, which claimed there was an epidemic of death by fright. I wouldn't have called two people an epidemic. When I'd been growing up, we'd often have three or more people drop in a day.

'He's dead, missus.'

I paused. 'Poor boy.' I made a mental note to check on his mother. 'What's your name?'

'John, missus.'

I flipped a guinea into his hand and he stared at it, he might never have seen a guinea before. 'Get yourself some good food and a good coat.'

'Yes, missus. Thank you, missus,' he replied without looking up from the shiny coin.

'Let me know if you hear anything interesting,' I said, suppressing a smile

'Definitely, missus.'

I walked back down the street reading the paper as I went. It was a muddle of so-and-so knew so-and-so and they all died in similar circumstances... Nonsense all of it. I folded the paper up for Bran.

Josef came out of the front door and down the steps looking at me as if I'd done something far worse than walk up the road for a paper.

'Come to argue some more?' I pushed passed him and walked up the steps.

He grabbed my arm. 'You're letting Bran lapse back.'

'What're you talking about?'

He leaned in and replied in a low voice, 'You know when he stops looking after himself what it means.'

'Just because he decided to grow his hair and stop shaving doesn't mean he's not looking after himself. I think it suits him very well.' I pulled away and shoved the paper against his chest. 'I got you a paper, arsehole.'

He caught the paper before it dropped to the ground. 'Silly romantic notions.'

I snorted. 'I wouldn't know a romantic notion if it bit me.' I strode inside but was stopped by frustration making me fumble with my bonnet. 'I'm talking with him, working cases with him, raising children with him. What exactly are you doing aside from throwing tantrums and trying to shag his wife?'

Josef blinked. 'You're being irrational again.'

I pulled off the hat and threw it in the corner near the stand. 'Is it irrational when I know a man is trying to keep secrets that could get me killed?'

'What secret could that possibly be?' he asked.

'You took credit for killing Richard and "saving" me, you're worried his vampires will want revenge and see me, your poor young lady fledgling, as a weak spot.'

The newspaper crumpled in his grip.

'You thought that wouldn't occur to me?' I said. 'Poor show, Josef.'

His jaw worked for a moment.

'Stop trying to protect me,' I strode down the corridor towards the library.

He grabbed my arm again.

I grabbed his throat and my claws extended.

He let me go. 'I should've stopped Richard a long time ago, it shouldn't have been left to you.'

I flexed my fingers and my claws retracted. 'Bran and I work because we're partners. He walks beside me, not behind.'

'Does he now?'

I gave him a vexed look. 'He has his strengths, I have mine. You need to stop treating me like a doll.'

'How many people suffered and died because I was too much of a coward to do anything?' he asked quietly. 'Even before Bran, before any of it. Do you know how many people I should've saved over the centuries and didn't?'

I blinked. I hadn't seen that coming.

'I let you die once,' he said. 'I won't let it happen again.'

'You didn't let me die. I made a plan and put it in motion.'

'If I'd known what you were planning, I never would've let you –'

'That wasn't what you said before.' I walked away. 'Not telling people about potential dangers is how they get killed.'

He scowled at the crumpled newspaper. 'I was trying to protect you.'

'Following me about is not the way to do it. I'm not a damsel-in-distress.'

'No, you are not,' he murmured. 'I'm not used to this.'

I stopped and sighed. 'Look, you've apologised for being an arsehole. We'll start again.'

'You forgive me? Just like that?'

I drummed my fingertips on the handle of the library door. 'I wouldn't go that far.'

He gave me a look that said he thought I was being unreasonable.

I gestured at his expression. 'We've got to work on that too. Teamwork and compromise and... all that.'

'When did you ever compromise on anything?'

'Be reasonable, perhaps you'll find out.'

'I have very reasonably not brought up the matter of a governess for some time,' he said it calmly enough but the tension seeped into his voice.

'We don't need a governess,' I shot back. 'The girls are doing just fine.' I opened the library door to discover Mary and Merry trying to make a fort from books they'd emptied off the shelves. There were a lot of empty shelves.

Mary dropped a book, pages open, with a thud. 'Ooopsie.'

I sighed. I'd only been gone five minutes.

'I know someone,' Josef murmured.

I raised a quieting hand. 'Just don't.' I wasn't going to admit he might have a point.

But, maybe, he did.