Mina laughed. “I’m afraid you wouldn’t like the answer. I’ve got no way of knowing for sure, of course,” she added, “but given the last day or two, if I were a betting woman—”
“Aye, I’d thought as much myself,” Stephen said. “And I’ve several centuries behind my guess.”
“I guess he’s a little old for you to have someone go in with a sponge.”
“A sponge?”
“You soak it in cold water, and then you wring it out over the vic—sleeping person,” Mina explained and then giggled at Stephen’s grimace. “I’m surprised you hadn’t heard of it. It’s a handy trick when you’ve got brothers.”
“For waking them up, do you mean, or for some sort of sisterly vengeance?”
“Well, either,” Mina said as a few memories came back to her. “Though I was never much for pranks myself. That was Alice, and George, when he was younger.”
“You don’t seem like the sort to take that meekly,” Stephen said.
“I wasn’t. I had a good memory, and I was better at saving my pocket money. So I’d buy sweets and eat them in front of the other two when they made me angry. I was,” Mina added, on further reflection, “a horribly smug sort of little girl. Probably deserved at least some of what I got, although I still think cutting off my braids was going too far, and so did Mum.”
“I cut Judith’s hair off once,” Stephen admitted. “But then, she’d asked me to. It was too hot in summer, she said. That didn’t save me from my mother, though.” He winced.
“Strict sort of woman, was she?”
“Fierce, I’d say. But she had to be, I’d think, to live among the rest of us and have begun as a mortal.”
“Begun?” Mina asked, pretending that her heart hadn’t speeded up.
Stephen hesitated a moment, standing in the doorway with his hands in his pockets. Then he shrugged, stepped in, and closed the door behind him. “It changes wi’ the first child,” he said and looked toward the window. “It’s to do with shared blood, perhaps. A mortal either gains longer life or…well, or doesna’ survive, generally. The child does sometimes, even if she dies. A cousin of mine did.”
“Brave women,” Mina said, after swallowing past a sudden thickness in her throat. She wasn’t sure what else to think. She wasn’t sure it was her business to think anything about that particular subject. She dropped her gaze from Stephen’s face, down to the letter she’d been writing, and when she looked up again, she couldn’t meet his eyes. “Though life was more dangerous back then for everyone, I’d think.”
“In many ways, aye,” he said. “I think back sometimes—even to what I can remember, which isn’t nearly so far—and I wonder at how we ever managed.” A quick smile lightened his face. “But then, perhaps every man thinks so about his youth.”
Mina laughed, taking the chance to change topics away from birth and death. “I tend to wonder how I survived, but that’s mostly because of Alice and George. And me,” she admitted, thinking back. “Especially when I was old enough to get into real trouble.”
“You? I can’t imagine it,” said Stephen.
“Sarcasm doesn’t become you, my lord,” Mina said and sniffed, hiding a smile.
“It wasn’t all sarcasm,” he said. “I consider myself a fair man, after all, and so I’m bound to admit that I’ve only seen you get yourself in trouble the once. And,” he added, taking one hand out of his pocket and stroking his chin slowly, “that was on someone else’s behalf. Rather admirable, in fact.”
Mina couldn’t hide her smile, and now it no longer came from amusement. “Thank you,” she said. “Professor Carter took a chance on me. It only seemed fair.”
“It’s not so common for women to be secretaries, not to men,” Stephen said slowly, calling up facts that had never been important to his mind and had never really left Mina’s.
“No. And even less common for girls from my part of London.” Even now, the memory of the first few letters of inquiry she’d sent out made Mina wince, and remembering her first interview made her mouth go dry. “So I owe him a lot, you see.”
Stephen nodded. “You pay your debts,” he said, still in the same thoughtful voice. His eyes met hers, searching, though Mina couldn’t tell for what. “And you don’t go back on a bargain. You said as much, didn’t you?”
“I did,” she said. “And I don’t.” Under Stephen’s gaze, she felt quite exposed. She folded her arms over her chest, putting up a barrier that was all the more necessary because she wouldn’t have minded a more literal sort of exposure. “Have you found anything more? Is that why you’re looking for your brother?”
“Not yet.” Stephen sighed, and while that broke the uncomfortable intensity, he looked weary enough to make Mina wince inside. “I’m hoping for a message any day now, but Mrs. O’Keefe’s man had little to say concerning when she’d return.”
“Little to say about anything, from what you told me,” said Mina, and shrugged. “Butlers are generally like that. Not that I know many of them, but that’s what Alice says. I tried to be the same way with Professor Carter’s visitors. You have to.”
“I rather guessed as much,” said Stephen, and Mina was glad to see a smile return to his face. “Perhaps you should speak with Mrs. O’Keefe’s man—I’d match you against him any day.”
“Now I feel like a prizefighter,” said Mina. “Be off, will you, before you make the spiders angry?”
“I believe I can defend you from those,” said Stephen, “but I’d best find Colin and perhaps wring a sponge out over him.”
“I’ll see who has the black eye next time we meet.”
Laughing, Stephen left, and Mina stared at the closed door behind him for longer than she meant to, a fact she only noticed when she shook herself and turned her attention back to her letter.
I look forward to seeing you again, and to—
Life after dealing with Ward held bright enough prospects, if Mina went after them—and she knew she would. The real problem, the one she’d been trying to hide from herself, was how much she’d miss the life she had now.
Twenty-six
“Six weeks?” Colin leaned back in his chair and laughed. “She’s a remarkably patient girl, then. I’d have been climbing the walls.”
“You’d have been climbing the walls after two days,” said Stephen. “Even if you’d wanted to stay inside before. Contrary-minded little devil,” he added.
“Prig,” Colin replied amiably. “She must be a torment to you in turn, though.”
Stephen quickly stifled the reaction that went through him. Torment, yes, but not the sort he wanted to discuss with his brother. “How do you mean?”
“She doesn’t seem the sort to follow orders meekly.”
“You make me sound like quite the tyrant,” said Stephen, because he couldn’t deny Colin’s statement. “I’ve not had any complaints. Not from most people,” he added, “and Mi—Miss Seymour doesn’t truly complain. She’s been quite adaptable.”
“Has she, now?”
“Not like that,” said Stephen, glaring even as he repressed more memories. “We’ve strictly a business arrangement, and only for as long as Ward’s a threat.”
Early afternoon had found them in the drawing room again. Rather, Colin had found Stephen there reading, and now stood by the fireplace and toyed idly with the music box there while he spoke. “Pity,” he said, “I’d imagine you could use a good secretary.”
“Perhaps I could,” said Stephen, “but she’ll be employed elsewhere.”
Even if he made the offer, he knew that Mina would refuse and be absolutely right in doing so. He wasn’t going to make the offer, of course. Foolish idea.