Page 87 of A Relentless Rake

The boy’s face turned instantly hard, and he cowered, as if expecting to be hit.

Alec recognized that look. He’d worn it himself too many times to count. “I’m not going to hit you.”

He wouldneverstrike a child. Besides, this boy had been beaten enough times in his young life already that physical violence would only increase the lad’s silence. Hadn’t Alec learned that same lesson from his own father?

Bribery was the better option. Alec withdrew a coin from his pocket and held it up. Instantly, he had the boy’s attention.

“What’s your name?” Alec demanded.

The boy looked longingly at the coin. “Don’t got one. But the old man in charge o’ the sweeps calls me Filth.”

Alec didn’t let his anger at that register on his face and placed the coin in the boy’s hand. Then he withdrew a second one. “Who gave you those papers to deliver to Miss Everett?”

“Don’t know.” The boy’s dirty hand closed tightly around the first coin, and he stared at the second one as if mesmerized by it. Of course he was. It was enough to buy a month’s worth of food. “Didn’t give no name.”

“How did he find you?”

“This mornin’, ’fore dawn, me an’ Grunt were walkin’ back from cleanin’ a couple o’ chimneys a few streets from ’ere, an’ a man ’pproached us. Said he ’ad a job fer me, made me memorize that message fer the lady.” His eyes darted from the coin to Alec’s face, and his lower lip jutted out defiantly. “Hepaid methreecoins, ’e did. That’s the mark o’ a good gentleman.”

Alec’s lips twitched glumly. Ten years old and the boy was already an expert extortionist. He placed the second coin in the boy’s outstretched palm and withdrew a third from his pocket. He hoped he could get all the information he needed before he ran out of coins. “What did he look like?”

“Like you.”

Alec was taken aback by that. “Like me?”

“All fancy an’ rich, fine clothes wi’ shiny boots. Shorter than you, though, an’ fatter.”

“Did you see his hair and eyes? Anything to distinguish him from other men?”

“Brown ’air, brown eyes. Nothin’ special ’bout ’im. No pox marks, no scars.”

Alec made to place the coin in the boy’s hand but pulled it back, letting the boy grab at empty air. “Are you to meet up with him after you’ve delivered the message?”

“Aye, sir. Owes me ’nother coin. Said I’d get it after I delivered the message t’ Olivia—to the lady, I mean.”

“Where?”

“Same spot where ’e found me. Back o’ Cairn Lane near the butcher’s.”

“Good boy.” Alec gave him the last coin—and a fourth for good measure, knowing the man who’d hired the boy wouldn’t return to pay him what he’d been promised. Then he lifted him off the desk. A spot of black soot powdered the oak where he’d sat.

The boy gave a sarcastic tug of his forelock in mockery of how he’d seen older workers do to gentlemen, then turned to leave.

Olivia reached for his shoulder and stopped him. She knelt in front of him, as gentle and unthreatening as an angel.

“Before you leave, why don’t you go downstairs to the kitchen with Mrs. Adams?” She brushed his hair off his forehead, revealing a white streak across his brow where her fingers brushed the soot away.

Alec stared at her, nearly as mesmerized by her surprising actions as the boy. Heedless of how dirty the lad was and how he was most likely a breeding spot for fleas and lice, she fussed with the collar of his threadbare coat. Not to straighten his appearance—only a hot bath, a tub of soap, and an hour’s scrubbing might be able to do that—but to comfort him with the first motherly caresses the boy had most likely had in years. Or ever.

Based on how the boy softened visibly beneath her hands, it was working.

“She made far too much bacon and eggs this morning for breakfast,” Olivia divulged, “so there might be some left over for you.”

Hunger had the lad nearly drooling, but the lure of the second payment won his loyalty. “No thanks, ma’am. Gotta meet up wi’ the man who—”

“He won’t be there,” Alec told him somberly. “You’ve done your job. He doesn’t need you to report back, and he certainly won’t be there to pay you.”

The boy suspected that, too, from the way he clenched his jaw.