Brace knew something was amiss when his hardheaded daughter disappeared without eating breakfast. He knew she was gone when she didn't appear to see why James and him were making such a racket before when they dragged a safe upstairs.
He thought against approaching the subject with James and left his master to eat his fill while he got started on his chores.
He grabbed a broom and dustpan to sweep the front entrance but when he passed the living room, he spotted the remains of his daughter's sleeping nest.
A circle of scattered salt still surrounded the antique couch and she left her quilts on the floor.
Brace silently shook his head at her lack of tidiness. It was a trait she inherited from her mother. So with a mental note to discuss this mishap later with Nareli, he went about sweeping up the salt.
He was sweeping up the last of it and chucking the lot to melt in the fireplace when James paused to watch what he was doing by the entryway.
He looked like he was about to leave.
"Brace," he grumbled and Brace glanced his way while he reached to fluff up some cushions.
"Aye?"
"How much salt did you clean up?"
"All of it, why?" Brace answered, giving his master an odd look and he recoiled a little at the sudden mad look that enveloped James's blue eyes.
"I'll be back at sunset," he stormed off with another grumble and Brace shook his head once he was alone.
Bloody mad Delaney mood swings. That was a hair-raising trait James inherited from his old man.
Page break.
Nareli waited around the corner for James Delaney to make his appearance from the Chamber House and while she stuck to the shadows in her poor teenage boy disguise, she munched on an apple for breakfast.
Today was the day she was going to find out the real reason why James Delaney returned to London.
And like magic, the mysterious but handsome beast that haunted her dreams resurfaced in the front garden and he did not look happy. Nareli smirked.
She had a feeling it was about her first act of defiance for the day. She did not sweep up that salt on purpose and she made a mental note to get her father something in silent apology.
With skillful eyes, she tracked that unmissable top hat of Delaney to the Chamber House's nearby stables.
James's long dark coat flicked up when he mounted his horse and a barrel of attraction slammed into Nareli hard.
In that nanosecond, the roughness of his roughhouse persona melted away and she caught a glimpse of the 'elegant Lord' he could be underneath. Those long but muscular legs of his stretched over and his posture was rod straight when he sat on the horse. The tightness of his trousers did nothing to hide the firmness of his behind and Nareli swallowed her bite of apple down hard.
The flicker of James's tight trousers ended sooner than she liked before his coat covered him up again.
Elegant was not a word she thought she would use to describe James Delaney, and she cursed herself for merely thinking it.
The Delaney household had three horses. Two dark brown mares and a pearly white mare. James chose the white mare and Nareli felt slightly taken back by his choice. That white horse will make his stick out like a sore thumb but she knew James was the kind of man that did everything with a purpose.
James wanted his presence felt through the dreary streets of London but for what purpose?
Nareli continued to munch on her apple while she tracked James trotting his way through the busy streets from a safe distance.
The white mare made him easy to track.
By the time she ate her apple down to the core, James looked like he had finally arrived at his intended destination. He quickly tied his horse up and Nareli watched how people gave James a wide berth when he stomped his way into what looked like a large inn.
It was Tabard Inn and Tabard Inn was an auction house.
Interesting.
People did not give Nareli a wide berth while she made her way over to James's horse. They never did when she was dressed as a poor teenage boy and that was why her disguise was so effective.
The horses tied up to the resting post outside the huge auction house were the only beings to take notice of her and that was because of the apple core, she still had between her teeth.
The sweet smell of apple no doubt enticed them.
James's horse nudged his head towards her mouth and Nareli spat out the apple core.
"Here's a fresh one," she fished out a fresh apple out of her jacket and helped the white mare munch on it.
James Delaney wanted his presence felt in London, well she was going to help the grouchy man with a firm backside.
She tries not to grin too much at the look on James's face when he eventually notices his horse gone.
Page break.
"Atticus!"
Nareli bites back a snigger when she hears James yell out and he sounds pissed.
Nicu, her fellow gyspy and ex-lover merely shakes his head at her while they hang back in the shadows of Dolphin Tavern.
"Atticus!" James yells out again when he appears in their line of sight and Nareli has to bite down on her sleeve to muffle her snigger. She can't hold it in anymore.
"James Delaney. Well look at you! Sit down."
Atticus acknowledges his tavern's newest visitor and he wears the clothes of a sailor and has a tattoo, which covers his head and goes down onto his forehead. It is a compass and he has a short beard with a shaven head.
Atticus is lithe and hard and weathered like an oak timber, carrying a curved knife. He was the complete opposite to James Delaney.
"Give me back my horse," James grumbles and he frowns when Atticus has the decency to laugh while he pours them both a cup of ale from a jug nearby.
"I am not crazy enough to steal your horse, Delaney," Atticus's words stop James in his tracks and for the first time, Nareli sees the big man experience a moment of bafflement.
But before James can question Atticus about who took his horse and left a note with his name on it, Atticus pulled out a tiny notebook from his vest.
"What's the biggest thing you saw? For my files, my book about the world. What's the biggest thing you saw in Africa?"
James knows Atticus's ways, knows he has no choice but to play along. So, he hides a grumble and reluctantly takes a seat.
"A elephant," he answers.
Keen to hear more, Nareli is about to move closer to the pair they are spying on when Nicu, grabs her hand and yanks her back.
In any other circumstance, she would've fought off his hold on her but if she made a scene now, James would no doubt see them so she goes along.
Without a word, she lets Nicu lead them out of the back of the tavern and he doesn't let go of her hand until they are in the thick of the docks again.
The stench of fish instead of liquor smacks into Nareli's nostrils and she takes a moment to get used to the fishy stench.
"You are playing with fire," Nicu finally lets go of her hand when he rips into her with a frown and Nareli just glares him down.
"And you play with fire every time you try to tell me what to do."
Nicu sighs at her attitude and loses some of the hardness in his deep brown eyes. That one statement reminds him why they could never work.
He could never control Nareli and pin down her wild whims when she put her mind to something.
"Why him?" He tries to get a gauge on her sudden interest on the once thought dead 'James Delaney.'
Again, Nareli just glares at him with her amber eyes.
Nicu rubs his tired eyes with another sigh. She wasn't even going to give him that. God, she was the most stubborn woman he had ever met.
"You cannot just show up here and expect me to answer your every beck and call."
"Correction, you and your gang will want to follow my every beck and call," Nareli folds her arms and Nicu barks out a laugh because he thought she was joking.
When it came to the gyspies in this part of London, he called the shots. He was the king and what happened behind closed doors was his domain. And once upon a time, Nareli nearly became his queen.
Nicu quickly loses his laugh when Nareli keeps looking serious.
"If I haven't already seen what lies between your legs, I would say that you have balls for saying that, Nareli," he growls.
"The Delaney shipping company is back in business, Nicu. Don't you want in on the deal?"
Nicu tried not to look too interested to hear more.
"Delaney came to kick Helga out."
"Bullshit, Nareli. Helga is still running her business as usual.
"As far as you know," Nareli shot back and forced him to think about it.
"Is that why you put Atticus's name on that note?"
Nareli shrugged. "I figured you would want to know what your partner is up too… it was only a matter of time before he got involved with Delaney. I just sped up the process."
Word on the street was if you wanted anything criminal done, you went to Atticus. Everyone in the London underground knew this.
"You want to know what Delaney is up too," Nicu quickly put one and two together, and Nareli smiled when he finally got it.
"And what's in it for me to feed you information?" he demanded and Nareli's smile fell away.
"You'll finally have my forgiveness."
Nicu breathed in deeply but he still asked because he needed to be sure. "For what?"
"For breaking my little naïve heart… we will be even then."
Nicu exhales at the flicker of old pain that envelopes Nareli's eyes. He has no words so he simply nods and agrees.
He had been begging for her forgiveness for years.
He then watches how the amber in Nareli's eyes harden before she turns to walk away, taking her monogamous heart with her.
By nature their people loved whenever the feeling struck them and they never put restrictions on it except for a few.
Nicu was not one of those people and back in the day, he thought he could change Nareli's way of only loving one at a time and he failed miserably.
Page break.
After he paid Atticus fifteen pounds and the heels of his boots for not killing his father, the veteran crook agreed to become his eyes and ears.
But the timing of this part of his plan happening ahead of schedule set James's teeth on edge.
Someone incredibly stupid was messing with him and he vowed to find out who.
He muddled over who it could be while he approached his horse tied up outside.
The steed barely glanced his way with his brown eyes. He was too busy munching away at a green apple core?
Perplexed at who would give away such a tasty treat to a horse in this poor part of London, James investigates his horse's mouth.
With a gentle coaxing, his horse gives up the green apple core and lets it drop into his gloved hand. He will figure out who gave it to his horse later because right now, his sixth sense told him he was being watched.
Page break.
Nareli continued to watch James from a far and she raised her eyebrows when she spotted Winter, Helga's daughter engage James in conversation.
What was the little thirteen year old up to now?
Curious, Nareli crouches down behind some crates so she can eavesdrop on the two chatting. They stopped their stroll in the shipyard.
"Who are you?"
"Winter."
"Miss Winter?"
"No. Just Winter."
"Just Winter," James reacts with mild astonishment. Winter is a young black girl, half African, with black hair cropped short to her head and yet she speaks with a soft London accent.
"I live with the whores but I'm a virgin," Winter replies and Nareli can see that James is hiding his curiosity.
"Why are you following me?" He asks.
"To save your life."
Now, that was definitely an answer Nareli wasn't expecting out of Winter.
James waits and Winter continues on.
"The mistress Helga gave information to a man with a silver tooth. I spy on her."
James continues to study young Winter and that is all, Nareli needs to hear and she creeps away.
She really needed to have that talk with Helga.
The bitch was orchestrating Delaney's immediate death and that did not suit her plans one bit.
With Delaney dead and no written proof that her father was entitled to the old Chamber House, he will be homeless.
"Bloody bitch," Nareli scowled when she was a safe distance away from James and Winter.