By Grace Alone (The Death Dealer Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

tray to Jim. “Missy, my girls have work to attend to,” Jim said, and pointed an accusing finger in Ridley’s direction. Never mind the fact that he’d spent all day carrying on about the predicament Marcus had put him in. The whole affair was giving Grace a headache.
    “You old fool! Don’t talk to me like I’m some common wench off the street!” Ridley’s raised voice caused a few people to halt their conversations and stare.
    Grace put herself between the two. “Stop acting like children,” she scolded. “You’ll cause a scene and someone will leave to fetch the Guard, and I’m sure neither of you want to see the likes of them back here today.” That was enough to back them off. “I’m headed home, Jim.” She had been there since sunrise scrubbing and cooking. It was time to leave before her head split in two.
    “Ack.” Jim flicked his wrist at her in a frustrated dismissal.
    Grace removed her apron and slung it over Ridley’s shoulder. “At least talk to Thom before decrying him. And by the way, I know you’re the one who put the word usurper on people’s lips. You’re not doing any favors by starting vicious rumors we all know are not true. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Ridley’s red, shamed face wasn’t lost on Grace, and she patted her shoulder in a comforting gesture.
    A chorus of “Good-night, Grace” filled her ears as she left. Even with the sunset, the heat hadn’t let up. The night was filled with dead air. Even a wisp of breeze would have helped, but at least it wasn’t the same stuffy air she had been breathing in the Angel. Grace rubbed her forehead once she was out in the street. It felt like a hundred tiny hammers beat away inside her skull.
    There were people languidly moving about, cooling off as best they could. Grace scanned the area, checking for anything unusual. Nothing triggered her instincts outright, but she was aware of a man in a guard uniform keeping to the shadows. Only a foolish guard would be seen at the Angel after dark in times such as these.
    “Sergeant Moore,” she said, walking past him. She didn’t break her gait when he moved from his shadows to walk beside her.
    “Miss Hilren, I was keeping an eye out for Marcus, but I should very much like to escort you home. It’s not safe for ladies to walk home unaccompanied after dark.”
    “I already told you I don’t know anything.” The pain in her skull worsened. “So you can spare me your chivalrous act.”
    “But you work in a den of wolves, and crows get carrion, you know.”
    “Sergeant, I am weary. My bones ache from a long, hard day. I would appreciate solitude and escape from this matter involving Constable Taylor and the Atkins brothers. I’m a simple person, and one who doesn’t want to be involved in such matters.”
    A response wasn’t forthcoming, but since he didn’t stop walking beside her, she knew he wasn’t finished bothering her. “I happen to agree with you.”
    “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She turned onto a different street that wound down and toward the docks. Even in the darkened streets, she could see the lamps burning in that direction. She only had to endure a bit more of this insufferable conversation and then she’d be able to cradle her head in her hands and sleep.
    “Harris Atkins deserves to be charged by the magistrates. Not by Marcus and not by the guards at the lockup, but with a true king’s justice.”
    Grace’s thoughts paused a moment. Nathaniel’s words forced her thoughts too close to the problem at hand. Just walking with him was dangerous. It would only take one rumor reaching Marcus that Grace Hilren courted a guard, and he could decide she’d broken her oath. When everything in her brain started up again, she decided to switch the conversation.
    “I heard you took one of Kay Lansa’s men to the lockup.”
    “Just until he slept off his reckless drunkenness.”
    “It takes a foolish man to harass that group.”