"Just teach me one more time, what cards do I need to be holding to win?" Miss Audrey sat prettily on the prop crates. She appeared naturally at ease among the ropes and sandbags of the backstage area even in her dark blue high necked afternoon dress and only stocking clad feet. Her boots were neatly hanging from the laces around one of the ropes.
Racetrack Higgins ran a hand down his face before leaning towards her to glance at the cards in her hand. He snapped at one of his suspenders trying not to smile at the hopelessness of teaching the girl poker yet again.
"I taught you hundreds of times, I don't think it will start sticking now under all them fancy shine of being a lady." Race laughed, tugging at the frilly lace at her wrists.
Audrey leaned into the teasing movement, as she had been doing since she arrived at Irving Hall earlier. Racetrack found the action curiously like a flower looking for sunlight, and the man felt the hopeless of it. He had seen many young boys in his days at the lodging house do the same, the seeking of a familiar comfort, until they found it again. Jack Kelly had always been good at being home for so many lost children, steady and warm. Most of the newsboys outgrew him, as children often do, but not Laces. Racetrack leaned into shoving the girl playful with his own shoulder a reaction so familiar it was habitual.
"I shouldn't be teaching you anyway." Racetrack mumbled, impatiently pulling out his pocket watch.
"Since when have you bother with what you should or shouldn't? Didn't you bet on the least likely win at the tracks today?" She demanded, flashing him a dangerous smile. She reached out a hand and easily found one of the cigars he kept in his front shirt pocket. She flicked her wrist and the cigar suddenly appeared in the corner of her mouth, as she swung herself up higher than Racetrack to light it.
Racetrack frowned as he studied the time, it would be evening soon. Miss Audrey Kai had arrived an hour earlier, just about the time the opera might have started a couple a blocks down. She wasn't quite dressed for the opera, but the timing left Racetrack wondering where anyone believed the lady might be this evening.
"Not to continue in a way against my own odds, but Miss Audrey don't you think you should be heading out before it gets dark?" Racetrack clicked his watch closed and held out a hand to her.
"Don't test your good odds of the day now." She released a slow drag of smoke. Racetrack doubted very much the girl had even held a cigar in the last year. He had never seen a lady smoke a cigar ever before.
"Get down from there before you break your pretty little neck." Critter O'Connell growled menacingly. He stepped in from the bustling stage. Race startled at the man's sudden appearance, as a newsboy he had never found the need or desire to adapt the mysterious comings and goings of Conlon's spies.
Critter stepped in the light, using every bit of his full height to impose his displeasure. The man made Race feel like a child, the wiry wisecracking boy he had been when he'd first landed in the lodging house. Audrey hadn't shifted at the appearance of the most legendary of the whispered birds, she puffed at the cigar as she leaned against one of the taunt ropes holding up a changing set.
"Audrey." Critter hissed her name through his teeth like a whistle. He snapped his head to look up at her, his brown eyes flashing an amber in the stage lights.
She inhaled sharply on the cigar as she jutted out her chin, obstinately refusing to acknowledge him. Race groaned as Critter began unbutton the fleece mackinaw coat he was wearing, slowly but with a barely concealed violent energy that threatened the buttons.
"Evening O'Connell." Racetrack wearily drew the man's attention, nodding calmly.
"Higgins. Had a good tip today?" Critter nodded back politely, shrugging out of his coat and throwing it over the same rope that held Audrey's boots. As he started unbuttoning the cuffs of his shirt, Audrey let out an exasperated little sigh.
"Keep your sleeves down." She grumbled sliding down one crate, and jumping down to be just within arm reach of Critter.
"The cigar." Critter held out an open hand. She rolled her eyes but complied with the request, dropping the still burning object into his palm. Critter held it out to Racetrack, who took it and immediately popped it into the corner of his mouth. Critter reached out his arms, ready to catch and hold Audrey.
"Racetrack was telling me how August Belmont, the junior was at the tracks today." Audrey explained in the airy way that people often did to pretend information was not important. O'Connell didn't even still in his movements, clasping his hands around the embroidery ribbing of the lady's waist pulling her up off the crate.
"Doesn't he have a couple of ponies in the races?" O'Connell replied conversationally as he perched Audrey on the closer crate, reaching for her boots.
"He breeds winners. I believe he's the chairman of the New York Racing Commission." Racetrack offered puffing at his cigar, enjoying the ease of the conversation. He was grateful Critter hadn't decided to shout or take Audrey to task for her obvious trouble. He didn't miss how the older man harshly laced up the lady's boots.
"Race! Race!" A half-dressed showgirl skipped and skidded straight into Racetrack. With a practiced arm, Race caught the woman and kept her from tumbling into the set ropes and hurting herself.
"Maybe not running about in your stockings Gracie?" Race laughed.
"Mrs. Medda was looking for you, she wants to open the house early tonight." Grace squeaked nervously as her eyes caught sight of the well-dressed guests on the crates. Race nodded, inhaling deeply on his cigar as he glanced at Critter and Audrey.
"We will be seeing ourselves out Higgins, in just a minute here." Critter explained, straightening up and letting his eyes wander the area searching for something.
Grace danced away from Racetrack and leaned in to study Audrey, peering past the frills and lace of her clothing.
"You're Jack Kelly's girl. You look all dolled up." Grace blinked her recognition, clacking her teeth in that way only showgirls trying to be heard in the back of the house could. Racetrack lurched forward, catching Grace by her wrist and pulled her back as O'Connell stepped in front of the lady. Audrey cheekily peeked around the man's torso and waved.
"You didn't see her." Critter stated confidently.
"Ach, no." Grace grinned. "No one remembers the last time they saw Laces."
"Lovely seeing you Race," Audrey ducked under Critter's arm and pressed a kiss onto his cheek. She winked at Grace before Critter reached for her, wrapping his arm around her waist to pull her back behind him safely out of sight again.
"Don't forget to tell the horse there Laces." Racetrack whispered as he stepped onto the stage, hugging Grace to him playfully. Critter didn't even wait until the figures were out of sight before spinning on his heel and reaching over the girl's head to snatch her forgotten coat.
"You were surprised to see me." Audrey murmurs quietly slipping her arms into her own coat. Critter grits his teeth so hard Audrey can almost hear it and she darts her eyes to catch the way the goose pimples appear on his hands. He doesn't speak to confirm the observation, but she knows it to be true.
He sets the palm of his right hand at the base of her spine, gentle but firm as he pushes her out onto the dark streets of the lower theater district. She knows where she is, knows how to take her steps to avoid the pooling street lights and when to slip in-between the buildings into alleyways but so does the hand guiding her. And the hand is keeping her in complete and respectable view.
"Thomas knows where I am." She ventures confidently. Critter lets out a small huff and the young lady cannot tell if it is disapproval or amusement.
"Mr. Longfellow and I will be having a conversation about young ladies wandering the city after nightfall unescorted." Critter finally speaks.
"You are keeping your temper." Audrey frowns as she glances up at his face. Critter O'Connell is not frowning down at her, his features are not tight or restrained. He barely looks bothered at all to have discovered her unexpectedly. Except she had seen his face, and better yet heard the steel in his voice when he called her down from her perch. He had been angry.
"Have you done something to merit my temper?" Critter teases lightly. His hand lifts from its place below her waist and he extends his arm to allow her to politely rest upon his guidance. A perfect gentleman.
"You did not know I was in the theater, you were coming to talk to Race about the racetracks?" Audrey tried again. Critter was so rarely quiet around her. He was always scolding, always guiding, always in conversation. The legendary bird was not the silent type and Laces was unsettled by having to prod the man into conversation.
Critter bit down on his lower lip, releasing a short high pitched whistle. It is quick and if she hadn't been trained to hear the whistling, above all else, she might have believed she imagined it. She counted to ten in her head before she puckered her own lips and let out a low wheezing whistle. Critter abruptly stopped, his eyes narrowed down at her in the temper she recognized. But before he spoke a word, he had her inside a moving carriage.
"Wait! I'm to be at the Opera when it ends." She explains nervously. But Critter shakes his head.
"No, I don't believe you will be." Critter growled. "I will send word in two…"
Audrey shook her head.
"Three…"
Audrey gave a curt nod.
"Blocks down."
"I have to…" Audrey began nervously.
"You will report to me." Critter snapped. "And Jasper and I will also be having a conversation."
"He knew where I was, everyone knew. You have made sure everyone always knows."
Critter scratched at his jawline, at the short beard that was growing as he carefully glanced out to the street. Audrey found herself imaging if Jack had grown a beard, the image flashing in her mind quite suddenly.
"Conlon wrote me." Critter sighed finally.
"Brooklyn and his birds." Audrey grumbled, crossing her arms defensively.