Moonlight & Mechanicals by Cindy Spencer Pape

Author:Cindy Spencer Pape
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Fantasy, Vampires, Historical
ISBN: 9781426894527
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Wink wasn’t able to sleep. Determined to have some good come of the night, she dressed in her coveralls and went out to the small workshop her father had built her on the upper story of the carriage house. Even tinkering didn’t soothe her frazzled nerves, though. With a sigh, she stowed her tools and made her way back to the house, just in time to see Jamie slip out the kitchen door.

“Going somewhere?”

He shrugged. “Wapping. Want to come?”

“Hell yes. I’ll even pay for the hack.” She stepped back into the carriage house to grab a mask. With George walking between them, they walked a few blocks until they spotted a cab.

“The Pig?” she asked. The Wigged Pig, a tavern with the sign of a porcine barrister, had been the center of society in their little corner of Wapping.

Jamie nodded. “That’s where I planned to start, anyway. Clive’s still a friend.”

“Good enough.” Wink hadn’t been in the Pig since they’d left that part of town, but she probably should have. By training the children to defend themselves, Clive Perkins had done as much to keep them alive as Mrs. Miller. “Though I’m surprised you remember him.”

He shrugged. “Tom’s taken Piers and I to visit when we’ve been in town.”

“Why didn’t he tell me? Nell and I would have gone too.”

“That’s probably why he didn’t tell you.” Jamie crossed his arms and leaned back. “We knew you were trying hard to be all lady-like for Papa and Mum.”

“Brat. I hate it when you’re right.” Whether she liked it or not, taking two teenaged girls to a tavern in a rough part of town would have been considered very bad form. She supposed she could understand Tom’s thinking.

Inside, the Wigged Pig was much as she remembered. Cigar smoke created a haze nearly as thick as the one outside. Local women in low-cut bodices leaned over the bar, hoping to attract a man for the night. Sailors, dock workers and local shopkeepers mingled over a pint. The smell of cheap ale and unwashed people was stronger than she recalled, but she pretended not to notice as she sauntered up to the bar beside her brother. In her grease-stained coveralls, with her hair in a braid, she wasn’t likely to be mistaken for a prostitute, meaning not a single man in the place paid her any attention.

“Jamie.” A bald man in his thirties nodded as they leaned on the bar. “Who’s your…damnation, Wink, is that really you?”

“It is.” She held out her hand and shook Clive’s. “It’s been a long time, but you don’t look a day older.” While that wasn’t entirely true, she felt bad for having not visited before. “I hope things are going well here at the Pig?”

Clive shrugged. “Well enough. But look at you, all grown up. Thought you were a fine lady now? So where’s the silk and satin?”

She laughed. “Home in my closet.”

“Still tinkering with machines, eh?” With a grin at George sitting down by her feet, he slid pints of ale over the counter to both Wink and Jamie.

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