The Janus Affair by Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris

Author:Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris [Ballantine, Pip & Morris, Tee]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fantasy, Steampunk
ISBN: 9780062049780
Amazon: 006204978X
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Published: 2012-05-28T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

In Which Eliza Dares a Dance with Diamond Dottie

They gathered in the nearest alleyway—though because this was Mayfair it was the tidiest one Eliza had ever seen. Still, the police around here were more plentiful than in the East End, so they had to be quick about their business.

“Are you ready for this?” She eyed Christopher, Callum, and Colin sternly. Christopher, the eldest, she knew could handle himself. But the younger boys had never accompanied her on a break-in before—not that she laboured under any illusions that this would be their first.

“Cor, mum.” Colin blinked up at her. “We’re as ready as a ladybird is for gin.”

“You can trust us,” Callum said, a little more seriously.

She took a breath. When dealing with the Seven she began to feel old—even worse, she realised she was perilously close to sounding like her mother. “It’s not that, lads. It’s the fact that we are breaking into the inner sanctum of the queen of the London underground. She commands a lot of ruffians, and if we get found out—”

“We’ve caught it from Diamond Dottie’s gang before.” Christopher scuffed his foot on the ground and glared down at it. “Couple of weeks ago two of them put the screws to Jonathan and Jeremy. Reckoned they’d messed up a job on Regent’s Street.”

“But we is always careful to keep away from the Elephants—they give us a hard time about Serena and all.” Colin trailed off as Christopher shot him a filthy look. Naturally the marauding groups of women and those of the children clashed from time to time. Eliza was aware the Ministry Seven were part of a larger organised group of children, and they were natural enemies of Dottie’s Elephants. Often, the Elephants tried to lure away the girl children to their gang—and if that didn’t work they could use more unpleasant methods.

Christopher, seeing the agent’s face go white, patted her on the arm, “It’s all right, mum. We would never let them have her.”

Eliza’s throat was so tight that for a moment she was unable to reply. Instead she simply nodded.

“And the twins are just topping,” Callum assured her, “with just a couple of scrapes and such to show for it.”

Eliza winced.

“So ya see”—Christopher’s fingers tightened on her sleeve—“we don’t mind a’tall doing a bit of pannie with you. Might even say that we’ve been looking forward to it.”

After a long look at all the boys, Eliza nodded. “Very well then, lads, it’s a big house and we need to be quick about it.”

“There’s only two maids.” Christopher grinned. “We did some poking around yesterday. Dottie might be all high and mighty, but she’s a skinflint when it comes to hiring help.”

“Busy servants will be a real blessing this morning,” Eliza pulled off her fine morning gloves and replaced them with sturdier leather ones. “Now, as for the door—”

“Chris has got that sorted,” Colin piped up.

“Oh, really?”

“Something special.” Christopher grinned and tapped the tin container he was carrying. “Mr. Books gave me a bit of a hand with it.

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