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“What is the meaning of this?” a sour, tenor voice called from down the small, sparsely decorated hallway.
Moments later, a pinched, sallow man in his middle years stepped out from a doorway at the end of the hall. He wore a fine suit that seemed out of place in the slightly shabby environs of the house. The man’s dark hair was receding, and as soon as he spotted Giles just inside the doorway, his long face went slack with shock.
Theo’s immediate thought was that there was no possible way that the bastard at the end of the hall was related by blood to Giles at all. Giles was all lightness and softness, his blond curls and blue eyes giving him the appearance of an angel. Augustus Pennyroyal was dark and spindly, more like a spider than an angel.
“What in God’s name,” the spider began as he strode up the length of the hall, his eyes wide with astonishment. “Giles?”
He hated it. Every fiber of Theo’s body hated his part in the plot, but he played it to the best of his ability.
“My name is Brunner, and I am with the Bow Street magistrate’s office,” Theo introduced himself. “This young scoundrel was caught picking pockets near Hyde Park,” he lied with a menacing growl. “He spent a night as His Majesty’s pleasure, until we discovered his identity.”
“No!” Giles snapped, stomping his foot again. “I’m not him. I do not belong here.”
Theo peeked sideways at him. It was all a part of the plan, but the reluctance Giles showed to be anywhere near Pennyroyal or his too-keen stare made Theo want to sweep him into his arms and leave the house forever.
“Can you identify this man?” Theo asked instead.
“Yes,” Pennyroyal said, stroking his chin and grinning at Giles in a way that chilled Theo’s blood. “He is my son, Giles Mortimer Pennyroyal.”
The way the villain spoke made Theo’s blood run cold. If he left Giles alone with the bastard, Giles would be in danger. Pennyroyal’s gaze was too eager, the light in his eyes too calculating. But he had a duty to perform to the Runners and to the crown.
There was nothing for it but to trust that Giles was man enough to handle himself well, to keep himself safe, and to come away with the evidence they needed to lock Pennyroyal away forever.
“And will you take responsibility for him?” Theo asked. “Will you ensure that he is kept away from all crime and vice, and that he does not trouble the good people of London again?”
“I most certainly will,” Pennyroyal said. He turned a toothy grin to Giles and said, “Son, you have been gone too long. I cannot tell you how pleased I am that you have returned home.”
The hair stood up on the back of Theo’s neck at those words. The feeling was made even worse as a hint of movement at the top of the stairs drew his attention to three pale, frightened faces peering down at the scene. Three girls who seemed to range in age from twelve to eighteen glanced down at them. All three had bright blonde hair, like Giles, and blue eyes, and all bore a resemblance to each other—one that included shock and fright. They were three more reasons Theo was loath to leave the house without taking its innocent inhabitants away with him.
But he had to do his duty.
“He is yours, then,” he said, letting go of Giles’s arm and nudging him toward Pennyroyal.
Giles feigned sullen defeat, rubbing his arm when Theo let go and glancing over his shoulder to fix Theo with a murderous glare. Only, there was nothing of murder in his eyes, only love, excitement, and paradoxical reassurance. Bless the little minx, but he was actually excited about what he was doing.
“Thank you, Mr. Brunner, from the bottom of my heart,” Pennyroyal said, stepping over to grab Giles’s arm and to tug him away from Theo. “I am in your debt.”
Theo’s nerves shredded at the way Pennyroyal touched Giles. So help him, if the man laid a single finger on him in a way Giles didn’t like, Pennyroyal wouldn’t make it to prison, he would be dead first.
“Good day to you,” Theo said with a curt nod, then did the most difficult thing he’d ever done in his life. He turned and left the house, abandoning Giles behind him.
“Where have you been all this time?” he heard Pennyroyal demand of Giles as the maid shut the door heavily behind him.
Theo swallowed the bile that rose up his throat and slogged down the stairs to the street. For a moment, he couldn’t breathe. Panic gripped his heart, and he twisted to stare at Pennyroyal’s door. This was a terrible, too-dangerous plan. Giles needed him, his darling minx needed him. Damn Baker and Vansittart and the entire government. None of them were as important as the way he felt about Giles.
Except that they were important. And if he and Giles had any hope of securing the financing they would need for any sort of a life together, he had to follow through with the mission that had been set for him.
If he had to leave Giles behind, he would not leave him for long. With determined steps, Theo marched away from Pennyroyal’s house and back through the streets of London toward Covent Garden. He saw little of the people and places around him as his feet took him to the one place where he hoped he could find the help he and Giles would need.
The magistrate’s office on Bow Street was bustling as usual in the late afternoon. Theo avoided the conversation of a few of his fellows as he made his way through its halls to Baker’s office. He was forced to wait for what felt like an eternity, though it was likely only half an hour or so, before he was granted admittance.
“Brunner, where have you been?” Baker demanded of him, already peevish and impatient, when Theo was shown in. “You’ve all but gone missing for days now, and when someone was sent to your rooms yesterday, they were told you have been evicted?”
Heat and frustration flooded Theo as he took up a place opposite Baker’s desk. “A misunderstanding with my landlady,” he lied, though it wasn’t much of a lie. But if Baker had just a hint of where Theo had been and what he had been doing, it wouldn’t be the poorhouse for him, it would be the pillory. “At present, that is not important,” he rushed on, “for I believe I had found the man behind the shipping conspiracy and Vansittart’s blackmail.”
Baker’s irritated expression flashed to shock. “You have?” He leaned forward and narrowed his eyes at Theo. “Who is he, and how soon can he be taken into custody?”
“He is a man named Augustus Pennyroyal,” Theo said, seeing no reason to hide what he knew.
