“It will be all ri—”
We both spoke at once, and I threw her a rueful smile. It was not all right, and both of us knew it. But thinking that helped nothing. We had to make do with what we had. Which at least helped with the packing. It took our group no more than a minute to finish—one of the few advantages to already losing everything we had.
Back downstairs, the house was full of commotion. The cook was running out the front door, her face full of terror. In the middle of it all stood Tuffins, directing the chaos with the efficiency and grace of a general in battle.
“Everyone else is out front,” he said, picking up a small suitcase. “The carriages are ready.”
“Carriages?”
“I know a coachman nearby, and he is lending us his. We will not all fit in one.”
“You are extraordinary. I think you should run England.”
“I will consider it.”
Outside, the sun was setting, a wound bleeding across the sky. Gas lamps were being lit and the streets were crowded with people headed home, eagerly discussing the latest news of Captain Goode and Sebastian. Miss Chen and Miss Rao waited in the first carriage, while Rose and Catherine climbed up. Laura and Emily hurried down the stairs to the other with Mr. Adeoti behind, clutching his notebooks tightly to his chest.
Finally Tuffins and his mother exited, descending the stairs behind me. She looked troubled but composed, and Tuffins simply looked like he always did. He handed his mother and me up and climbed up to the driver’s seat in front. The borrowed carriage took off and we were about to follow when Laura banged the roof.
“Oh no! Soot!” she yelped.
“Oh dear.” Mrs. Tuffins looked truly panicked for the first time since I had met her.
Laura scrambled for the door. “I have to get him!”
Emily stayed her with her hand, already peering out the window. “He’s coming,” she said calmly.
She pointed up to the rooftops, where she held the black cat floating in the air. Gently, he drifted across the street, curled up and unbothered, looking like an errant plume of smoke from a chimney. As Soot made his descent, Tuffins opened the carriage door for him and Emily safely landed him in Mrs. Tuffins’s lap. She clutched him to her bosom, while Laura burst into tears again and the carriage rumbled forward.
Thank goodness. We were all out. Everything was all right, for the time being.
But as we reached the main thoroughfare, a loud crackling and a boom erupted from behind us. Our carriage turned to join the traffic and our heads turned with it, out the right side window, upon the street we’d left.
The boarding house was on fire.
The street glowed and flickered as lightning struck it repeatedly. But it didn’t come from the clear, twilight sky. It came from below, from the electric woman in front of the house. Sparks leaped from her fingers and ignited the house, the fire spreading so quickly, I would have thought the roof was doused in spirits.
“Oh heavens!”
Mrs. Tuffins was clutching the drapery of the carriage, knuckles white as she stared, even when we rolled along and the house was no longer in sight. Black smoke billowed up from the roof. I tried to find some words, but they all died by the time they reached my lips, a heavy guilt crushing them down.
“I will find you another house,” Emily said into the shocked silence. “I will move Buckingham Palace wherever you want it. We’ll help you decorate it exactly like yours. This isn’t fair.”
Mrs. Tuffins shook her head and held Laura to her. “It will be all right, dears. It will be all right.”
This was our fault. We should have never come here to bring this chaos to good people’s lives. Mrs. Tuffins had saved wages her entire life for that boarding house and only ever wanted to help us, far past the point of kindness.
As the carriage rolled to a stop at her sister’s home and we said our good-byes, I silently promised myself to make this up to her. I would heal her every day. I would ask George to grow her the most beautiful garden. I had no idea how, but we would find a way to un-ruin this charitable woman’s entire life and give her back a home.
The driver’s hatch opened, and Tuffins’s voice floated down. “Where to now, Miss Wyndham?”
I gave him the directions and instructed everyone to stay in the carriage once we reached our destination until I gave the word. We were off again, the horses trotting swiftly through the evening traffic that Tuffins navigated with ease. When we arrived, I opened the carriage door but did not get out. Instead, I spoke softly through the crack.
“Arthur? It’s Miss Wyndham. If you can hear me, please, we need your help.”
I opened the curtain on the window and gave a wave up to the dark roof where I’d last met them—in case William was looking out and on duty. Emily and Laura gave me curious looks but said nothing. Only Mr. Adeoti’s eyes went wide. He would have heard of my friends before—fringe Society members who ran a gambling hall.
The minutes stretched on, my mind spinning through the other places we could hide, acquaintances we could call on. Nothing seemed safe. Sebastian and Mr. Kent knew me too well. Every idea I could think of was an idea they would have and tell Captain Goode. I knew Arthur and William would probably be on that list, too, but maybe they knew a place that Sebastian and Mr. Kent didn’t. Our best hope was to catch them first. But it seemed we were too late.
I was ready to tap the roof to send us to an inn when a rough voice sounded outside the carriage, speaking to Tuffins.
“’Round through ’ere.”
Arthur. He’d heard me.
We slowly rolled around the corner, pulling into a dead-end alleyway. I cautiously opened the door to see Arthur’s wide, bearded face. He smiled and helped me down.
“Why, Miss Wyndham. Nice to see you’re still safe.”
“You too, Arthur. Is William here, too?”
“I am!” William peered around a door cunningly hidden in the wall of the gambling house. “You brought friends.” His keen eyes took in the two carriages.
“I hate to bother you, but I am afraid we have nowhere else to go. Captain Goode has Sebastian.” I didn’t try to disguise the heartbreak I felt at the thought. They would hear it in my voice and see it on my face.
Instantly their mood changed at the mention of the man who had saved them from Dr. Beck years before. “Aye, we’ve been followin’ the news. Come on, inside, all of youse.”
“He has Mr. Kent, too,” I said. “Which means they could be on their way here next.”
Arthur cocked an eyebrow at me. “Don’t worry, we’d ’ear them long before they get ’ere.”
“And we’re a gamblin’ hall,” William added. “We ’ave more secret exits than regular ones.”
I turned back to the carriages and nodded, finding it strange that brothels and gambling halls filled me with more confidence than the police and courts. “We can trust them, I promise,” I said to the others.
My friends all filed out reluctantly, belongings in hand. Arthur and William ushered them inside, making introductions.
Laura gave Tuffins an extremely long hug. “Tuffins, please be safe. Don’t do anything dangerous.”
“I’ll try to resist the temptation,” Tuffins said, hugging her back, “as long as you’re safe as well.”
She finally let go with a watery sob, and Emily took her inside.
“Thank you, Tuffins, for today and every other day,” I told him. “You are remarkable, and I am sorry to have put you through so much. Please be assured that we will find another house, something to repay you and your mother.”
I thought it a testament to him that he did not protest, just nodded solemnly.
“You will find them,” Tuffins said with a simple certainty. “Please call on me at my aunt’s when you do.”
“I will,” I said and gave the best steward in possibly the whole world a small wave as he hopped back up on the carriage and led his neighbor off. The steady clacking of hooves faded away down the street.