Henry’s face softened as he thought back. “I was a bit older, you know. I was about eleven years old when he found me. I’d been picking pockets since I was five. Quite good too. But my hands were getting bigger and time is no friend for a thief. I was one step away from the gallows. But Mr. Courtney intervened, and he somehow managed to get me out of the life. It’s a miracle I didn’t do the Tyburn jig, you know.”
“My goodness. What did you steal?”
“Lots of things. But I was best at silk handkerchiefs. In any case, one day Mr. Courtney managed to grab me, told me to run down the street and wait for him. I did. And then he came and found me. I don’t know why I waited for him. I’m not very trusting, you see… at least I wasn’t then.”
Henry glanced about the salon. “Mr. Courtney offered me a position in this house. He said if I was a good footman, I’d always have good food, and a good place to sleep. I’d be able to put a bit of money away. And that perhaps I could go for a trip to the seaside every now and then. That flummoxed me because I’ve only ever seen the Thames. I’d never been to the sea in my whole life.”
“I see,” she replied, amazed by the world she’d discovered and grateful to Henry for sharing it with her.
“You know what, Miss… I’m sorry, Lady Elizabeth.”
“What?” she asked softly.
“I’ve been to the seaside six times,” he said, proud as punch. “I go every year for one week, I go to Whitstable and I eat oysters. I look out at the sea and I think, what a life this is… so beautiful and terrible.”
Henry tilted his head, apparently unafraid of holding such discourse with her. “How is it possible that we can have such a mighty sea and green fields and gorgeous countryside, and such horrors lurking in our backyard here in London… just a few streets over?” He blew out a sigh. “I don’t understand it, really, how we let such terrors take place. But we do. Us humans are strange, miss. I mean, Lady Elizabeth.”
“I couldn’t agree more, Henry, and you may call me whatever you want,” she said. “I’m ready to be rid of all of that, honestly.”
Henry’s eyes widened. “Well, you can’t go back, can you, Lady Elizabeth? Not with the way I saw you this morning. I saw you from the window, I did. Stumbling in from that hackney coach. You’re running from something, just like I was.”
“Yes,” she breathed. “How true, Henry. You and I share something.”
“Oh, Lady Elizabeth,” he said evenly. “It doesn’t matter if you’re high or low. If someone’s out for you, they’re out for you.”
She breathed out again. “That’s a very good assessment, Henry. If you were me, what would you do?”
“I’d take Mr. Courtney’s help,” he said firmly. “And I’d never look back. Then, just bit by bit, day by day, I’d build myself up till I felt strong again.”
“Then that’s what I’ll do,” she pronounced, realizing how fortunate she was that Henry was with her. “It’s very good advice. Did you ever have to worry about your thief master coming to find you?”
“Oh, I did,” he said quickly. “I was good money for him, you know? And he didn’t like Mr. Courtney coming in and getting involved with his little birds. It was a difficult thing. I think that my master would’ve gutted Mr. Courtney on the spot.”
She fought a gasp. “Well, what happened to him?”
“Don’t know, miss.” Henry smiled slowly. “He disappeared.”
“He disappeared?” she echoed.
“That’s right,” Henry confirmed, rather pleased. “Never saw him again. None of the other lads that I know saw him, either. Suddenly he just wasn’t there anymore.” Henry shrugged. “Maybe the bailiff got him, and I just didn’t hear about it. Besides, a man like that, he wasn’t above selling boys on the street or making them take to the road. I don’t have any regrets about him going. Nor should you, miss.”
She nodded slowly.
And suddenly, she wondered, what exactly Tom’s plan for her father and the other four lords was? Were they all going to disappear?
It would be no easy thing to make them disappear, lords that they were. A thief master might be easily enough taken care of, but how would they handle those men? And could they truly run away to Scotland?
But here as she stood in the beautiful salon that Tom had no doubt spent his life making, she thought of what Henry said, that she should put her trust in Tom. This is where she had come when she’d been in danger.
So she would.
Chapter 16
The Duke of Blackwood swept into Tom’s office. “Good God, the gossip is really making the rounds this morning. I had no idea that I would light the entire city on fire by my actions.”
Tom pushed himself back from the deck. “Blackwood, you are always setting things on fire, and you don’t realize it’s happening. It’s one of your charms… and one of your curses.”
Blackwood scowled, all merriment at his earlier antics having disappeared. The little joy he’d had from causing a wave of scandal now banished, under the consequences of it all. “I had no idea that her father would behave so hideously.”