Read Online Damon Snow and the Nocturnal Lessons by Olivia Helling - Free Book Online Page B

general murmur, I could hear Dougall as clear as day say, “I expect you’ll be wanting that room.”
    “Err, yes…” I heard Kendall say. He didn’t know which one he was destined for, but that was the difficulty with arranged affairs.
    Dougall’s heavy footsteps sounded as he departed to tend his bar again.
    In the end, Kendall hadn’t been too difficult to arrange. All I had had to do was tell Benjamin I heard a flat was too shy, or too prudent, to make an appearance at Mother Dover’s, and while I was always eager to get money off his mother’s books, he’d rather have a boy like Kendall. And wasn’t I just the good little thing to tell him while he could get his cut rather than telling Kendall himself?
    Of course, Benjamin wouldn’t get paid. Or I could lean on Price a little for the extra shilling. Or perhaps at least retrieve my coat. If Price actually believed what he said he believed, he’d be all too willing to pay for this happy ending.
    Kendall opened the door to the other room, the hinges squeaking.
    “Kendall.” Price dragged out his name like too much emotion weighed it down.
    “I—I—” Kendall scuffled back.
    I gave an oath under my breath. This was why I had wished to remain in the tavern.
    “Kendall, I must say—”
    “No, I do not wish to hear it!” A body hit the wall and then I heard steps fleeing down the hall, with Price’s heavier footsteps after him. It was a good long corridor, but not long enough. I came out of the room, the door slamming close behind me, and took two steps forward, but those two didn’t notice for Price yelled, “I love you too!”
    Idiot!
    Kendall slid to a stop. He didn’t look back, but said, “Ye shouldn’t go saying things like that. Not out here.”
    “Things like what? That I love you?” Price asked, stepping forward. He had lost his great coat and only wore his dinner jacket. “But it’s true.”
    “If anyone else heard ye — you say that…” Kendall motioned his neck, meaning either the pillory or the hangman’s noose. “You shouldn’t say it.”
    “I don’t honestly care,” Price said. “The pillory, Newgate Prison, even the noose, I do not care. What else do I have to live for if I can’t have you?”
    Oh, gag me please, before I spilled my pint back up.
    “You can have somebody else,” Kendall said. “Somebody appropriate.”
    I bit back a scoff. If Price wanted someone else, he could have had it, without yelling to half of the East End that he was a sod.
    “I did the appropriate thing,” Price said. “I married the proper lady, I properly sired children, I properly buried them, each and every one of them. I did the proper thing, and it’s brought me nothing but misery.”
    “So will this,” Kendall said. “There’s a reason nobody cares for us mollies.”
    “What reason would that be?” Price asked. “Because someone must have forgotten to tell me. I can’t imagine what it would be.”
    “God’s will?” Kendall suggested.
    “God’s will was to take my children away,” Price said. “I don’t expect much from him anymore.”
    “Then… then… what about Damon Snow?”
    “Who?”
    “The—the Pink who—who works me with,” Kendall said. “The one you…”
    “Oh, him,” Price said. “What about him?”
    “He speaks real good,” Kendall said. “He dresses real good. He knows things. He wouldn’t… He’d be proper, as proper as these things can get.”
    “He’s nothing,” Price said.
    I barely had time to think, thank you kindly , because Kendall turned to stare at him and I had to duck into their rented room before he saw me. I had run too far up to duck into the empty one. I was successful, for instead of ratting me out, Kendall said, “But — but I’m just an urchin. I try to speak like him, but it’s just all… I’m none too proper.”
    Oh Christ, even I could hear the trembling in his voice, as if everything would spill over if Price said one more kind thing.
    “Oh, oh, my