Read Online Not Less Than Gods by Kage Baker - Free Book Online Page B

to be sure! But you needn’t be alarmed. What’s in the tea will do you no harm; indeed, it is a mild prophylactic, as is only proper.”
    Pengrove and Hobson lowered their cups at once, taken aback. Ludbridge smiled and drank the rest of his cupful. “I assure you, Mrs. Corvey, my recruits are clean fellows and in the best of health.”
    “Ah! They are Residentials, then?”
    “They are.”
    “Then pray excuse me, my dears, but I do have the greatest regard for my young ladies, and after all one cannot be too careful, don’t you think?”
    “Commendable caution,” agreed Ludbridge. “Drink up, gentlemen.” They obeyed. Mrs. Corvey made a graceful gesture of acknowledgment.
    “Let us, then, set aside all unnecessary pretense. You must understand, sirs, that not all of my customers are members of the Gentlemen’s Speculative Society, for even an inner circle has inner circles within itself; and even Members of Parliament have been known to contract the nastiest cases of the clap imaginable. But they did not contract them in
my
establishment. Have you dined, my dears?”
    “We have not, ma’am,” Ludbridge replied. “I think a little light refreshment would be well received.”
    “A pleasure, sir.” She rose to her feet and, without the aid of her cane, went straight to a side table where sat a device of some kind, brass and black wax adorned with gold. A brass trumpet was attached to it by acord; without any feeling about she picked it up. Instead of lifting it to her ear, as they half expected, she spoke into it.
    “The cold buffet for four, please, and two bottles of champagne.”
    “She can see!” blurted Hobson.
    “Yes, sir, I see indeed,” replied Mrs. Corvey, replacing the speaking-horn in its cradle. “Though not with human eyes, I must confess.” She returned to her seat, composedly arranging the folds of her gown. Staring at her, they noticed now the glint of steel and crystal behind her goggles.
    “Shall I tell you my story, as we wait? I was born in the workhouse, and purchased by a manufacturer of pins when I was five years of age. The work requires small hands and keen eyesight, you see. One must cut tiny lengths of wire and file one end to a point, and then hammer the other end into a suitably broad head.
    “There is a considerable demand for pins, as you might imagine, and so I worked from five o’clock in the morning until nine o’clock at night, by candlelight when daylight was unavailable. By the time I was twelve I was quite blind.
    “So of course I was then sold into the only work I was fit for. I worked there as one of their specialty girls until I was seventeen, I believe, and then a gentleman from your organization approached me with quite a different proposition. I entered the Society’s service with a will, and submitted myself for experimental surgery; now I wear goggles to conceal the result, as my appearance is rather startling.”
    “I am so sorry to hear it, ma’am,” said Pengrove.
    “My choice,” Mrs. Corvey replied, with a thin smile. “The lack of cosmetic eyes provided a certain protection from unwanted attentions, when I was still in danger of receiving any. There is also an advantage to
seeming
blind; for example, Members of Parliament are reassured to imagine that the proprietress of their favorite house would be unable to identify their faces in a court of law.”
    At this point there was a gentle chime and one of the panels in the wall slid open, to admit four parlor maids, respectably clad in black.Two bore platters laden with sandwiches and savories; one bore a pair of ice-buckets containing bottles of champagne, and one bore four glasses on a tray.
    “Now then!” said Mrs. Corvey. “My story wasn’t a jolly one, I fear; I hope you gentlemen will oblige me by putting it from your minds and dining heartily, before we begin the introductions.”
    There followed a pleasant interlude in which champagne and sandwiches were handed round, and the