Maddie Hatter and the Gilded Gauge (A Maddie Hatter Adventure Book 2) by Jayne Barnard

Author:Jayne Barnard [Barnard, Jayne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Steampunk
Publisher: Tyche Books Ltd.
Published: 2017-05-08T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

THE MOON WAS past full, casting pale, cool light only in mid-street, and the streetlamps left isolated pools amid the long stretches of shadow. A lone saloon still served, the yellow glow of its window splashed across the pavement. Its door was closed against the night-time chill, muffling the talk and laughter of the patrons. A church clock struck eleven. The trolley bell rang out, clanging back from the tall, narrow tenements, and the conductor prodded Maddie’s shoulder with his baton. “Last stop. Off you get.”

She swung down and swaggered away, still not at ease in the clunky heels of Emmy Gat’s old-fashioned buckle shoes. Behind her, Obie and Hiram thumped down to the cobbles and wandered in the opposite direction, singing loudly, and badly, about Her Majesty’s Airship Corps. As their voices died away, the dark silence pressed in, much as it had when she’d come to duel Emmy Gat. Her friends would be back, following from a distance, and somewhere nearby, Cat and the kids would be watching too. But for the moment, Maddie felt alone, and very exposed. She touched TD, nestled unobtrusively on her collar beneath the black silk cravat, and strolled down the block, away from the trolley, the saloon, the friends.

Halfway down the dark street she heard the scrape of tin on tin. Not far ahead, the lid of a litter bin caught a stray gleam as it lifted ever so slowly. She gripped the shaft of Emmy’s tattered brolly more firmly and walked on, ready to smack anyone for her.

All that came was a whisper. “I’s here, Miss Mad. An’ Rabbit’s up the corner.”

“Thanks, Hare.”

The lid lowered and Maddie walked on more confidently. She was not alone.

Halfway along the next block, Cat’s white grin gleamed in the darkness as she crossed from alley to alley in Maddie’s path. At the next corner Obie sat on a stoop, arms propped on his knees and hat down over his eyes. He must have run like the dickens up an alley to get ahead of her after he’d gone the other way from the start. Several houses beyond him, Hiram fumbled at a door as if hunting for his key. She swaggered on past them all, swinging her brolly, as if Emmy Gat was the undisputed ruler of these uneven streets.

At each turning she glanced back. There was no sign of anyone following. Had interest in Emmy Gat and Emmeline evaporated after the failed attempt at kidnapping? The only way to tell was to retrace, as well as she could, the routes Emmeline had taken those nights when she felt she was being watched.

Thus, as the night wore on and the chill seeped through the worn velvet coat, Maddie walked up street and down, circling the area around the orphanage and, at the last, behind it. Cat led her through the twisting mews. By now Obie and Hiram were simply following, a block and more behind. She had no idea where Rabbit and Hare might be.

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