Magnificent Devices 01 - Lady of Devices

from?”
    A mumble answered her. Rosie tottered to her feet and focused on the bread on the table, tilting her head so as not to lose sight of it.
    “We already been out,” a Mopsie said. “I got a corncob for Rosie.” She extracted it from a pocket and held it up.
    “I could’ve et that,” Jake complained. “I’m still hungry.” Someone had wrapped a rag around his burned hands.
    Claire opened the cage door and put the fresh ear inside. Rosie fell upon it like an eagle on a carcass. “A little self-sacrifice now will all be forgotten when we have our fry-up later in the week. May I have some of that bread, please?”
    “Help yerself,” Jake said.
    “Mr. Jake, a gentleman would slice a piece and offer it to a lady.”
    “I ent no gentleman.”
    “Since I am a lady, and since I do not consort with men who are not gentlemen, your training in that department begins immediately.” She smiled at him. “Thank you. You are most generous.”
    He just stared at her.
    “Crikey, Jake, you deaf? Cut ’er off a bit.” Snouts pushed the knife closer to him.
    “I ent servin’ ’er. What d’ye take me for?”
    “It is not a matter of serving, Mr. Jake. A gentleman puts the comfort of others before his own. That is how one tells he is a gentleman.”
    “I said I weren’t a gentleman. Cut yer own bread. Or better yet, don’t, and I’ll ’ave it.”
    Snouts swore and cuffed him across the head. “Do as she says, ye stupid cove.”
    “Why should I? First she burns me, then she boils me eyes. If I take that knife to anything, it’ll be ’er, and that’s a fact.”
    Though he couldn’t be more than twelve or thirteen, Claire could not mistake the deadly resolve in his eyes and had no doubt he meant exactly what he said. “I did warn you not to raise the landau’s front panel, Mr. Jake,” she said in quiet but firm tones. “You chose to ignore me. And as for the gaseous capsaicin, we’re going to turn that to our advantage and you shan’t have to experience it again.”
    “About that,” Snouts said as Jake reluctantly picked up the knife and sawed off a chunk of the dark bread. Claire took it and tried to chew a few bites. Then she tore the remainder into bits and gave them to Rosie, who launched herself at them with enthusiasm.
    “Yes, about that. The first thing to do is to compile the ingredients.” She told them what she would need. “Are you able to find these things?”
    Snouts and Tigg exchanged a glance. “Sure. We’ll just stroll into the nearest chemist’s or apothecary’s and pick those up.”
    “Lovely.” Claire smiled.
    “I ’ope you ’ave lots of dosh, lady, because those things don’t sound free. Or easily liberated, if you get my drift.”
    “Dosh?”
    “Cash. Blunt. Pounds sterling.”
    She had no such thing. She had never carried more than a few shillings for sweets, and had no doubt at all that the household money had been looted from wherever Mrs. Morven kept it in Carrick House. “I’m afraid not. What shall we do, then?”
    The Mopsies elbowed each other and grinned. Snouts jerked his chin in their direction. “These ’uns ’ave a few useful talents along those lines. At least it ent the Lord’s Day. Pickings is always slim in the church crowd.”
    “Pick—?” And then the penny dropped. “Oh, no. No. You will not be stealing from people’s pockets the means to obtain these items. Absolutely not.”
    Five pairs of eyes turned on her with incredulity. “Beggin’ yer pardon, lady, but where d’you suppose the bread and corn came from?”
    “I have no idea.” Someone had gone to the market, hadn’t they?
    Snouts shook his head at her ignorance, and Claire began to feel nettled. “Babes in the woods,” he sighed. “Rag-pickin’ don’t cover expenses. If we don’t steal, we don’t eat, simple as that. If you’ve strong opinions on’t, I suggest we end our association ’ere.”
    “Not until I get my landau back.”
    “Then yer goin’ t’be awful hungry along about Wednesday.”
    Sleeping rough was one thing. But descending to criminal activity simply to eat? Unheard of. Unacceptable. As it was, she was walking the knife’s edge—if it were discovered where she was, she could never be received again in polite society.
    “Good heavens, Mr. McTavish. Has it never occurred to you that there are alternatives to stealing? Such as employment, for instance?”
    “’Oo’s gonna employ the likes of us?” Tigg wanted to know.
    She