Masked by Moonlight. Allie Pleiter

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      The whip sliced cleanly through the night. Without the expected crack.

      Matthew Covington pulled the whip behind him again, blowing out an exasperated breath. That’s twice you’ve missed. The moonlight and shadows should have eased his overwrought spirit. He checked the last few inches of the whip, making sure they were intact. He knew they would be. His own frayed concentration was at fault here, not his whip. Come now, man. Gather your wits. He rolled his shoulders and flexed his fingers around the hilt. Why still so tense? He’d doffed his collar and waistcoat. Fled that dark, fussy office where his duty to be the respectable guardian of the Covington family honor accosted him at every tight turn. Surely out here, in shirtsleeves, in the noisy darkness of unfamiliar San Francisco, Matthew could find the space he craved.

      After a moment’s consideration, he put the whip down and flipped open the latch on a long wooden box at his feet. Moonlight caught the sword’s edge as he lifted it from the dark blue velvet. Whhhish. Matthew listened for the blade’s soothing whisper. Although a formidable opponent with any of his weapons, he cared little for combat. He was drawn to the marriage of tool and muscle, the form and stretch of putting the weapon through its courses. The exertion. The application of skill. Whoosh. Matthew’s whole body seemed to exhale as he sent the sword curving through the cool darkness.

      He wasn’t satisfied. Fencing often eased his knotted shoulders, but he’d just had a long, excruciating day, and it simply wasn’t enough. Tonight, his tension needed the whip’s power more than the sword’s grace, and Matthew’s hand returned to the whip’s hilt seemingly on its own.

      “I told you!” A sudden voice broke the quiet. Two figures burst into the end of the alley. Matthew froze, glad he’d replaced his white lawn shirt with a darker one as a last-minute precaution.

      “It ain’t worth nothin’, I reckon,” one said.

      “Lemme open it.” The larger man bumped his companion aside and reached into a small bag.

      “I git half, remember.”

      “You get a third. Aw, will you look at this?” The big one held up a handful of coins, obviously disappointed.

      “You pick a runt to rob and expect to get gold? We ain’t gonna get anywhere if you keep—” A stack of boxes fell over as someone new ran into the alley.

      Someone small.

      “Gimme that back!” the thin voice panted. It was a boy—no more than ten years old, from the looks of him.

      Matthew’s chest constricted. His fingers tightened around the whip. Covington, stay out of this. He backed up against the wall.

      But not before taking a half-dozen silent steps toward the action.

      “Aw, looky here, what followed us.” The pair flanked the boy, each man pushing up his sleeves.

      Nothing needs saving, Covington. Certainly not by you.

      “It’s mine. I want my money back!” The boy put up a pair of tiny, heroic fists.

      Don’t don’t don’t don’t don’t…

      The large man dangled the bag out of the boy’s reach, taunting him. “Life ain’t fair, runt. Better learn it now. Unlessen you’re in a hurry to meet your maker.”

      “Give it to me!” The lad lunged at the smaller of the men, who caught him easily. Matthew glimpsed the glint of a blade against the boy’s throat.

      How could he not?

      Matthew took four huge strides, readying the whip as he went. Silently, staying in the building’s shadow, he lifted his arm. Set up. Turn. He sent the long arc of leather hissing through the air, to crack angrily half a foot to the right of the boy’s captor. The knife was too close to the lad’s throat to chance it, but the crack had the effect needed. As the burly man yelped and flinched, Matthew sent his whip out again, this time around the small bag.

      He gave a precise yank, sending the purse sailing into the air to land a few feet in front of him.

      “What the…?” The other man spun in Matthew’s direction, his own blade raised. At least the lad knew enough to bolt out of his captor’s grasp the second he flinched.

      Matthew drew a breath to hiss something threatening when his brain cautioned him to stay silent. His British accent would give him away in a heartbeat. Or at least make him easier to identify. Instead, he sank as far into the shadow as he could and pulled the whip back a third time. This time it wrapped around the legs of the second man and pulled him down on top of his companion.

      Why didn’t the boy run to safety? Matthew remembered the bag. He considered throwing it to the lad, but that would force him to step into the light again, and the men were already scrambling to their feet. When Matthew noticed the pair lacked guns or holsters—a rare but fortunate circumstance—he calmly drew the revolver from his side. The unmistakable click of the hammer stopped them cold. He let the silver tip of the gun catch the moonlight, and the pair promptly fled, disappearing around the corner.

      Exhaling, Matthew holstered the gun and picked up the bag. The boy stood gaping at him with wide eyes. Matthew tossed the bag to the lad, who was too busy straining to see into the shadows to catch it.

      There was a long pause. Matthew held his tongue, but finally nudged the purse with his foot.

      “Oh. Uh-huh.” Still staring, the boy crouched down and groped for it.

      Matthew forced himself to focus on coiling his whip. When he looked up, the child was gone.

      Then, just as he turned back toward his box, Matthew heard it—the long wail of a running boy calling, “Thanks, mister!”

      If Georgia Waterhouse was going to save the world one child at a time, someone had beaten her to it.

      At least as far as the scrappy newsboy before her was concerned. Snapped from the very jaws of death, to hear him tell it. And tell it he had. He was on his fourth rendition of the morning, the pertinent details growing with every repetition as they sat in the Grace House Mission hallway.

      “I thought you said he had one whip last time, Quinn. Now he’s wielding two.” Georgia smiled and put down the package of clothes she was wrapping. She knelt in front of the boy, tight as they were for space as they moved packages from the hallway into the mission linen closet.

      She handed the boy a shirt to hold. “You know, Quinn, this is a pretty tall tale. Men don’t just appear out of the shadows with whips and guns in the middle of the night to save boys.” She knit her brows together as she reached behind her for another garment. “And what was it you were doing out so late, in any case? Did anyone know where you were?”

      He shot her a look that said she didn’t know anything. “Everyone knew,” he said, with the whine of someone who felt he was stating the obvious. “I always run back to Uncle Hugh with the coins from the newsstand.”

      “At three in the morning?” Georgia pivoted around to pack up the shirts she held with the ones she took back from Quinn. The mission was running out of storage space. Again.

      “No, most times it’s closer to two.”

      She СКАЧАТЬ