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Their steps slowed as they reached the corner of Walters Street. Reina came to a halt, obliging June to stop as well.
“Like that princess in the tower, you were,” June commented, staring at the town house near the other end of the street, where Reina had spent a lonely childhood surrounded by all those books. “The one with the long hair.”
“Rapunzel?” Reina asked absently, following her gaze. “She wasn’t a princess. Just an ordinary girl who needed a haircut.”
“Rescued by a prince, though.” June couldn’t resist adding impishly, “Your problem is, you never waited to see if one would turn up.”
“I’d never be silly enough to wait for a prince. I’ve met very few punctual men in my life.”
June squeezed her friend’s arm. “You’ll be all right, Queenie. You’ve had your knocks, but you’re a rich woman now. You ain’t going hungry after this. And in this whole shit-bescumbered muddle, you ain’t what’s important. Mr. Farlow neither. What’s important is all the common folk who’ll go to the bank tomorrow to deposit money they’ll never bloody see again. Between them or Mr. Farlow, I know who needs protecting more.”
“You’re right.” A change had come over Reina. The look of raw-edged nerves had been replaced by a sort of walk-the-plank calmness. “No matter what it costs me, I have to do what’s right. But it’s going to be so awful. Let’s go home.”
They turned and headed back the way they’d come.
“Not so fast, my legs are shorter,” June griped.
“Sorry.” Reina adjusted her pace. “I need to deal with the situation as quickly as possible.”
“Do you mean to get some of that evidence from the bank?”
“It’s better for us not to discuss what I’m going to do, so you can truthfully claim ignorance if someone asks you about it. What I can say is that I expect to be away on an errand late tonight, and I’ll be taking Mr. Pembroke with me. So you’ll be in charge of the household.”
“Is Mad going to drive you?”
“No. I would never ask him to do anything that would violate the ticket-of-leave contract.”
June was both alarmed and suspicious. “Queenie, you ain’t doing nothing illegal, are you?”
“Only in a technical sense,” Reina said in a soothing tone.
“Don’t give me none of that lawyerin’ talk! You’re supposed to set a good example for the household!”
“Well, I am. This happens to be one of those situations in which one has to do the wrong thing to achieve the right results.”
***
“. . . so few people are aware of how mathematically gifted Miss Nightingale is,” came Reina’s earnest voice from the library, where she was working with Norman.
Despite John’s weariness, a smile came to his lips as he walked through the hallway. Although Reina didn’t speak with a Spanish accent, there was a lilt in her voice that seemed distinctly Spanish to him. A brightness, a hint of vivacious energy.
“—after the Crimean War,” Reina was saying, “Miss Nightingale came up with an ingenious way to explain medical information to the public by using charts and graphs to turn data into perfect visual storytelling. I wrote a letter to express my admiration, and we struck up a correspondence—”
She paused when John came to the threshold.
He took in the scene with a glance. Norman sat at the desk with a pencil and a notebook, taking shorthand notes, while Reina had stopped beside a library table covered with books and documents.
“Pembroke,” she said with studied casualness, “what excellent timing. Do come in. Mr. Goodluck and I were just finishing some correspondence. I’d like to take up the matter we were discussing last night.”
“Aye, ma’am.” John entered the room and went to a built-in map cabinet, where a drawer had been left ajar with the end of a rolled map protruding. He rerolled the map and closed the drawer.
“Read the last paragraph back to me, please,” Reina told Norman.
He looked down at his notes. “ ‘Should your health permit, it would be the greatest honor to receive you for tea, at any time of your choosing. Alternatively, it would be my delight to bring a small basket of refreshments to South Street one afternoon as a token of gratitude for your valuable advice.’ ”
“Lovely,” Reina said. “End it with ‘gratitude from your devoted friend,’ etcetera, etcetera.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
