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“What’s your given name?” Sabrina coaxed.
The lad pressed his lips closed.
“Son, if you’re not going to answer the lady’s questions, maybe I should haul you off to the clink after all,” Graeme said, annoyed.
The boy snorted, obviously feeling confident enough to see it as the empty threat it was.
“No, you won’t,” Sabrina said.
Graeme rolled his eyes. “Lass, of course I’m not—”
“We can’t just let him go without our help. It’s much too dangerous.”
Of course it was dangerous. Life on the street always was, but she clearly meant something else. “Sabrina, what exactly are you worried about?”
“I’d say it’s because yon lad isn’t a lad,” Angus dryly said.
The boy froze, like a rabbit spotting a fox.
Sabrina nodded. “Heis ashe, and I will not allow a little girl to run about the stews of Edinburgh unprotected.”
The child bristled. “I ain’t little, and I ain’t unprotected. I’m head boy, lady. One day, I’m gonna have a gang of my own.”
After Graeme picked his jaw off the ground, he took a closer look and wanted to smack himself. Those delicate features were not just the result of youth and frailty.
Angus snorted. “And ye call yerself a spy.”
The girl perked up. “Yer a spy? Coo!”
Graeme frowned. “I’m not a spy. And why are you running about, pretending to be a boy?”
She gave a remarkably insouciant shrug. “It’s safer, and the lads listen better if ’n I acts like them.”
“That’s awful,” Sabrina said, looking rather pale.
The girl bristled. “Lady, I runs the gang and keeps ’em all in order. I’m in charge.”
“But—”
Graeme cut in. “What’s your name, lass?”
“Tilly,” she reluctantly said.
“Mine’s Graeme. Graeme Kendrick.”
Her eyes widened. “Ye mean like the Laird of Arnprior Kendrick?”
“Yes.”
“Coo,” she breathed, much impressed.
“Tilly, do you really have to, um, run a gang?” Sabrina asked. “Surely there’s something else you’d like to do with your life.”
Tilly snorted. “Be a whore like me mam?”
Sabrina flinched, while Angus let out a weary sigh.
Graeme had to help the lass. The case that had almost gotten him killed had involved a girl in danger, and he’d made an epic hash of it. This time, he’d get it right.
