Wrede, Patricia C - Mairelon 02 by The Magician's Ward (v5.0)

remembered that Jack was one of the few people
from her old life who knew of her masquerade. It doesn't matter any more if
people know I'm a girl , she told herself, but the old habits and fears kept
her tongue locked.
                "So
you see why you hadn't ought to have been showing off
in front of Matt," Tom went on. "Jack Stower is his uncle, and they've
been thick as treacle since Jack turned up again. Jenny's after me to keep Matt
away from him, but how she expects me to do that I don't know," he added
gloomily. "It ain't like I can put leg-irons on the boy."
                "I
wish I could help," Kim said, but Tom shook his head.
                "That
ain't why I asked you to come. Matt's my business, and I'll deal with him. But
I don't know that I can keep him from talking to Jack about this, and if he
does, Mannering will be after you like a shot."
                "Maybe
he already has been," Kim said thoughtfully. "You wouldn't know
something about a green cracksman who bungled a job in Grosvenor
Square last night?"
                Tom
considered for a moment. "No, but I can ask around if you like."
                "Let
it go," Kim said, shaking her head. "If Mannering's got you that
nattered, you hadn't ought to get any more mixed up in
this than you are already. I'll find out about it some other way."
                "Kim,
if Mannering has already made a try for you--"
                "It
wasn't anything like that," Kim said hastily. "Somebody tried to
nobble a book from Mairelon's library, near as we can tell, and botched the
job. It probably didn't have anything to do with Mannering. He's a deep old
file; he wouldn't send an amateur on a crack lay like that."
                "You're
sure it wasn't bungled apurpose?"
                Kim
snorted. "The cull didn't know the first thing about housebreaking.
Mairelon thinks he was depending on a spell to keep from getting nabbed, and
even that didn't work."
                "I
still don't like it," Tom said. "He's a sneaking one, Mannering
is."
                "All
the more reason he'd know better than to send a green 'un to mill a ken in Grosvenor
Square . It's pure luck
the cull wasn't laid by the heels right then." Seeing that Tom still
looked unconvinced, Kim shook her head. "I'm sorry I mentioned it. And I
really am glad of your warning."
                "I
don't know what good it'll do you," Tom said in a gloomy tone. "Jemmy
and Sam and the others knew what was up, and knowing didn't help them
none."
                "Jemmy
and Sam ain't proper wizards from the Royal College ," Kim said. "I
ain't, neither, but Mairelon is. And Mairelon won't take kindly to nobody messing with his ward. If Mannering knows anything
about toffs, he'll twig to that as soon as he finds out where I am. If he finds out at all."
                "Maybe
you're right," Tom said thoughtfully. "Mannering deals with toffs all
the time, what with his business and all. He ain't like Laverham, passing off
sham gentility."
                "It
wasn't no sham with Laverham," Kim said. "He
was born on the wrong side of the blanket, but he was a toff, sure
enough."
                "No! Laverham? You're bamming me."
                Thankful
to have found a neutral topic to take Tom's mind off fretting, Kim allowed
herself to be drawn into gossip about old acquaintances. Tom reciprocated as
well as he was able. Many of her former fellows were in Newgate Prison,
"polishing the King's iron with their eyebrows" as they looked out
through the barred windows. Some had been transported; a few, like Laverham,
had been hung. On the whole, it was a depressing catalog, and Kim was almost
glad when time came to give Tom a final "Thank you" and slip away at
last.
                The
shadows on the streets and alleys seemed darker and more threatening as she
made