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

her way down Thread needle toward the Thames . Even
at this hour, the street was not quite deserted, and she kept a wary eye on the
bingo boy staggering from one public house to the next and the tired
costermonger pushing his barrow home from Covent Garden .
                Mairelon's
carriage waited at the end of the street, just where she had left it. Hunch sat
in the coachman's seat, chewing on the ends of his mustache. When he saw Kim,
his gloomy expression lightened in relief, and he thumped on the carriage roof.
"She's 'ere, Master Richard."
                There was
a muffled noise from inside, then Mairelon's head poked out of the carriage
window. "There you are, Kim! I was just about to come and fetch you."
                "It
hasn't been that long," Kim said. "Tom and I had things to talk
about."
                "You
can tell me about it on the way home," Mairelon said. He sounded somewhat
disgruntled, and when Kim climbed into the carriage, she saw that he had
changed into a workingman's wrinkled shirt, vest, and breeches.
                He's
disappointed because he couldn't go larking about the alleys, Kim thought,
and shook her head. He ought to have better sense. She smiled suddenly,
remembering her own eager response to the thought of a night out. Seems like neither of us is strong on good sense.
                "Well,
what happened?" Mairelon said as the coach began to roll. "Did Correy
just want to talk over old times?"
                "Not
exactly," Kim said. "Jack Stower's loose, and Tom thinks he's trying
to make trouble." She repeated what Tom had said about Mannering, his
ambitions, and his apparent interest in Mairelon and Kim.
                When she
finished, Mairelon rubbed his chin, frowning. "What else do you know about
this Mannering fellow?"
                Kim
shrugged. "He's a moneylender. He never had much to do with the canting
crew, that I heard, but he wasn't above laying out a
bit of the ready to folks like Laverham, that had some security to offer. It
don't-- doesn't --make sense that he'd want to take
Laverham's place. He's more of a gent already than Laverham ever was."
                "Perhaps
he's not interested in climbing the social ladder. Or perhaps he has . . .
unusual methods in mind." Mairelon smiled suddenly. "Perhaps I should
drop in at his office one day soon."
                "There
ain't no call for that," Kim said, alarmed.
"We got enough on our plates already, what with that cove poking around
after that book and all. There's no reason to go looking for
trouble."
                "Of
course not," Mairelon said, but the impish smile still hovered around the
corners of his mouth. Kim resolved to have a talk with Hunch. Maybe the
manservant could get some sense into Mairelon's head, or at least keep him from
going off half-cocked and stirring up a pot of problems. Maybe. Not that anyone seemed to be able to check Mairelon's queer starts when he got
the bit between his teeth.
                "I
wish I hadn't said anything about it at all," Kim muttered as the coach
drew up behind the townhouse.
                "What?"
Mairelon said.
                "I
said I wish I hadn't told you about Mannering," Kim repeated.
                "Why?"
Mairelon studied her face for a moment. "You're really worried about this,
aren't you?"
                "Tom
doesn't get all nattered over nothing. And he's nattered about Mannering and
Stower, right enough."
                "I
see." Mairelon hesitated, then nodded slowly. "Very well. I won't pursue the matter until we've dealt
with our literary housebreaker, unless we get some further indication that
pursuing it would be advisable. And I'll speak to you beforehand."
                "Fair
enough," Kim said, slightly dazed. He wouldn't say it if he didn't mean
it. Don't that beat