Her revengeful Bastard

Not a coincidence

*Kai*

Business is thriving at the ‘Rogue and Maiden’ tonight, but then I have yet to see an evening when it isn’t. The excellent drinks are delivered by confident girls wearing saucy smiles who know if any guy dare pat them on the rump, the owner will have him banned from ever coming back. In spite of the raucousness, the men behave. No one wants to be on Gina’s bad side … especially her brothers, two of whom, Aaron and Dion, are presently sitting at the table with me, taking long, slow draws of their beer while I prefer the whiskey served in my sister’s establishment.

“Did I earn the extra coin, sir ?” I child’s voice says.

I look over at the boy with the hopeful eyes who have planted his clasped, soiled hands on the table. He isn’t decked out in such finery now, but neither is he wearing rags. “You didn’t have to kick my shin so hard, I have a bruise you know”.

The kid scowls. “’Course I did. Had to make my escape look real. The bird wouldn't have believed it otherwise”.

“The lady”. I correct him.

“She was a fancy one, she was. Bet ye gotta be all clean afore ye can even kiss her”. He grins.

I can’t help smiling. “What do you know about kissing girls ?”

“Everything. I kiss ’em all the time”. His grin grows bigger.

I doubt it. The scrawny lad can’t be more than eight. Reaching two fingers into my pocket, I withdraw a coin and toss it toward the boy, who catches it with a wide grin.

“s**t ! Blimey ! Thanks, man. Ye need something else nicked …” He jabs his thumb against his skinny chest. “… You just let me know”. Then he is racing off, no doubt in search of bulging pockets.

“What was that about ?” Aaron asks.

I shake my head. “Just a little task with which I needed some assistance”. It hasn’t been a coincidence that I had crossed paths with Miss Anna. Ever since she left her residence earlier this afternoon, I had been following her, waiting for the most opportune moment to approach her. I had known she was going out because I had paid a servant to deliver a message whenever he learned of her plans for the day. In any household, there is always a servant more loyal to coin than to his employer.

She had spent so much time at the designer I had begun to wonder if she had moved into the shop.

When she had finally emerged and I had overheard her tell the servants she was heading to the hat shop, and I knew the time had come to take advantage. It had gone much better than I had imagined, even if I had ended up purchasing a parasol for Lea because guilt had pricked my conscience for baldly lying to Anna’s face. I don’t understand that reaction on my part. A good deal of my climbing out of the gutter had involved lies and half truths. I am accustomed to telling them with a straight face and moving on, but this afternoon I had spent coins on a bit of frippery. Not that Lea isn’t pleased with the gift.

“I don’t like you using my boy for your nefarious deeds”. Gina says as she sets another glass of whiskey in front of me and tankards in front of Aaron and Dion.

“He’s not your boy”. I point out.

She shakes her head. “He works for me. He’s mine”.

Like our mum, she has a soft heart. Unlike our mum, who is short of stature, Gina is nearly as tall as me. Her hair is cropped short like a man’s. Her loose shirt and boots are reminiscent of a laborer’s attire. Her brown pants are plain, and hide any female curves. While Lea loves all the trappings of ladies’ attire, Gina abhors them. If I would have purchased her a parasol, she would have conked me over the head with it for spending coins on something for which she has no use.

From the moment Mae Tempest had taken Gina in, she had dressed her as a boy. I had assumed it was because mom had lad’s clothing to pass down and didn’t have the pennies to spare for frocks. I had thought she cut Gina’s hair whenever she trimmed the boys’ because she didn’t have the time to brush and braid long tresses, and the shorter style was less likely to attract lice. It was only when I had inadvertently caught her wrapping linen around Gina’s chest when she was twelve that I realized she had made her appear to be a boy in order to protect her from unwanted advances … or worse.

I suspect if Gina will ever grow out her hair and put on proper clothes, like a nice dress, her features might appear more comely and she might draw a man’s attention. Although if a fellow stares at her for too long, he is likely to earn a black eye. Gina is as quick with her fist as she is with her kindness.

“It was a harmless prank”. I tell her. “He never left my sight. He was never in any danger”.

“Nicking a bracelet from a ranked she-wolf could get him hanged”. She huffs.

I fight not to grimace. The next time, I need to explain to the little guy to keep his mouth shut regarding the specifics of his task if he wants to earn extra coins.

Gina yanks out a chair and drops unceremoniously into it in a manner I doubt Miss Anna has ever used to take a seat. She would slowly, elegantly slide …

“Why are you stirring things up, Kai ?” She asks pointedly, always too forthright. I reconsider my earlier assessment. Even if she would grow out her hair and put on a pretty dress, no man would be going to court her when she is always so damned irritatingly blunt, looking a man straight in the eye while carrying on her inquisition, demanding he answer truthfully or suffer the consequences. “Our lives aren’t half bad”.

“We were sentenced to death, and we did nothing to deserve it except be born on the wrong side of the blanket”. I point out.

Shemshakes her head. “Not all the widows murdered the children handed over to them”.

“A good many did”. Over a thousand graves have been discovered recently in one woman’s garden.

“Don’t you ever wonder about where you came from, Gina ?” Dion asks.

She shakes her head. “No. Unlike you lot, I don’t know who fathered me, or anything at all about the immoral woman who lay on her back for him, but Mae Tempest is my mum. That’s all I need to know”.

None of us know anything about the women who have given birth to us, although Aaron and Dion’s father had delivered them to Mae Tempest’s door within weeks of each other so everyone assumed the man had possessed two mistresses.

“Don’t you want to know if the woman who brought you into the world was his lover or just someone he took for the night ?” Dion asks. “I wonder about my mum, if she meant anything at all to him”.

“If she had, do you think he would have gotten rid of you ?” Gina asks. “Don’t be daft, guys. The women who gave birth to us were mistresses or prostitutes or, heaven forbid, some poor servant girl who got cornered in the linen room. Keeping us would have ruined their lives, made them as unwanted as we were. Look ahead, not back. Nothing to be seen in the rear but heartache”.

But I can’t help but wonder if sometimes heartache is needed in order to move forward.