“Lots.” The girl made a sour face that made Linnet suspect the boys took after their father. The poor thing.
Linnet reached through the slit in her gown to fish out a coin from her pouch. “I can see you are good at hiding things, so keep this safe from your brothers.”And from that filthy, moneygrubbing father of yours.“It is payment for returning the mirror.”
When she took Lily’s hand and placed a gold florin in her palm, the girl gasped.
“And here is my ring.” Linnet twisted it off her little finger and put it in Lily’s other hand. “If you are ever in trouble, show this to my clerk, Master Woodley. He will find my brother or me, and one of us will help you.”
Lily closed her fingers over the ring and nodded. Clearly, this was a girl who had learned to expect trouble. Linnet gave Lily directions to her clerk’s rooms and made her repeat them twice.
“Your family will return soon,” Linnet said as she got to her feet. “Wait for me downstairs, and I will take you for a meat pie while we wait for your father.”
When Linnet entered the solar, her clerk’s eyes flew open and he fumbled to his feet.
“Tell Mychell to meet me in an hour to hear my offer,” she told him. “If he gives me what I want, I will forgive the debt and let him keep the house.”
The clerk put his hand to his chest, as if her words pained him. “But the man has nothing left of value.”
She smiled at him. “I did get the stool.”
“How should I have known the thieving maggot would breed like a rabbit?” she complained to her brother that evening. “I cannot throw his wife and children out onto the street.”
She and Francois were relaxing with her best wine in the house on the Strand she had purchased the week before.
“Revenge is proving more complicated than you anticipated.” Francois lifted his glass to her with a sparkle in his eyes. “Perhaps now you’ll have the sense to leave justice to God.”
She smiled at him over the brim of her cup. “You know me better than that.”
He gave a long-suffering sigh. “Linnet, you are good at business. If you were not set on using your trade for revenge, you could make a fortune.”
“I intend to do both,” she said. “ ’Tis difficult here in London because of the lock the guilds have on trade. But I have a plan now.”
“I beg you, do not tell me yet,” Francois said, putting his hands up. “Let me enjoy one more hour of peace.”
They grinned at each other, then Linnet squeezed his hand. “How lucky I am to have you for a brother.”
They sat in comfortable silence, their feet propped up on their grandfather’s stool, watching the burning coals in the brazier.
After a while, Francois said, “I hear Jamie Rayburn is in London.”
“He is.” Linnet took a long drink of her wine. “I have seen him.”
“More than once, I hear tell.”
She rolled her eyes. “What do you do, bribe the servants? Sleep with the queen’s ladies-in-waiting?”
Francois winked and shrugged one shoulder. “Whatever I must.” He picked up the flask from the small table between them and poured more wine into their cups. “How is he?”
“Vile.”
Francois threw his head back and laughed. “I take it he did not fall at your feet this time.”
Linnet slapped her brother’s arm.
“He did play the dashing knight, braving a violent horde of Londoners to rescue me from the bridge,” she said, fighting a smile. “I was managing quite well without his help, but he did look magnificent.”
Francois sat up straight. “You were on London Bridge the day of the riots?”
“As you can see, I am none the worse for it,” Linnet said with an impatient wave of her fingers. “But you should have seen Jamie—Sir James, rather. He charged across the bridge like Saint George toward the dragon.”