The Constantine Affliction by T. Aaron Payton

Author:T. Aaron Payton [Payton, T. Aaron]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fantasy, General, Historical, Fiction
ISBN: 9781597804004
Google: hl6FtgAACAAJ
Amazon: 1597804002
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Published: 2012-08-07T04:00:00+00:00

A Picnic in the Park

Ellie reached for the knocker on the Lord Pembroke’s door just as it swung inward. Winnie was there, beaming, her hair pinned up under a darling little hat, dressed in a pale yellow dress that seemed the very essence of springtime, and made Ellie feel terribly dowdy by comparison. Her best dress would be no match even for Winnie’s worst, but Winnie exclaimed that she looked lovely anyway. She clutched Ellie’s hands and pulled her into the house. “Come inside, come inside! I’m just finishing the preparations. I hope you’re hungry. I have boiled eggs, cold roast chicken, some marvelous sweets…” She chattered happily as she led the way into the kitchen, where a large wicker hamper waited, filled with delectable things to eat. Ellie’s stomach rumbled. She hadn’t had anything all day, apart from a few shell-flecked bites of Winnie’s breakfast and a stale roll at the newspaper office. A morning of fighting housebreakers and writing newspaper copy would make anyone ravenous.

“Is Lord Pembroke here?” Ellie asked, looking around.

“Oh, please, you must call him Pimm, everyone does. When you say Lord Pembroke I feel as if I should… curtsy, or something. It’s not as if he’s lordly in the least. He’s just the younger son of a Marquess.”

“Oh,” Ellie said, faintly. “Is that all?”

Winnie chuckled. “I suppose it sounds impressive, but really, it just means one of his ancestors did something that pleased some monarch or another. Even Pimm’s older brother has no greater personal achievement than successfully managing the family estates.” She sighed. “I could do without the honorifics, myself. Do I look like a ‘Lady Pembroke’ to you?” Winnie picked up a yellow parasol from the table, frowned at it for a moment, then looked up at Ellie, blinking. “You’ll want to know where he is, of course. Pimm I mean. He hopes to join us later, but alas, cannot be here now. He’s out. Business, apparently, though you’d know more about that than I would, since you seem to be his partner in crime-solving these days.”

“I’m terribly sorry, I don’t mean to involve myself—” Ellie began, but stopped when Winnie threw back her head and laughed.

“Oh, dear, did I sound jealous? Please, be assured, I am anything but. Pimm has his interests, and I have mine, and while we are certainly bosom friends and great companions, we have our own lives. That whole notion of ‘separate spheres,’ you know, with the men out earning money, and the women running the house? It’s a bit like that, but I have my tinkering, and my salons, and Pimm has his club and his crimes. Occasionally I aid him in his affairs, or he in mine, but, truly, we prefer things as we have them arranged. You need not fear you have usurped my position.”

“I, ah, have never been married,” Ellie admitted. “I suppose every marriage is different, in its way.” Though the way Winnie airily described it, she and Pimm sounded more like friends who happened to live together than husband and wife.

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