What am I going to do? she thought. She could feel Rip getting further and further away. But she couldn’t even climb down from this place with the wound in her leg, even if no one was down there, let alone follow two men on horseback. I shouldn’t have sold Horace.
But she’d been so certain that Land’s End was their final destination. Why else would they steal her brother but to sell him to slavers? Yet he was being moved inland; the feeling was like an inner weathervane, shifting slowly and pointing the way. Why? she repeated to herself, over and over again.
She’d begun the internal shout in despair and ended it in anger. Why Rip, why her parents, why her, why now? Who were these people, what were they doing? And beyond all and above everything, and forever, why?
Lorrie closed her eyes. Blackness fell like a crashing wave.
It was just past dawn when Flora slipped into Jimmy’s room; a quiet dawn, by Krondor standards.
‘Where were you last night?’ she demanded in a very loud whisper.
Jimmy, caught by surprise, yanked his pants up so hard he hurt himself. He glared at her over his shoulder, fighting an urge to clutch the painful parts.
‘You . . .’ His voice came out so high he coughed and started again. ‘You’re supposed to knock first, remember?’
‘Tsk! You haven’t got anything I haven’t seen before,’ she said scornfully.
Jimmy arched his brows. ‘Does your aunt know that?’ he said sweetly.
Flora’s lips twitched down at the corners as she looked away and brushed her hair back, blushing. ‘No. And maybe you were right. Maybe I should just keep it to myself.’
‘I honestly think that would be for the best,’ he said, not without sympathy. ‘Best all round, I mean.’
She gave an unladylike snort. ‘Yeah, I mustn’t forget you’re in there, too.’ Then she looked at him through narrowed eyes. ‘So, where were you last night?’
‘I went out for a walk,’ he said, frowning. ‘Just taking in the town and I felt I needed the exercise.’
Flora pressed her lips together anxiously and moved over to him, putting a hand on his arm. ‘You mustn’t do anything wrong while you’re staying here,’ she whispered. ‘Please, Jimmy. It’s important.’
‘I didn’t do anything wrong,’ he protested.
‘Well,’ she waved her hands in exasperation. ‘Don’t!’
‘What, as in, never again? I can’t promise that, Flora. I’m a Mocker, not a priest.’
‘At least not while you’re here,’ she said, her eyes pleading. ‘If you do something wrong it will reflect on me and on them, and the disgrace would be dreadful.’
‘By “anything wrong” I suspect you mean more than simply, “don’t steal”,’ he said. ‘I bet you mean don’t go to taverns, or get drunk, or get into brawls, or gamble . . .’ She shook her head, her eyes wide.
‘Or . . .’ He stroked a finger gently down her cheek.
Flora reared back as if she’d never taunted a sailor in her life. ‘Especially not that!’ she said.
Jimmy stared at her. It wasn’t that long ago we were doing that. Now look at her! It hadn’t taken any time at all for Flora to become officiously respectable. He put his hands on his hips and laughed at her.
She shushed him, glancing at the closed door of his room.
‘Flora,’ he said, shaking his head, ‘I can’t imagine how you’re going to survive this degree of self-restraint.’ Though of course ample meals, comfort, and no worries about the future would help mightily. ‘But if it’s what you want, then that’s what you should have; I was worried about you when all this started, you’ll remember.’
She still looked anxious, so he took pity on her. Placing a hand on his heart he said: ‘I have no intention of disgracing you, or your relatives.’
With quiet determination she asked, ‘Then, please, tell me what you did last night.’
Jimmy gave a deep sigh and hung his head. ‘All right. If you must know I saved a girl.’
Flora made a strangled sound and when he looked at her saw an almost comical expression of surprise on her face. ‘Who? And from what?’
‘Really!’ he said. ‘She was a country girl disguised as a boy and she’d fallen in with some very corrupt thief-takers. Y’remember Gerem Benton?’
She nodded. ‘Gerem the Snake? Confidence grifter used to work the dodge on farmers looking to get rich quick with the Pigeon Drop and the Fake Diamond cons? Yeah, what about him? He’s dead, isn’t he?’
‘He’s alive and running a gang of thief-takers here. Looks like he’s set himself up with the local constables; at least that’s what it looks to me. He almost had this girl but I got her away. He didn’t know she was a girl, else he might have tried harder to hang on to her.’ Jimmy shook his head. ‘Y’know, this town would be a lot better off if they had an Upright Man of their own,’ he added wisely.
‘A country girl disguised as a boy?’ Flora said, wrinkling her nose dubiously. ‘Why was she in disguise?’
Jimmy thought about it. ‘She didn’t say. But she definitely was honest; she didn’t want to use some old cloth for a blanket in case she damaged it.’