Nine Shillings

Off To The Station

London - 1842

The advantage of getting Josef to escort me to the police station, aside from his ability to stop me tearing the police to pieces for laying a hand on Bran, was he could use his charming vampire magic on them.

It didn't escape my notice how impressive Josef looked in his toff suit and red silk waistcoat. He was always impeccably dressed, whereas Bran looked crumpled however well-dressed he was. The desk sergeant gave Josef a perplexed look but had sense enough not to comment.

Josef and I drew level with the desk, he gave it and the sergeant a disparaging look then said, 'You arrested my friend and his wife would like him back.'

'Very much so,' I concurred.

One of the men sitting on a long bench nearby was frowning at me as if he recognised me but couldn't place me. He might've, I'd been a regular figure around the area before I met Bran, in those days I dressed in worn trousers and dirt rather than a fashionable dress and scent.

The desk sergeant looked between us. 'It's not up to me, sir.'

'Then I suggest fetching someone who can return him to us before Mrs O'Connor loses her temper.' Josef leaned towards the sergeant, winked, and smiled. 'She's a little firebrand. You know what they say about redheads.'

The desk sergeant's expression said, whatever the cliché about redheads, the only firebranding I was likely to do was on my back. Not unfair, though Bran preferred to be on his back.

'You will get someone who can release Mr O'Connor, now.' Josef glanced at me. 'Please.'

The desk sergeant disappeared into the back rooms.

'This wasn't an instance where a please was required,' I whispered.

Josef shrugged. 'I'm practising.'

The desk sergeant came back with an inspector. It took me a moment to place him, my memory was perfect, not instant. The last time we met he'd been in plain clothes and threatening to hang me. He cast me a faint frown before dismissing me, Josef had wiped me from the fella's memory.

Josef extended his hand to the newcomer.

My would-be hangman considered Josef's hand before he shook it. 'Inspector Spade, Mr?'

'Mathers,' Josef replied and wiped his hand on his handkerchief. 'It's "My Lord". I'm a baron. But I will accept "Sir".' His expression implied he was being exceptionally gracious.

I suppressed a smile.

Spade looked him up and down and his lips thinned. 'Sergeant Evans tells me you want the Irishman released, my lord.'

Josef looked at me. 'I didn't say Irishman, did you say Irishman?'

I shook my head, trying not to show my concentration, my fangs had extended and didn't want to retract, my temper was bubbling.

Evans flushed. 'O'Connor, I thought... surely –'

Spade shot him a shut-up-now look.

'Mr O'Connor was waiting for his wife when one of your constables arrested him for... being Irish?' Josef looked at me for confirmation.

I nodded.

Spade pretend to peruse the ledger on the desk in front of him. 'Says here a Brandon O'Connor was arrested for affray.'

I won the war against my fangs. 'Digging for the truth there, inspector?'

Josef put a slight pressure on my toes with his foot. When he'd been trying to teach me mind tricks, he said it helped if the person wasn't being aggravated. I glanced at him. He'd started it.

'Brandon O'Connor wouldn't know how to affray if he had written instructions,' Josef said.

'Are you calling my men liars?' Spade asked, flicking through the pages despite it being clear there was nothing else about Bran in the book. His gaze caught on my hands resting on the desktop, my nails had sunk into the wood. He cleared his throat and pulled his gaze away. 'He's also a suspected Fenian.'

'As a friend of Mr O'Connor's for many years, I can assure you there's nothing to suspect on that score,' Josef said.

If several policemen hadn't been milling around to bear witness, I would've kicked him.

'You're trying to tell me a bog-runner is loyal to The Queen?' Spade shut the ledger.

'You –'

'Mr O'Connor is loyal to a fault,' Josef overrode me.

I gave Josef my death stare, he paid no heed.

Spade glanced between us as if he was considering whether we needed locking up with Bran. I wanted Josef to use his power and say 'let him out', Spade would have to obey. That was the problem, I reminded my temper, overriding someone's will was wrong. Even if he was a dickhead.

Josef leaned towards Spade and whispered, 'It really would be easier to let him go, you know how women get.' He tilted his head towards me. 'He's had warning enough, don't you think?'

Spade sighed. 'Evans, go and get Mr O'Connor and make it clear he won't always find such an understanding Inspector.'

Evans stepped out from behind the counter, crossed to a door on the other side of the room and disappeared. We stood in silence, every so often Spade's gaze would flick to the scarring peeking from beneath the silk scarf wrapped around my neck and over my shoulders. It was making it harder to resist Josef's point such identifiable scars might be problematic for an immortal.

Before Spade could break and ask what happened to my neck the door opened and Bran appeared with Evans leading him by the arm. Bran's head was bowed, it didn't hide his split lip and bruises. I wanted to show the policemen what they could do with their truncheons but I had a role to play; I hitched my skirts, ran to Bran, and threw my arms around him. He hissed with discomfort and hugged me back. I was supposed to be playing 'Oh poor, Bran, my poor darling' but if I looked at his face while we were still in the station my temper wouldn't hold.

'Yes, yes, you can save that until you're home,' Josef said.

Bran looked up and realised we were in the middle of a police station surrounded by police and suspects alike, all watching our little reunion and he stepped back.

We were well out of sight of the police station when Josef smacked Bran over the back of the head. 'Whatever you think you deserve, don't risk exposure to get it.'

Bran shied away from Josef.

I stepped between them. 'Don't ever raise your hand to Bran.'

Josef stared at me. His power crackled in the air between us then withdrew. 'I'm sorry, brother.'

Bran touched my hip lightly. 'It's alright, Charlotte. He's right. A caged vampire is dangerous, even me.'

I couldn't argue. Eventually, he'd need to feed and I doubted blood was on the prison menu. It didn't mean I had to ignore that Josef had belted him.

'Let's go home,' Bran murmured and nudged my hip again.

I smiled, put two of Bran's fingers in my mouth and sucked them.

Bran turned red.

Josef snorted. 'I think we all caught the meaning of that.'

I stuck my finger up at Josef.

'No thank you?' he asked.

'Your thanks is not getting a kick to the balls,' I shot back.

'Why, thank you.' He touched the brim of his hat.

I grabbed Bran's hand before he could get himself in more trouble. 'I swear to God, you'll both put me in the asylum at this rate.'

Josef grinned. 'We'd never put you –'

'Shut up, Josef,' I said.

He did.