Molly had covered her ears. Hester’s cheeks burned bright red.
“Didn’t I tell you to bind him if he woke? Do you remember me sayin’ as much? He’s dangerous, I said. Just like Kaille. And still you didn’t bind the one, and you released the other. It’s like I raised simpletons.” He looked down at Diver, squinting. “Doesn’t even look like you saved him.”
“Yes, we did!” Molly said through tears.
“Looks dead to me. But if you say so, I’ll believe you.” Osborne still had his pistol aimed at Ethan, and now he turned his full attention to the thieftaker. “I want you t’ tell me how you heard about the pearls.”
“I’m sure you do,” Ethan said. “Just as I’m sure you’ll kill me-and Diver, too-as soon as I tell you what I know.”
“Maybe not. But I will if you don’t tell me what I want to know. And I’ll start with him.”
“Fowler,” Ethan said.
Osborne stared back at him. Ethan sensed that this was the last name he had expected to hear. “Jon Fowler?”
“That’s right. He made it sound as though Gant talked about them day and night. I wouldn’t be surprised if half the British army is out there looking for them.”
“You’re lyin’.”
Ethan shrugged. “I knew about them. And I promise you that Fowler’s the one who told me.”
Osborne indicated Diver with a lifted chin. “And why’d you send this one out into the streets with that fool story about havin’ them to sell?”
“Because I knew that would be the quickest way to find you and Gant. It was clear to me that Gant had no idea where they were. Just yesterday I saw him at the Manufactory. He was probably looking for them there.”
Osborne’s face went white.
“He was looking for them there,” Ethan said. “Wasn’t he? What’s more, I’d wager that he found them.”
“You can believe that if you want,” Osborne said. But his tone told Ethan that he had hit too close to the truth for the man’s comfort.
“No, he didn’t find them,” Ethan said, guessing now, and eager to keep Osborne talking. “But he told you they were still there, and that’s when you killed him. Or had your daughters do it for you.”
“Shut your mouth, Kaille.”
“Do you have them?” Hester asked her father.
“We’ll talk about it later.”
“Why wait?” she said. “He knows what happened, and you’re going to kill him anyway. So answer me. Did you get them yet?”
“Aye, I’ve got them,” Osborne said. “But not here. They’re in a safe spot. That’s all you need to know.”
“But he hasn’t sold them yet,” Ethan said. Another guess.
“I told you to be quiet.”
“Sephira wouldn’t agree to a price, would she? That’s not her way. She’d demand to see them first, and you, knowing her as you do, would understand that bringing her the pearls, even if it was just for her to look at, would be like putting that pistol to your head and pulling the trigger. Which means that you have the pearls, but you have no agreement, and you don’t know what to do next. She’s probably got her men watching you, and so she’ll know if you try to sell them to anyone else.”
“That’s enough!”
“She knows about this place,” Ethan went on. “Nigel and Nap were here just a couple of days ago. She’s going to come looking for you. And then you’ll really be in trouble.”
“How do you know so much about it?” Hester asked.
Ethan laughed, his gaze still on Osborne. “There’s no one in this city who knows Sephira Pryce better than I do. If your father was smart, he’d let me help him. But that would mean splitting his share of the sale, and we know how he feels about that. Certainly Simon Gant does.”
“I said that’s enough!”
Ethan knew what was coming, but he held his ground and braced himself. Osborne took two quick steps in his direction and hit him again with his pistol, this time connecting just above Ethan’s left eye. Ethan staggered but stayed on his feet. Osborne struck him again in the same spot and Ethan collapsed, pain clouding his vision, and blood running down his face.
But if there had been any doubt in Ethan’s mind, Osborne’s assault erased it. For all his bluster, the man had no intention of shooting him or Diver. He had let his daughters do all the killing up until now, and he would be content to let them do the rest. That was Ethan’s best hope.
The man dragged Ethan back to the center of the room.
“Help me, Hes,” he said.
Osborne’s daughter joined him at Ethan’s side, and together they lifted him into the same chair he had been trapped in earlier.
“Now, bind him like you did before. Both of you.”
“How much do you think you’ll get for the pearls, Osborne?” Ethan asked through the throbbing pain. “Were they worth the lives of all those men on the Graystone?”
This blow Ethan hadn’t anticipated. Osborne hit him in the jaw with what felt like a cobble from King Street. He flew off the chair, landing hard on his side and smacking his head against the floor.
“Shut your mouth!” the man hollered at him.
Ethan tried to push himself up off the floor, but he couldn’t seem to make his arms or legs work. He lay there, trying to clear his head and waiting for the pain in his jaw and teeth to subside.
“What did he mean by that?” Hester asked after a brief, tense silence.
“He’s talkin’ nonsense, Hes. Don’t worry about it. Just help me get him up.”
Ethan felt someone grab one of his arms, but not the other.
“Molly, grab his other arm,” Osborne said. “Let’s put him back in that chair.”
“What did he mean, Father?”
“Now, Molly!”
A moment later, someone took hold of Ethan’s other arm, and once more he was lifted into the chair. He started to topple back onto the floor, but strong hands held him up.
“Gimme that rope.”
With some effort, Ethan managed to open his eyes. Osborne stood over him, tying him to the chair once more.
“Now, bind him,” the man said, when he had finished with the rope.
Molly turned to look at her sister, but Hester didn’t seem to have moved. She still held the pistol, though she appeared to have forgotten about it. She stared hard at her father, fear and disgust and rage chasing across her features.
“You told us it was nothing,” she said, her voice so low that Ethan had to resist the urge to lean forward to hear her better. She pointed at Ethan. “The first time he came to us, he said something about an attack on the Graystone, and you told us later it was nothing to worry about. Just something that the fleet commanders had made up to cover your escape.”
“He lied,” Ethan said.
Osborne had turned to face his daughter, but at this he whirled on Ethan again. He pressed the barrel of his gun against Ethan’s face, just below his bleeding eye, pushing so hard with it that he tipped Ethan’s head back.
“I swear to God, Kaille! Another word and I’ll blow a hole in your face!”
“I want to know what he meant, Father!”
“First you bind him, like I told you. We’ll talk when you’re done.”
Hester still didn’t move. At last Osborne dismissed her with a wave of his hand and turned to Molly.
“You’ll have to do it,” he said. “Quickly girl, before he tries more of his magick. Use the blood on his face.”
Molly gave Ethan a pained look, but nodded to her father. Ethan watched her, waiting. And as soon as she opened her mouth to speak the spell again-“Corpus alligare ex cruore evocatum.” Bind body, conjured from blood-he chanted a spell to himself, hoping that this once Reg would do what Ethan needed him to. “Teqimen ex cruore evocatum,” Ethan said in his mind. Warding, conjured from blood. He finished reciting his spell to himself just an instant before Molly finished speaking hers.
He felt the blood vanish from his face, sensed conjurings humming in the old worn wood of the shack. They felt powerful, but not so much so that anyone would guess that there had been two spells cast instead of one. And just as Molly’s bright yellow ghost appeared beside her, Reg materialized as well. He was behind both Osborne and Molly. Neither of them could have seen him. A smile flashed on his glowing face and he vanished again.