An Hour Unspent Read online

  Fergus grunted. He hadn’t adjusted quite as well as the younger children to the idea of going to school. And Barclay could hardly blame him—he was a bit old to be thrown into such a thing, even if he was as smart as a whip.

  But education could change the world for him. It was worth a few growing pains. Worth the coin it cost them—using up the last of what Rosemary had earned from V the year before. If they kept working for him, they could probably, maybe, if they scrimped elsewhere, keep sending the little ones to school in the years to come.

  “I still don’t see why I need all this nonsense. I know my numbers. My grammar. You read history to me every night.”

  “I’m no professor.” Perhaps he would have been, in a different world. He could imagine spending his days with books, as his father had once done, in front of a classroom of eager minds. Or should-be eager minds, if Fergus was any indication. But then, he also could imagine spending his days in a workshop, with gadgets and gears spread out before him. Or in business somewhere, where he could manage people all the day.

  Perhaps, if he’d gone to school for more than that one blissful year before it all came apart at the seams, he could have known one of those worlds. But this was his world now. A family of thieves he loved as much as he did the brother he hadn’t seen in nearly twenty years. A mysterious employer who gave him envelopes with . . . paper and keys? Odd. A growing faith, now that he had people to explain things to him and wrap up beautiful leather-bound Bibles to give him at Christmas.

  He fingered the keys. Unfolded the papers. A few cards spilled out, snagging his attention first.

  Retta, seated to his left, snatched one up, her golden brows scrunching. “‘Mr. Barclay Pearce.’ That much is clear enough. But where’s the direction? It’s—wait, this is the house across from Peter’s. The one for let.”

  “What?” But it was. He stared at the house number under his name on that heavy paper, then pulled forward the typewritten sheet with V as the only signature. His eyes went wide as he read. “V has let it for us. Says he needs us to have a reputable address, and he imagines Pete and Rosie will want their own space when they come to Town. Says we can consider it part of our retainer.”

  Maybe it was tied to the new assignment, then. Perhaps, given the clockmaker’s residence in Hammersmith, V thought it would work better if they could claim a place of their own nearby.

  Likely wouldn’t last beyond the assignment. But still. They could enjoy it while it did.

  Fergus picked up one of the keys, his face pure boyish delight. “The white one? But that’s even bigger than Peter’s place! I bet it has six bedrooms if it has one.”

  The rest of the table noted the awe on their faces and chimed in with questions and shouts of joy at the explanation. “But why, do you think?” Elinor’s blond brows were drawn together, her lips pursed.

  Barclay glanced behind him, making sure none of the other patrons were paying them any heed. Then leaned across the table so he could pitch his voice low. “I suspect it’s because of the job he just gave me. There’s a clockmaker I’m to get to know—the one who maintains the clock of Big Ben, it seems. He lives just a few streets over from Peter. V must want us to stick close.”

  “The Great Clock?” Lucy’s brows shot up. “What’s he up to? Nothing suspicious, I hope.”

  “No. No, some new invention V thinks could help our boys, that’s all.” He shifted against the niggle inside that said, If that’s all, why would you steal from him? Why repay innovation with deceit?

  “Well.” On the other side of him Elinor grinned and bumped her shoulder into his. She was getting far too pretty, and it was a guarantee of headaches. It was just too much to hope that all his sisters would find blokes as good as Rosemary and Willa had.

  Why did God have to send him so many sisters? Responsibility for them kept him up nights.

  But Elinor’s grin was oblivious to the trouble she caused just by having a dimpled smile. “That gives me a fabulous idea for my challenge to you. I challenge you to steal . . .”

  He narrowed his eyes while the others all hooted and drummed their fingers on the edge of the table. “No things, El—”

  “Oh, I know.” Laughing, Ellie silenced the drumming with a dramatic flourish of her hand. “I challenge you to steal an hour, Barclay Pearce. From Big Ben’s Great Clock.”

  “A . . .” He chuckled and shook his head. Their challenges had been getting more absurd lately, it was true—in part because he’d made them all swear off actual stealing. Aside from their increasing morality, they couldn’t risk getting caught. Not now, working for V. Who paid far better than any fence ever did. “How the devil am I supposed to steal an hour?”

  Elinor grinned. “You’re not, I believe the saying goes. You’re supposed to fail to steal an hour, thereby proving once and for all that you’re not half the thief you think yourself.”

  He let a grin curve his lips, let his fingers close around one of the keys. Surveyed each of the faces of the children he’d claimed as siblings—the ones who’d let him, who’d claimed him back. The ones who had grown up with him, the ones who’d come along later, the little ones who remembered nothing but being theirs.

  “The Great Westminster Clock, huh?” He flipped the key into the air like a coin, caught it, and stood to help when he noted Pauly coming their way with a tray loaded down with bowls. “Nothing to it. That hour’s as good as mine.”

  As long as he could spend it right here.

  Two

  Evelina Manning glanced again at where the sun sank below the buildings of London, stubbornly refusing to grant her the extra five minutes she’d asked of it. Five minutes, that was all. She was only five minutes late.

  Which, as a clockmaker’s daughter, amounted to a century. Papa would be tapping his foot along with every tick and every tock of every second on every clock. Her lips tugging up despite the minutes-past-the-hour, she made a note to write that one down when she got home. She wasn’t usually one for rhymes, but Basil had a bit of the poet in him. Perhaps he’d find it diverting.

  She ought to have hailed a cab—though with all the German drivers shipped off to internment camps, they were hard to come by these days. Or taken the bus—though hundreds of them had been sent to Belgium, so they were rather hard to come by just now too. Or, she granted as she heard the words in Papa’s wry tone of voice, she could have just left Mrs. Knight’s house five minutes earlier.

  But she’d scarcely torn herself away as it was. Too hot had been the argument in her chest. The fire. The need.

  It was fizzling to nothing. All their hard work of recent years. All the protests and marches and carefully planned strikes. All for naught. All because of this stupid, infernal war thought up by a bunch of power-hungry men.

  It had to end soon, though, didn’t it? The thing had already stretched months beyond projections. It would be over soon. And then the suffragettes would march again. The cause would live.

  She would live. And in the meantime, content herself with continuing her support of women in the workplace. With all the men away, the factories employed mostly women, and the demands were high. She could at least continue to ensure the workers were treated fairly.

  It was something, anyway. Something to give her days purpose.

  Speeding around the last corner at a pace that would have earned her a stern scolding from Mother, Evelina ignored the ache coursing up from her heel into her calf muscle and set her sights on the familiar façade of home. Red bricks. White trim. Wrought-iron grates in perfect condition. Not a stray leaf on the steps nor a speck of dust where it didn’t belong.

  The Manning house ran, of course, like clockwork. Or would, if not for her.

  Shadows stretched their gnarled fingers over her neighbors’ rooftops, all too eager to point in accusation. Late. You’re late.

  The shadows sounded like Papa.

  Evelina increased her pace, even as her leg screamed in protest. Another month, and her perpetual tardiness
wouldn’t matter half so much. Basil never cared if she was a few seconds behind schedule.

  An arrow of pain sliced up along her Achilles tendon, making her stumble a bit. Biting back a whimper, she slowed for just a moment to ease it.

  Just a moment. That was all. All it took for one of those shadows to solidify and emerge from between the houses. To slink up behind her. To clamp an arm around her waist, another around her throat. For the feel of cold metal against her esophagus to warm, to warn.

  Ah, blast. It wouldn’t be her first mugging, but she’d never expected such a thing here, in her own neighborhood. Her guard had been down. It was her own fault. And now with her leg aching and her breath already short, she’d lost a precious three seconds to react.

  “Nice and easy, my pretty,” a voice said, hot and sticky against her ear. “We will just—”

  “What exactly do you think you’re doing?” Another man appeared out of nowhere, a frown looking perfectly at home on his brows.

  Evelina knew an answering one took up residence on her own. A simple mugging she could handle. But if some ridiculous man thought he had to play hero, it could quickly escalate. She eased back, into the arm that held her captive. Away from that eager blade against her neck, lest the mugger get twitchy.

  The mugger got twitchy. Clamped his arms tighter around her, so that her already short breath couldn’t heave up past his arm.

  The newcomer didn’t look shocked or wary. He looked . . . put out. Like Papa when Hans had the audacity to say that wristlet watches would overtake pocket watches someday. He wore a simple brown suit of clothes, well cut, and a matching derby, well suiting the shape of his face. And stood with complete confidence, as if he owned the very street on which he trod.

  He lifted a finger and pointed first at her, then at the man holding her. “Let the young lady go, first off. Then we’re going to have a chat, you and I, yeah? Because these are my streets, and you don’t belong here.”

  Of all the insufferable . . .

  Her captor retreated a step, pulling her along with him. “Stay back, mister.”

  Mister’s eyes narrowed. “You’re not English.”

  Evelina’s ears scarcely noted such things anymore, with all the refugees in their streets. But he was right. The man’s accent wasn’t English. Neither, however, did it sound Flemish or French, as it would were he a Belgian.

  Her captor tightened his grip still more. “I said—”

  “Yeah, I don’t much care what you said.” Something edged into the second man’s voice, too, pushing out the familiar cadence of the gentle class. Something closer to Cockney, though he certainly hadn’t the look of a lower-class man. “Let the girl go this moment or every thug and thief in Poplar is going to be on your tail.”

  Not the police? He was threatening with thugs? From the worst part of the city? Evelina drew in a slow, careful breath and said a silent prayer. At the moment, she was none too sure she preferred her rescuer over her captor.

  The man at her back spat out a word she didn’t recognize but that rang of a curse. A second later, his arms retreated, his hands planted themselves on her back, and—oh no. She felt it coming a second before he pushed, but her screaming leg wouldn’t brace itself as she told it to do, and the next thing she knew she was wheeling through the air, toward the overconfident man, while the mugger’s footsteps pounded the pavement in the opposite direction.

  Evelina righted herself as quickly as she could and waved an arm. “Go! Go after him!” She could have given the fellow a breath-stealing jab with her elbow, brought a knee up to disable him, delivered a blow to his nose, but chasing him down now was impossible. Her leg would betray her within five strides. “I’ll dash inside and ring for the police.”

  But rather than listen, this man just stared over her shoulder, presumably at the retreating mugger, with narrowed blue eyes. “They’re all a bit busy with the riots just now. But no need for worry. I’ll find him.”

  “How will you find him? He’ll vanish into the streets—”

  “Exactly.”

  Every thug and thief. Evelina straightened and lifted her chin. “I thank you for your assistance, sir, though it was unnecessary. And now, if you’ll excuse me, my father will be anxious.”

  “Unnecessary?” The man snorted a laugh and turned those calculating blue eyes on her. “You could scarcely breathe and looked ready to faint.”

  Her own eyes went wide. “I most certainly was not! I had everything in hand. I am no stranger to muggers, you impudent—”

  “Really. You. No stranger to muggers.”

  Every independent fiber of her being bristled. Evelina spun on her heel, sights set on the safety of her front door, only a few steps away. “I assure you, I have seen my fair share of violence. I am a suffragette.”

  Well, perhaps not in the truest sense—she hadn’t ever been arrested for the cause. Hadn’t therefore gone on a hunger strike. She hadn’t burned or defaced any property, so the diehards among the Women’s Social and Political Union probably thought her not committed. Probably thought—not altogether incorrectly—that she was more a suffragist than a suffragette. But Mrs. Knight had been so good as to take Evelina under her wing these last two years, so . . .

  What kind of mugger had the gumption to accost a girl so near the front doors of so many houses, anyway? She glanced from her own door to the neighbors’. Within plain view of the windows? It wasn’t right. Wasn’t logical. Didn’t fit.

  The insufferable hero dogged her steps. “If you were going to fight him off, you would have had to act right away.”

  “And let me guess—a young woman of my stature and breeding would have no hope of succeeding, correct? I am but a helpless female.”

  “I’ve no idea what kind of female you are. But I know my sisters could have taken that bloke down in about five seconds.”

  She spun to face him, only a pace away from her front steps. She wasn’t sure whether she was irritated with him still or a bit impressed that his sisters knew how to take care of themselves. So she let Mother’s infernal lessons settle over her and kept her chin up, her gaze even on his. “You needn’t see me to my door, sir. I am well, I assure you.”

  And he was laughing at her. Again. Though only with his eyes this time. “I can see that, miss. It’s just that you’re going to the same door I am. I take it you’re Mr. Manning’s daughter?”

  Blast. No getting rid of him, then. Rather than answer, she sighed and pivoted back to her door. Even as she opened it, her apology was on her lips. “Sorry! I’m late, I know, but it isn’t my fault.”

  But Papa wasn’t there, scowling at her even while he suppressed a hopeless smile. There was only Williston, the ancient butler, creaking his way to the door. “There you are, Miss Manning. Mr. Philibert is awaiting you in the drawing room.”

  “Oh, good.” She hadn’t known Basil was back in London, but she had a few details for the wedding to run by him, anyway. Mother, even while in Devonshire with Aunt Beatrice, continued to send demands via the post, and if Evelina meant to argue, she’d do so best with her groom in agreement. And would likely still lose. She could count on one hand the number of arguments she’d won against her mother.

  For now, she stepped aside, revealing her father’s guest behind her to the butler. She meant to offer some introduction—though she didn’t know his name, come to think of it—but paused.

  Basil filled the drawing room door. And the sight of him made every cog, every gear in Evelina’s workings seize. Her breath balled up in her chest. Heat burned her eyes.

  He was in uniform.

  The clearing of his throat sounded like a funeral knell. “We need to talk, Lina.”

  The last weeks he’d been gone—he’d said he was going to Shropshire to make final preparations for her at his house there. But here he was, in an officer’s uniform. He must have been in training. He must have known for weeks, months what he intended to do. And he hadn’t said a thing.

  She stepped
back, bumping into a soft-but-firm mass. “It looks as though it’s a bit late for talking, doesn’t it?” Her voice was perfectly calm. Low. Even. Mother would be proud.

  Basil’s gaze flicked over her shoulder, and his face went tight. “Who is this?”

  She couldn’t answer. Even if she’d had an answer to give, she couldn’t have convinced her tongue to work. What was he doing? Why? They were to be married in twenty-six days. Twenty-six!

  Maybe he wanted to move up the date. Elope.

  One of the springs inside released a bit of its tension. Mother would be furious with an elopement—which made it sound like the finest idea in decades.

  Behind her, a throat cleared. “Barclay Pearce. Sorry to interrupt—I am here to see Mr. Manning and happened across the young lady in the street outside.”

  Williston gave a perfunctory bow. “I am afraid Mr. Manning is not at home, sir. If you’ve a card I can take for him?”

  “Of course.”

  Basil’s gaze settled on her again. “Would you come in here, please, Lina? Please.”

  Her leg hurt. Felt so very stiff. She wanted to move it, she did. To follow him into the drawing room with its muted gaslights—the electric ones wouldn’t be turned on this close to dark, not with the blackout. To hear whatever it was he had to say. But she couldn’t. “Why would you do this? Without so much as talking to me first? I thought . . . I thought we . . . Do you not have even that much esteem for my opinion? My input?”

  “It isn’t that, as well you know.” He shifted from right foot to left and motioned to the room behind him. His face—his face had always been as easy to read as a clock’s. And now it said, Your time is up. “In private, my dear. I beg of you.”

  “You’re ending things. Now, twenty-six days before the wedding? What have I done wrong?”

  “No man wants a suffragette for a wife, Evelina.” Mother’s voice clanged in her head like a bell.

  “Nor a cripple. Your daughter will be lucky to find any man at all willing to take her on, Judith.” Aunt Beatrice, sniffing along.