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"Ye were letting them out?"

She nodded

"Think they’ll coot anyone to help ye round them up?"

She shook her head no

His eyebrows dren "Not to tell ye your business, ht to have someone around, at least"

As if on cue, Casper stu but breeches, lipstick smeared all over his bare chest

"Bit noisy and watery up there, isn’t it?" he slurred He put one hand on a cage and leaned, nantly when he nearly knocked it over

Thom’s eyes rolled to Frannie Her ood-for-nothing lodger I assure you, the rouge ain’t mine, and neither is he" She waved a hand at Casper "Go back to bed, fool"

Thom sized Casper up and made a Scottish sort of noise way back in his throat as the sered up the stairs The firethe creatures you’ve let out, I’ll offer , back home and aboard ship Have ye some nets?"

Frannie pointed to a bouquet of bird and insect nets she kept in a corner, most of them antiques "That’s h with sht hers, and she felt warmth bloom in her belly His eyes were like a deep puddle in the sunshine, like a pond in a far-off forest She was about tocoainst her, followed by a splat and an indignant mew One of the kittens had climbed out and fallen onto Thom’s heavy boot With a chuckle, he bent to scoop up the little fluffball and drop it gently back into the basket

"That one’s going to be a bounder," he said

She couldn’t help sreement

"C’mon, Mac There’s a call ’cross town!" so churned to life with a rumble she felt in her feet

"Be careful, lass," Tholes into place before turning to go

She followed hi her bare feet "Mr Maccallan?"

He turned, and she saw her reflection in the glass of his goggles, lit up by the first streaks of dawn Her coppery hair was tousled, liold, her skin pale except where a blush rode her cheeks She looked like the heroine of some romance novel, an orphan lost on the moors She shook off the fancy

"Thank you Ever so much"

She couldn’t see his face, but she sensed that he sain

"It’s , holding on confidently with one hand as it lu He didn’t wave, didn’t turn, and she couldn’t help wondering if he was just being polite, offering to help her find her lost creatures, or if ine ruht by so white and stark It was her handkerchief still clutched in his hand, fluttering in the wind as he rode off into the sunrise

5

A knock woke Frannie the nexton the downstairs parlor couch, as her bed was a wet, s mess The ache in her heart was heavier than usual With Bertraone, there was no ain, and she realized she had slept late for the first ti the basket of kittens clutched to her chest the night before in the name of modesty, she wrapped a blanket around her shoulders as a shawl before pushing past the curtain into the sad lass , she saw a beggar child standing at her door Beside his patched, overly large boots stood a fanified crow A filthy bit of tas tied to the creature’s leg, and when she opened the door, it stared up at Frannie like an affronted duke come face-to-face with a servant

The child sneered up at her, and the Copper standing slightly behind him said, "Go on"

"Found yer bird," the child muttered

"Found it and tried toto you, miss Have you had any thefts?" He stared down at the child al for a reason to take the scamp into the station

Frannie knelt and held out her arratefully along her sleeve Even if it had been stolen, she wouldn’t have turned the poor ragaation these days

"Not stolen There was a fire last night, and I began freeing the aniade couldn’t stop it in tientle hirumbled, but the Copper thumped him on the head and said, "That’s awfully kind of you, miss"