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“Then perhaps this is a step toward making itlesscomplicated.”
“While also solving this problem you’d like me to solve?”
Her lips twitch in a smile. “A single action can have multiple intentions and outcomes. This one simply happens to benefit us both.”
“Fine,” I grumble. “I’ll talk to your brother.”
“Duncan.”
“Your brother,” I say, and head down the hall toward that illuminated door.
I slip into the funerary parlor. Gray is in his office, with the door half shut. I’m tempted to tiptoe in and see how deeply he’s immersed in his work, and then retreat if he’s busy. However, that sets me up for a charge of “sneaking around” if I’m caught.
Also, it’s a cheat. Iwanthim to be deeply in his work, so I can skip this conversation. Oh, it needs to be had, and I might even be the right person to do it. I just don’t want to piss him off. That’s the crux of it. I don’t want to do anything to raise his walls again.
But this isn’t about me. It’s about his sister, and that’s the relationshipthat counts. I’m only a visitor in their world, in their lives. I can repay Isla’s kindness by doing this thing for her, even if it damages my wobbly relationship with Gray.
I peek through the door. Gray’s already looking up, having heard my footsteps. He’s been writing, ink on his forehead from having run his hand through his hair.
“Mallory,” he says as he sets down the pen. “All went well tonight, I hope.”
“Jack agreed to deliver a message to the broadsheet writer.”
He waves me in. “No need to hover in my doorway. I was only making notes on the investigation. I know you do that, and it seems an excellent way to better organize my thoughts. I certainly do it with my own work, but as detection is notmywork, it seemed an overreach, and…”
He trails off as he sees my expression. “Something is amiss, and I am prattling on, and you are waiting most politely for me to finish.”
“More like happily listening so I can postpone a discussion I’d rather not have.”
I say it with a smile, but his guard shoots up.
“I see,” he says. “You have found a way back, I presume.”
“Back…?”
“To your own time.”
“No, it’s nothing like that.”
His shoulders relax a fraction. “Come in, then. Would you like a drink?”
“I’d very much like a drink, but it would only give me an excuse to postpone this more.” I take a deep breath. “Isla and I know Simon followed us tonight. Or that was his order, presumably from you, but we found him out and asked him to accompany us instead.”
“Ah.” He picks up the pen again and taps it, as if clearing the ink. “I understand you find my maneuvering objectionable. However—”
“I don’t, actually. Find it objectionable, I mean. Idofind it patronizing to have you agree to let us go and then send Simon. Like agreeing a child is old enough to go to the corner store alone and then following them. That’s understandable for a child who needs to experience responsibility without risk. Isla and I aren’t children.”
The wall solidifies. “I understand that.”
“Treating women as children always makes things worse because historically, that’s how we’ve been classed. But I’m not going to lectureyou about that. I’m also not going to lecture you about thinking we—as women—need an escort in the Old Town at night because, frankly, I agree.”
“You… agree?”
“I do.” I move into the room and sit in front of his desk. “It has nothing to do with being able to take care of ourselves and everything to do with being targets, on account of our sex and perceived weakness. Maybe I should have realized it myself right away but—like Isla—I’m sensitive about that. Even in the twenty-first century, I know I shouldn’t walk down an empty street, alone, in the middle of the night. Hell, that’s how I ended up here, right?”
“True…”
“Being in danger just because I’m a woman sucks. It really sucks. But just because itshouldbe okay doesn’t mean I can act as if it is. That’d be like seeing my house on fire and deciding I’m going inside anyway because it shouldn’tbeon fire. Until that fire’s out, I can’t take that chance, however inconvenient it is, and however much I just want to say I’ll be okay, I’ll be careful, I won’t get burned.”
