She stood, knowing her anxiousness made her about as graceful as a cow in a field full of badger holes. “I’m needing just a few minutes to myself. I’ll come back to help wash up, though.”
She’d reached the sitting room door when the sound of footsteps stopped her. Baz had followed her.
“Tell me to take myself off if you want me to,” he said, “but you’ve seemed upset since spotting me here. Have I done something to upset you, Gemma?”
“You ain’t.”
He closed the distance between them, standing directly in front of her. “Something has upset you.”
“I’ve too many thoughts rattling around. I needed a bit of quiet to sort them out.”
“Are any of those thoughts ones I could address?”
There were several, but she couldn’t ask some of them. “Do you trust Parkington? You seemed to be keeping a distance between him and me at the CALL effort.”
He leaned against the doorframe. “I wasn’t certain if he would recognize you or what he’d say if he did. But if I didn’t trust him at all, I’d either have found a means of sending him away or would’ve begged you to cry off that day.” A tiny hint of East End flavor had snuck back into his words.
“If you told him the Kincaids had done something on Welbeck Street, and if you told him to keep his peepers peeled for ash markings on buildings, do you think he’d watch that area?”
“I’m certain he would.”
Some of the worry on her heart eased. A blue-bottle stomping the street would make it safer.
“Tell him the marking for the Kincaids is two vertical lines anda letterK. The order varies, but it’s always them three things and always right up next to each other. If theKis underlined, it means it’s a family member working under orders from that brother.”
Baz nodded.
“But if you get the feeling Parkington’ll come looking for me, see if you cain’t hold him off the scent, at least for two weeks. Three weeks at most.”
Baz stepped closer, lowering his voice. “What happens in three weeks?”
Troubles might slow you down, but don’t let them stop you.She could tell him some, take charge. Didn’t mean she had to admit to everything. “I’ve a few irons in the fire. Once the sparks take, I can leave London, and my family won’t be able to find me or hurt me again.”
“You’re leaving London entirely?” He didn’t sound particularly pleased. “Where will you go?”
“Won’t overly matter if it means being out of their reach.”
He ran his hand lightly along her arm. “Gemma, what happens to you matters.”
Oh, how tempted she was to simply drop herself into his arms and forget for a time how much weight she bore. The silence between them stretched a little long, a little awkward.
A look of resignation spread over Baz’s beloved face. “You’re leaving in three weeks, then?”
She nodded. “At the most.”
“And during those three weeks, will you keep working the job Stone found for you, even with the ash markings on your path?”
All her determination to remain stalwart and heart-whole dissolved. Her shoulders slumped. “I don’t know what I ought to do, Baz.”
He set his arms around her, just as she’d hoped he would. Hisembraces had always been tender and gentle. In a world that demanded she be hard, Baz’s arms offered her softness.
“I’m cleaning in a wax museum,” she said. “It’s easy work, and I’m off the street, so it’s safer. The sort of job I’d’ve given my eyeteeth for only a few weeks ago. But it’s too far to come from Finsbury every day. And if the walk’s riddled with Kincaid markings, I oughtn’t be making the walk alone, but I ain’t willing to ask Móirín and Stone to be m’ nursemaids every day.”
“Do you think there’s more Kincaid marks than just the one you saw?”
She wrapped her arms around him, needing his strength. “I cain’t be certain either way.”
“If this job means that much to you, we’ll sort a way for you to—to keep doing it. And if you’re in danger, we’ll formulate a plan for keeping you safe. But if—if you—” He was tripping over his words. “But if you’d like to come back to the house, Gemma, spend your remaining time in London there, I—You—”