The Seer's Choice: A Novella of the Golden City Read Online Free PDF Page A

with a good view of the street. It wasn’t a fine establishment, the sort her family would have favored with their business. It was clean, though, and the owner seemed to know the captain. The smell of baked cod made her stomach rumble.
    “Do you eat here regularly?” she asked between sips of water.
    “I’m a creature of habit, Miss Jardim,” the captain said without a hint of embarrassment. “João Botelho was a senior officer when I first started in the police. When he left the force, he opened this café. I often stop here on my way home.”
    She only ate at a restaurant once a week. She simply didn’t have the funds. She was more likely to purchase some fruit at the market and hide it in her room. “I see.”
    Captain Pinheiro smiled wearily at her, and for a moment it seemed that time stopped as she studied his face. His features weren’t striking, his eyes weren’t particularly beautiful, his thick hair seemed uncertain whether it wished to be curly or straight, and it wasn’t pomaded into submission. He was comfortable, or rather, she felt comfortable in his company.
    Their host brought them bread and olives, drawing her out of her reflections, and Genoveva nodded through the introductions as Captain Pinheiro explained that they worked together for the police.
    “They didn’t have women in the police in my day,” Mr. Botelho said. “Not sure I approve of women running down criminals. You don’t meet the best sort of people in the stations, Miss.”
    “These are modern times,” she told him. “And one doesn’t meet the best sort working in a factory either. I’m fortunate that the police hired me.”
    He nodded his head sagely, mumbled a comment under his breath, and left them there.
    “Modern times?” Pinheiro asked as he broke the loaf of bread.
    “I didn’t have much choice,” she admitted, uncertain how much Captain Pinheiro knew about her. “I had to leave my family’s home, and had to find work of some sort. So here I am.” Mrs. Gaspar had actually found her and suggested the line of work. The woman had said she needed training, and that Mrs. Anjos could help her. Joining the police would never have occurred to Genoveva otherwise.
    “And how are you faring outside your family’s realm, Miss Jardim?”
    Genoveva considered that question as she chewed a piece of bread.
    “I am curious, but I don’t mean to be impolite,” he added. “You need not answer.”
    She swallowed and then took a sip of water. “I miss my mother and my sisters.”
    “Ah yes, how is Miss Constancia faring?”
    Genoveva set down her glass. “You know her?”
    He chuckled. “I was on the boat when we dragged her and young Mr. Coelho out of the river that day.”
    Her sister had nearly drowned, one of the family’s footmen, Tiago Coelho, with her. The Special Police had managed to save them, though. A couple of weeks later, Constancia had run off with that same footman to his family’s farm out in the country. While Genoveva couldn’t blame her youngest sister for her actions, their “unsuitable” marriage had precipitated her father’s ultimatum that Genoveva enter a convent or marry to save the family from further scandal.
    “Thank you,” she told the captain. “She is well. She writes to me every week, and is expecting her first child.”
    “I’m glad to hear that,” he said. “I met you in the library of your parents’ home that day as well.”
    Genoveva caught her lower lip between her teeth. She had no memory of him there. Yes, there had been a handful of officers of the Special Police in the library and she had been introduced to them, but didn’t recall any of them individually.
    “You had a great deal on your mind,” the captain said. “I don’t expect you to remember me, but you made a favorable impression on me, telling off my father as you did. Not many young women would have the nerve to do so.”
    She gazed at his face. No, she didn’t have any memory of meeting anyone