Kate Warne's Sister Is Missing by J.A. Schneider

Author:J.A. Schneider [Schneider, J.A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-07-20T16:00:00+00:00

30.

The driver was in the way! If he hadn’t bent forward at that moment…

But he did, and that split second was lost because the rest of his wagon moved, and then a hansom rounded the corner and I had to hide, flee back to the shadows.

My hand shakes so hard that I nearly drop the gun.

She was in the street not the garden! In the dark! A perfect moment lost at the worst of times…because she’s getting closer.

My pulse throbs and my fury, too. I lean my back against blackened brick and gasp for air. It took nerve to attempt that – if I’d been discovered all would have been lost. But now I’m nowhere. In my hand, an old gun I bought in a tavern from a drunk named Homer. I pretended awkwardness, said I knew nothing. He laughed at me, at my new black kidskin gloves; called me a dandy and then showed me the gun’s bullet-filled cylinder. “Ya jes point it an’ shoot!” he said. “Aim nice through dis sight here an’ you got yerself a bullseye - ain’t that right, Finn?”

The bartender laughed, others too, and I left impatient to use the gun.

On her.

Without the slightest hesitancy and the joyous lift of relief. Like Saskie, I did what I had to…

But this time I failed.

And from just yards away! The street would have been more perfect than the garden. It could have been called a shooting from a much-used old gun, an attempted robbery just part of the crime surge. Jobless, desperate people thieving to eat - yes, that’s what they would have called it.

My shoulders pinch and I want to howl my fury into the night. It could have solved all my problems, and I’d have been safe.

Instead, I lean in darkness against this cold brick wall, humiliated and furious. I want to pummel my fists into something. I gulp air and wait to breathe right.

A hansom passes, duck lower! It has swinging oil lamps that send light shafts over me.

This is too dangerous. She’s gone and my moment is gone. With a groan I push away from the wall, brush off grit and hide the gun. I’m supposed to be elsewhere. Minutes fly by.

I keep to the shadows and retreat, realizing suddenly that all is not lost.

I have dared. I can do this.

There’ll be other chances. She’s out and about so much.

I start to breathe easier, and hurry.

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