The Damnation Affair

Chapter 23

“I don’t know,” old Grinnwald huffed. “Some special delivery from Boston. Was paid to take it to her, that’s all I know.”

Wonderful. Although he didn’t mind the old bat seeing Catherine in her nightdress and Jack right behind her. The news would be all over town by afternoon, and he couldn’t say he had any objection.

I have narrowly missed being murdered for it. Well, he deserved that, didn’t he. Here he was thinking she’d be grateful, and he could have slapped himself silly for it now. It had seemed so simple. Put Li Ang somewhere he could keep an eye on her, and then he had just hoped…or what? What exactly had he been hoping?

He wished the old woman would just go away and leave him the hell alone. Li Ang stared wide-eyed at this interloper in her kitchen, who stood and shoveled away every damn biscuit on the plate, complaining that there was no jam.

“And in this weather, too!” Grinnwald continued, querulous through a mouthful of biscuit dripping with baconfat. “I came all the way from the posthouse to deliver it. Well. La-di-da, the miss dismisses me!”

Jack grunted. What the hell did she want, anyway? He had work to get to. You shall not address me, sir.

Well, if Grinnwald gossiped, Catherine would be linked to him anyway, and he would have time to change her mind. Maybe explain. Women were convoluted creatures, and she’d had a shock last night. What Boston miss would come out in a dust storm to get someone to deal with a dead body in her kitchen? She wasn’t made for this.

She was made for finer things, no doubt, and he…was not.

“She’s a bit too big for herself if you ask me.” Grinnwald nodded. “Carrying on so. Why, I’ve heard those frails at the Star are taking lessons from her, high and mighty as you please. You should look into that, Sheriff. They’s bound to be a law agin’ it.”

“There ain’t.” The words came out sharp and hard. “And that’s my girl you’re talking about, missus.” She could have died last night. “Stuff your hole with more of her biscuits if you like, but keep a civil tongue in your head when you’re talking about Miss Barrowe.”

Grinnwald gaped, biscuit crumbs strewing her dusty bosom, and Jack slid his arms into his coat. Li Ang made a soft smothered noise, almost like a laugh, and the baby replied with a sleepy burble.

And that made him think of Catherine, smiling disbelievingly as she held the little bundle, wan and pretty in lamplight. And her softness last night, trembling against him. I need you. Well, he’d shown up, hadn’t he? And he’d heaved the Chinois, hands and feet pierced with true-iron and the man’s dead mouth full of consecrated salt, over the charter-circuit border himself. Let him rot outside the charter, dammit. He hadn’t had time to dig a grave, and the thought of consecrating more earth made him sick.

Wait just a goddamn minute… But it was gone. Something important, but Grinnwald had shaken her bustled rear, declaring she’d never been so insulted.

“Stay and fill your fat gullet, then,” he told her, jamming his hat on his head. “I’m sure I’ll have some more to say in a bit.”

But he did not exit through the barred back door. No, instead his spurs rang as he climbed the stairs. Her bedroom door was firmly closed, and he would have bet it was locked, too. Which just made it worse.

What kind of man did she think he was? Good enough to deal with a dead body, but not good enough to…

Except she was right. She could have died.

And it would be Jack Gabriel’s goddamn fault.

“Catherine.” He knocked, twice. Nice, soft, polite raps. “I know you’re listening.” He caught himself, tried to fix the drawl back on his tongue. It had become a habit, to slur his words together. Just one more way to hide. “I know you’re angry, and you have a right to be. I never thought you’d be in danger here. You have to believe me.”

Silence. The sound of the simoun scraped at his ears. Was she leaning against the door to catch his voice? He hoped so. His hand spread itself on the smooth oak. Nice and solid. If she had to barricade herself in, it was a good choice.

He tried to think of what to say next. There wasn’t a whole hell of a lot. Usually he just chose to keep his fool mouth shut. But uth, itshe had a way of turning him upside down and spilling everything out onto the ground. There was only so much of that a man could take.

“You can be as mad as you want, sweetheart. You can call me every ugly name you want. You can tell me to go to Hell, and that’s fine. I deserve it. But you and I are going to come to an accounting one way or another. I’m giving you fair warning.”

Which sounded like a threat. Hell, he was probably just making her even more angry. Was there a sound behind the door? Cloth moving, a woman’s skirts?

“I have to go ride the circuit now. I’m going to give you some time to calm down. Think things over, like.” And I hope you don’t just dig yourself in even more stubbornly. Though you probably will. Goddamn woman.

Why was his chest aching? And he was thinking of other things too. The screaming. The gun speaking, and Annie’s body, free of hellish undead jerking, falling in slow motion. He’d been careless with her safety, thinking God wouldn’t repay Gabriel’s service by taking such a gentle creature and making her suffer so horribly.

Except the incursion had happened, and Annie hadn’t had enough mancy to shield herself from an undead’s bite. Out on the sod frontier, each homestead had a ring of charterstones, and Jack had stupidly not checked them that nooning, instead sleeping under the willum tree while Annie, poor Annie, barricaded herself in the house and the sun sank toward the horizon…

And now there was this woman behind her bedroom door, terrified and angry, who could have died last night. There was just no plainer way to say it. He hadn’t learned a goddamn thing. He didn’t even deserve to have her spit on his shadow.

Jack’s spurs made a discordant jangle as he headed down the stairs. He strode through the kitchen, where Grinnwald was still bleating at Li Ang, who probably didn’t give two shits in a rabbit hole about whatever the fat woman would say. He touched his hat to the Chinoise girl and vanished out the back door, into the howling wind.