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

question is whether you’ll have that gun when you need it.”
    “I’d prefer that neither of them ever need one,” Rafael pointed out.
    One of the Lady’s black brows lifted. “But are we not here specifically because Miss Jardim didn’t have one when needed?”
    Rafael seriously doubted Miss Jardim would have shot the man at her door Saturday night, even if she’d had a loaded gun in her hand. He wasn’t going to say that, though. “Indeed we are,” he said. “That is why I’m going to suggest that Miss Jardim take this gun back to her rooms.”
    The young lady in question didn’t look entirely pleased by the idea. Even so, she laid the gun back into its wooden case and set it to one side. “I can do that.”
    “If you practice enough,” he reassured her, “you will become comfortable with it.”
    Miss Jardim’s lips twisted in a thoughtful pout, but she didn’t argue.
    A short time later when they’d returned to the station, he offered to walk with Miss Jardim back to her boarding house. She nodded quickly and, with her box tucked tightly under one arm, followed him from the station.
    They chatted as they walked along, primarily about books, which surprised him a bit. They shared several favorite writers. “I wouldn’t have thought you the bookish sort,” he admitted as they turned the corner onto Carmelitas Street.
    “I have plenty of time to read now,” she said. “Before, when I was . . .”
    “. . . embroiled in society?” he supplied when she couldn’t find the words.
    “Yes. I didn’t have much time to read then. Or go to museums or do anything other than go to one social function after another.”
    “Do you miss it?” he asked.
    She walked on for a moment, her head bowed as if she was pondering that. The light breeze tugged at her skirt as she walked. “Not much. I don’t miss the hurrying about and the gossip and trying to be certain that I wore my clothes to best advantage. I don’t miss the feeling that I was useless.”
    “It’s a different kind of life,” he observed.
    “Yes.” She hopped over a broken paving stone. “I do miss a few of my friends, but if I tried to talk to them now, they would pretend they didn’t know me.”
    “If they did so, they were never your friends.” He’d wondered if she missed having servants and fine clothes. Did she miss being wealthy? “Is that all you miss?”
    “I miss my sisters and my mother.” She smiled a little sadly, and then wistfully added, “I miss dancing.”
    She’d surprised him again. “Dancing?”
    She laughed softly. “It was the one thing I did well. I’m not musical and can’t paint or sketch. My needlework is embarrassingly deficient. But I could always dance. If it were a respectable occupation, I would probably have tried to find work doing so.”
    Dancing was not respectable, especially for someone well born. It was often one step away from prostitution. “So you had to settle for the police.”
    “I did,” she said with a laugh in her voice. They had reached the door of her boarding house, and she paused outside. “Thank you, Captain. This does make me feel more secure.” She patted the side of the box that she still held under her arm.
    “Well, given that you haven’t seen your attacker since the last incident, I’ll hope you don’t need it.”
    “I hope not. Good night, then,” she said.
    “Actually, I want to speak with your landlady before I leave. Would you mind introducing me to her?”
    Miss Jardim seemed startled by his request, but quickly agreed. She led him into the front room of the boarding house, a shabby room with furnishings that looked like they’d been there for fifty years. He hoped this wasn’t an indicator of the condition of Miss Jardim’s rented room, but it probably was. The black-shawled landlady predated the furnishings, her white hair piled on her head and her gnarled hands covered with knitted mitts. She seemed pleasant though, and proved to be very concerned