“No. If Archie wishes to see me, he sends word that I am to meet him at St. Giles’s.”
“You find him with the Regent Murray?” I guessed, thinking back to last Sabbath, when I’d found her waiting beside the great tomb of the venerable regent where so many people met to strike their deals and pay their debts, and on whose plaque dejected Justice drooped while Faith kept writing in her book as though determined not to give up hope.
“Aye.”
“And if you wish to meet with him?” I asked.
The light was dim within the room, but I could see her fear. “You are not thinking to confront him?”
“Do you know where he does lodge? Henry says he is rarely to be found at Riddell’s Close these days.”
“I’m not surprised,” said Lily. “Archie is a wanted man, he told me so himself. In fact—” She caught herself, and looked away as though she could not meet my eyes.
“What is it?” When she stayed silent, I said, “I know there’s a warrant for Archie’s arrest. Gilroy told me. He said Archie forged a will to help some people claim funds falsely from the Equivalent. So, you see? It is no secret.”
She withdrew her hand from mine and made a fist of it in her lap. “What you do not know,” she said, “is that it was no small amount that they were trying to claim. And because of the number of schemes such as this that are currently being attempted, the word is, should Archie be caught, he’ll be hanged.”
“They don’t hang people for forgery.”
Her soft eyes almost pitied me my ignorance. “He’s been told they’ll make an exception in his case,” she said, “so he’ll be an example, and stand as a warning to others.”
I could find no space in my heart to feel sympathy for him, and said so. “He has earned his ending. And if he is hanged, you’ll be free.”
Lily looked down, but not before I saw what looked like a tear glisten briefly in light from the fire on her cheek.
“Lily,” I began, and then I looked away as well, and searched for words. The ones I finally found were, “You must tell me all of it, if I’m to be of help.”
“You cannot help.” She sounded very sure. “Whichever way I try to move upon the board, he has me trapped. If I warn Maggie or try moving her to safety, he’ll reveal the letters. If I fail to see the marriage proved, then he’ll reveal the letters. And if I reveal him, or seek help…” Another tear trailed where the first had gone. This time I saw it clearly.
“Then what?” I asked, gently. “Lily, what?”
She drew a shaking breath. “Then he will say that it was me that forged the will, and turn me in. The others in the scheme have sworn in writing he was innocent, I’ve seen the papers they did sign. So he will stay in hiding, I will take the blame, and he will see me hang.”
She looked at me, and although I felt rising anger at the man who caused her such distress, I wanted at that moment no more than to take her fear away from her, and so I said the first thing that occurred to me. “You are not trapped. It’s but a stalemate.”
My reward was her small smile at hearing her own words returned. Her hand unclenched and raising it, she wiped her cheek and asked me, “How is it a stalemate?”
“Did not Colonel Graeme teach you that, when all the moves that you had left upon the board would lead you to disaster, you could still make a retreat?”
“To where?”
“I’ll find a path,” I promised her.
She did not look persuaded. But at least I’d made her smile.
And then, because I knew that it would make her pleased to think of Colonel Graeme, I told her what I knew of the invasion that was rumored.
“There is always an invasion,” Lily said.
“Aye, that’s what Henry says.” And then we talked of Henry, but it soon became clear Lily did not know of Henry’s injury, and I did not wish to be the one to tell her, so instead our talk turned further back in time and touched on other questions, other blank spots in the stories I’d been told. She spoke freely. When we came to Mr. Bell she was more halting, yet we talked of those days too, and I confessed that I had visited the swordslipper, and that I’d spoken to his daughter, Marion.
“Poor Marion,” said Lily. “I did like her. She was good to me.” And then, “Perhaps I’ll write to her.”
I said I thought that was a fine idea.
“Though I am glad you went to see her first,” said Lily, “for at least she does know now that I’m alive. It would be a great shock, I think, to get a letter from a person you believed was dead.”