Darling Beast (Maiden Lane 7)

In the sudden silence Lily turned mutely to stare at Maude. “Oh, my God.”

“BUT ’TIS ONLY nine of the clock,” the sleepy blond wench mumbled as Asa Makepeace bundled her out his door. A blue ribbon trailed forlornly from her half-done hair. “Thought we could at least ’ave a bit of a cuddle this morn afore I ’ad to go.”

“And we will, love—next time,” Makepeace said, and then bent to whisper something no doubt salacious in her ear.

Apollo made sure to turn his back, staring at a box of marzipan sweets carelessly left open on a pile of papers. They were shaped into oranges and lemons. He wanted not only to keep from hearing whatever it was Makepeace was whispering to his paramour, but also to prevent her from seeing his face.

It’d taken him hours to get to Makepeace’s door. He’d had to first escape the soldiers and then make sure he wasn’t followed. After that he’d spent some time outside Makepeace’s building, watching and waiting to see if the soldiers would come there next. They hadn’t turned up, which could mean either that they simply hadn’t arrived yet or that they didn’t know his connection to Makepeace.

In either case, he couldn’t stay here long.

The door closed behind the girl and Makepeace turned to him, looking unusually serious. “Damn it, when the hell did you regain your voice?”

“Only a few days ago,” Apollo said impatiently.

“No one ever tells me anything,” Makepeace muttered, crossing to the fireplace.

“My voice… isn’t why I’m here.”

“Then what is?”

“At least a dozen… soldiers in the garden.” Apollo paced as well as he could in the overcrowded room. “They knew who I was… and they knew where I slept.”

“Someone betrayed you.” Makepeace stoked the fire and filled his kettle with water before hanging it from a hook he swung over the blaze. “Well, you can stay here until—”

“That’s just it… I can’t.” Apollo noted absently that a mechanical hen had joined Makepeace’s collection. It had a key in its side to wind it. No doubt it would lay eggs or even little chicks when wound. God only knew where Makepeace had found it. “If they know… so much about me it’s only… a matter of time before they discover… my friendship with you and come here. I must flee the city.”

And leave Lily behind. He stared blindly at the mechanical hen’s glass eye. Would he ever see her again? Her inquisitive lichen-green eyes, her lush pink mouth? Damn it, would she even want to see him when she found out why the soldiers were after him? He ran his hands through his hair in frustrated despair.

“But the garden.” Makepeace sat heavily on a chair, unmindful of the books that slid to the floor as a result. “Damn it, ’Pollo, no one can design that garden the way you can. It’s you that has the vision. It’ll just be another boring line of box hedges in geometric patterns without you.”

Apollo winced. “I can make you notes to… give to whomever you… hire to take over.” He slumped as well—on the only other available surface, which was the bed. The garden had been his delight. A place to make beautiful in his own design after four years of stagnation in Bedlam. This, too, he would have to abandon. And then another realization hit him. “I left my notebook. I only… had time to… take my shoes… and my knife.”

“Goddamn it!”

Apollo shrugged. “I have most of it… memorized anyway.” He sighed, letting his head drop back. He could recreate the plans, but that notebook held all the conversations and musings he’d had since he’d been freed. He felt its loss like a tangible wound.

He closed his eyes in near-despair at another thought. “Lily’s in the garden. D’you think they’ll… harass her? The soldiers?”

“Lily, is it?” The other man perked up like the idiot he was.

“Makepeace,” Apollo growled.

“No,” Makepeace sighed. “They have no reason to think that she even knows you—do they?”

Apollo shrugged, feeling weary. “Her brother… was there yesterday. He was… quite foul to her and I… tossed him out.”

“ ‘Tossed,’ ” Makepeace repeated carefully.

“Not literally,” Apollo snapped, then had to concede, remembering Edwin landing on his rump in the dirt. “Well, in a way. But I didn’t hurt him… though he did make… several threats to me.”

“And seems to’ve carried them out,” Makepeace replied drily. He jumped up as the kettle began to steam. “No one else knew you were in the garden, did they?”

Apollo ticked them off on his fingers. “My sister… and thus His Grace the Ass… you, Montgomery, and James Trevillion.”

Makepeace paused with the kettle in one hand and then swore and had to set it down when the hot handle apparently burned his fingers. “Who’s this Trevillion?”

Apollo looked at him. “The man who… arrested me the morning of the… murders.”