The Chemickal Marriage

back with a smile.
    ‘I think we’ve done it –’
    Her boot landed square on his kneecap. He clutched it with both hands, hissing with pain. ‘O! O – damn you to hell!’
    ‘If I had any weapon now you would be dead,’ she spat. ‘If you ever take such liberties again I will see your back flayed white!’
    Pfaff rubbed his knee. ‘You’re an ungrateful witch. Do you know where we are? How many eyes observe our every move?’
    ‘I will not be
trifled
with.’
    ‘That is no answer!’
    ‘I am not
obliged
to answer. Do you remain in my employ or don’t you?’
    ‘I am not in the habit of accepting such abuse from anyone.’
    ‘But you
are
in the habit of flinging a woman without care like a bale of cloth?’
    ‘You’ve seen worse, I’m sure.’
    To these hot words she said nothing, taking the moment to settle her dress. Pfaff smirked at its condition.
    ‘What’s he like, anyways?’
    ‘Who?’
    ‘Robert Vandaariff. I once caught a glimpse of his hat, on Race Day at the Circus. Did he mention the Contessa?’ His gaze drifted across her body. ‘Did he … mistreat you?’
    ‘What is that?’
    She pointed to a leather notebook poking from Pfaff’s orange coat.
    ‘Why, do you know it?’
    ‘Of course I do. You were under the bridge. You took this from Minister Crabbé’s laboratory. That notebook belonged to Roger Bascombe.’
    ‘It did indeed. I’ll admit, Miss Temple, I only half believed your stories – but now …’ He broke off with a grin, showing his brown teeth. ‘I kept it for you. Don’t you want to peek inside?’
    ‘I do not.’
    ‘Liar.’ He tossed the notebook onto her lap, then laughed at her discomfort. ‘You act like I’ve given you a scorpion.’
    ‘Where are we going?’
    ‘Come, how
else
could I learn where you were, or collect you without being killed? You thought the glassworks would lead to Vandaariff, but they led to
her
.’
    ‘Why should she want me saved? She hates me.’
    ‘She described you to Vandaariff’s messenger as her
intimate
.’
    ‘Nonsense.’
    Pfaff gave his own sceptical shrug. ‘It saved your life.’
    She could not read him – did Pfaff remain her man or not? She did her best to soften her tone. ‘Do you know, Mr Pfaff, that every man you hired in my service has been killed?’
    ‘That’s a pity. I think Corporal Brine quite liked your maid.’
    Perhaps Pfaff never felt sorry about anything. Chang’s ill-will for the man stewed inside her. Why had she ever defended him?
    ‘Why was I taken to the Vandaariff crypt?’
    ‘Because it is isolated, I suppose, and easy to observe.’
    Miss Temple knew this was wrong, and berated herself for not having examined every inch of the place. But there seemed nothing to find – the Comte had so little expressed himself in its making. If the real Ishtar Gate indeed had blue tile, the Comte’s improved
artistic
version would have been made from coal and painted blood red.
    ‘Where are we
going
?’
    ‘Nowhere at all until I’m sure we aren’t followed …’
    Pfaff pressed his face against the window. Miss Temple scooted to the opposite side. She did not recognize these streets.
    ‘Was there a second explosion today? At the Shipping Board?’
    ‘Explosions all over.’ Pfaff peered out, distracted. ‘Terrible stuff.’
    ‘The blasts are Vandaariff’s doing – to provoke unrest. Who knows what he plans next, while you waste our time. Do you?’
    Pfaff closed the curtain. ‘Do I what?’
    ‘Know where he is!’
    ‘No, miss.’
    ‘And you smile to say it! Of all the imbecilic –’ Miss Temple’s tirade was cut short by a sharp knock against the coach. ‘What was
that
?’
    The window near her head was shattered by a fist-sized chunk of brick. She squeaked, flinching from the flying glass. Luckily most was caught by the curtain.
    ‘Perhaps you’d best lie down,’ offered Pfaff.
    Cries rose around the coach and Miss Temple recalled the faces on the Raaxfall dock. Their driver cracked his whip. The coach broke forward and the shouts began to fade. Pfaff slapped his hands together.
    ‘That should peel them off.’
    At the high-pitched cry of distressed horses behind them, Miss Temple peered through the broken window. Another coach had been stopped in the road, surrounded by an angry mob. The blasts had brought the unrest of Raaxfall to the city proper – and Pfaff had exploited the discontent to strip away pursuit. Who knew how close they’d come to harm as well? If the