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“O’Sullivan, and you can keep it till we get where we’re going.”
I sat back. “Thank you.”
“Where are we going, by the way?”
“Give me a moment,” I said, wondering what he’d say if I asked him to stop the cab so I could consult with Rafe and Margaret. The horses were a fine pair, and they picked their way through the muck at a nice crisp pace. “I don’t know your city well, and it’s too late to go back to where we came from.”
“Ay?”
“Never mind. Take us to your best hotel, or the best one that you think might have two rooms.” We’d need one for Margaret and a second for Rafe and me to share. I was willing to bet the cost of the rooms that Stevenson and his cronies wouldn’t think to look for us someplace extravagant. “And, if you wouldn’t mind doing me one favor?”
“For twenty beans, I guess I owe you at least one.”
“If the man who hired you before us comes sniffing around, you don’t know who we are, and you don’t remember where you took us.”
“All right,” he said, again without taking his eyes off the road in front of us. “Reckon we should go to the Butler. That’s where all the nobs want to go.”
I should have brought more ready cash. “That’ll do just fine.”
At the next intersection he headed us right, or south, and soon we were in the heart of downtown. He stopped us in front of a sturdy looking block of a building. “This is it?” I asked.
“Those who strike it rich up north all want to stay here. I never have, myself, but I’ve heard plenty.”
I saluted him with a finger to the brim of my bowler, a twenty in my other hand. “Thank you very much, Mr. O’Sullivan.”
“You’re very welcome, Mr…”
“Fairchild.” I stifled a sigh. His eyes widened just a touch, but his smile stayed put. I clambered down from the front seat, grateful I’d been able to pull the bill out of my wallet despite my frozen fingers.
On opening the door to the cab, I found Margaret sitting hunched over, with her hands over her eyes, and Rafe as far away from her as possible in the small space. “What?”
“It’s too late,” she wailed. I had no idea what she was talking about, but I took hold of her arm and pulled her gently from the cab. Wrapping my arms around her, I tried to ask Rafe what the hell was going on without actually saying the words.
“It’s a storm,” he muttered on his way by. “They’ve set off a storm and she says we’ll never get there in time to stop it.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Half-carrying a distraught Margaret into the hotel lobby, I deposited her with Rafe and went to the front desk. The lobby was spacious, with the small touches – gilding, marble, silk – that I recognized. The exterior might look like an office building, but the lobby was definitely the sort of place the nobs would choose, to borrow O’Sullivan’s words.
“Pardon me.” I hailed the front desk clerk, who moved with the supercilious slowness of fine hotel keepers everywhere.
“Yes?” His hair was slicked back, his narrow nose ended in a point, and his lips were pursed, as if we smelled bad.
We probably did, but he didn’t need to be so obvious.
His eyes widened when I let my smile flare. “I’m wondering if you have a suite available. We need two bedrooms and it would be lovely to have a sitting room to share.”
He surveyed the three of us before answering. “We…do.”
“Thank you. If you could have the bellhop show us the way, I’d very much appreciate it.”
“It’s…ten dollars a night.”
I laid my last twenty on the marble counter. “Fortunately, I have twenty. Please have supper brought up, along with a bottle of wine. And…” I fingered another five. “There’ll be a bit extra if you can scare up a pipe and some tobacco.”
I half-expected him to hold the bill up to the light to make sure it wasn’t counterfeit. “I’ll have them bring your change with dinner.”
“Oh no, keep it with my regards.” I hoped the amount wasn’t small enough to insult him. His expression didn’t change and he rang a bell, which brought a young man in the hotel’s dark green uniform running.
