Improper English

  “And I especially want to thank you for”—I shot a quick glance at Bert and Ray and dropped my voice—“for being so sweet about the lease. That money will let me live here for three more months.”

  Isabella tried on her bright smile, but it didn’t seem to have the wattage it normally wore. Maybe it was just the dingy surroundings. She looked around worriedly.

  “It’s OK, Isabella, really it is. I know it’s not any great shakes as a bedsit, but it’ll be just fine. All I want to do is have some peace and quiet so I can write, and there’ll be nothing here that will…” My gaze met hers. I ignored the sympathy in them and clung to the admiration. The new Alix didn’t indulge in pity parties. “…distract me.”

  She squeezed my arm in sympathy or reassurance, I wasn’t sure which.

  “Alix?”

  “Hmm?” I turned to where Ray and Bert were standing at the window. Ray looked angry. Bert looked worried as she sent some sort of eyebrow semaphore to Isabella.

  “Have you…erm…met your neighbors?” Ray asked.

  Why was she so worried about a bunch of students? They seemed all right to me, if a bit young.

  “Just the two women next door. There’s another room on this floor, and the shower, so I figure it’ll probably be pretty quiet.”

  Some sort of secret unspoken communication passed between Isabella and Bert. Ray’s frown turned into a scowl. What on earth was wrong with them? I caught the merest shake of Isabella’s head before Bert spoke again.

  “Actually, I was referring to the people who live on either side of the student house.”

  I went over to peer out the window. I didn’t see anything worrisome, just a busy London street with a fish-and-chips shop across the street (handy!), an earring piercing place next to it, and a pinball arcade.

  “Well, the pinball place is bound to be a bit noisy at night, but Alex fixed my CD player and I have headphones, so I’ll be fine.”

  Ray cleared her throat. “Man next door. Big, burly fellow. Bald, too. Shaves his head, probably. Has tattoos of snakes on his neck. You stay clear of him.”

  My mouth dropped open. “Really?” I peered down at an angle to see if I could spot him. “Snakes? On his neck? Cool!”

  “Alix.”

  I smooshed my cheek against the not-terribly-clean windowpane and tried to see who stood in the doorway next to the one for the student house. I hadn’t particularly noticed the building next to the student house, so I had no idea if it was a business or another student house, but I could see the tips of a pair of dirty-looking tennis shoes poking out from the doorway.

  “Alix.”

  “What?”

  Isabella tugged on my elbow. “Alix, I don’t wish to alarm you, but King’s Cross isn’t a terribly safe neighborhood.”

  I peeled my cheek off the window and turned to look between her, Bert, and Ray.

  “What? Not safe? This is London—of course it’s safe! I mean, look, the train station is right there, you can see it from the window. Of course it’s safe!”

  Ray rolled her eyes.

  I forestalled the inevitable objections. “Oh, I know, you guys have crime, but nothing like back home, trust me! I’ve been around student areas before, I’m not stupid.”

  The three women exchanged dubious glances with each other.

  “You’re all mother hens, you know that?” I herded them to the door, thanking them again for their help, and after promising them faithfully that I wouldn’t wander the streets at night and would take care not to speak to Mr. Snakes, I sent them on their way.

  I went down to the kitchen on the ground floor, put my meager foodstuffs away on the shelf marked with my room number, chatted for a moment with the resident kitchen loungers, then hurried back up four flights of twisty, uneven stairs to my new room.

  An hour later I had everything tucked away, my newly purchased clean sheets and blanket on the bed, and was ready to begin work. I pulled out the list I had created two days before, and crossed off another item. My list was getting shorter, although adding in all the steps necessary to get through Friday evening had lengthened it considerably, but still I took pride in the fact that I was moving forward rather than standing still as I had for so many years.

  I pulled out Ravening Raptures, made a mental note that I needed to find it a new title, and examined the first chapter, which I had finished revising the night before. As I read the words, Alex’s image was superimposed upon Lord Raoul’s, filling me with desire and anguish and all the many emotions I had fought back the day before. I closed my eyes against the sting of tears, and reminded myself that I couldn’t go back. I had been reborn, and I would not go back to that prior existence. I opened my eyes and propped up my list.

  I was strong. I could do this. I had my plan, and I would stick to it, no matter how much my heart ached.

  That night I met Beryl. I had toddled over to the fish-and-chips shop for dinner, splurging despite my new, extremely strict budget, and after dodging my way around all the people wandering the sidewalks, I crossed the street and headed back to my student house. As I passed the dark blue and purple painted exterior of the building next to mine, a man stepped out of the doorway. He was at least six and a half feet tall, and probably a good yard across, but what immediately caught the eye was not his huge body, but the blue and red snakes coiled around his neck, writhing and twisting their way up the sides of his bald head.

  Surprisingly handsome gray eyes peered out of a face that would have given the Gestapo nightmares. Unfortunately, those eyes were narrowed in suspicion and focused on me as I stared back at him. Two massive arms the size of my thighs crossed in front of his chest when he leaned forward, menace rolling off him like dust off a wheat field.

  “What’re ye about, then?”

  Who, me? I had to swallow twice before I could make my tongue work. “Uh…hi. I live…um…just there.” I pointed a hesitant finger over his shoulder at the pink door to the student house.

  His eyes narrowed even more as he raked me over from head to heels. I suddenly became aware that there was no one else on this side of the street, and the people on the other side, the side with the busy shops, had all stopped and were gathered into small, silent groups.

  Oh, great, my first day out in my new neighborhood and I run smack dab into the neighborhood murderer.

  “I’ve never seen ye before.”

  “I just moved here. Today. This morning.” I tried to edge my way around him, but a parked car blocked one direction, and he easily blocked me from the other. I clutched my fish and chips to my chest as one would a crucifix when faced with a vampire. “Look, I’d love to stand here chatting with you, but I’ve…uh…I’ve got to call my boyfriend. He gets worried about me, you know.” I hoped the snakeman wouldn’t notice my crossed fingers as I tried to sidle by him. “Scotland Yard detectives are awfully funny about that sometimes. Ha ha ha ha!”

  He didn’t join me in laughter. Instead, two bushy black eyebrows met in the middle of his face and formed one long, continuous entity. Somehow the sight didn’t inspire hilarity.

  “Wot’s that ye say? Scotland Yard?”

  My head bobbled up and down like one of those dogs people put in the rear window of their cars. “Yes. Scotland Yard. My boyfriend—we’re going to be married soon, he’s very fond of me, very fond—he works for Scotland Yard. He’s a detective inspector. That’s an important guy,” I added just in case Snakes didn’t know that little fact. It appeared from the alacrity with which he stepped back that he did know that, or at least decided to consider it before killing me. I made an odd sort of bobbing motion that felt suspiciously like a curtsey as I scurried around the behemoth toward the safety of the student house. The weight of my snakey friend’s eyes on me had my palms sweating while I scrabbled for my key, but even so I managed a weak smile at him as I squeezed in through the opening.

  “Holy cow,” I panted once I had the door closed safely behind me. I leaned against it, my legs trembling, an
d decided that although the New Alix was many things, she was not a fool.

  A slight blonde with bad skin and a cheery smile poked her head around the door to the TV room. “Looks like you’ve just met Genghis.”

  I stiffened my knees and tightened my grip on my dinner. “Genghis?”

  The blonde grinned and nodded in the direction I had last seen the monster of King’s Cross.

  “Bloke with the tattoos. His name is really Beryl, but we call him Genghis. He’s barb, isn’t he?”

  “Oh, barb, yes. Totally barb. The barbiest man I’ve ever seen, and God help me, I hope I don’t ever see him again.”

  She laughed a lighthearted little laugh and introduced herself as Jasmin. “Old Genghis won’t bother you once he’s shaken you down.”

  “Uh…” Shaken me down? Good Lord, what sort of place had I moved into? “What do you mean, shaken me down?”

  Her gaze razed me in a calculating sort of manner. “Blunt. Money. Didn’t you pay him anything?”

  “To walk down the sidewalk? No.”

  Her eyes widened until they were almost perfectly round, and she backed slowly away from me as if I were a rabid dog about to attack.

  “Oh. I’m sure…that is, you probably…well, it was a pleasure to meet you.”

  I watched her disappear slowly back into the TV room, never taking her eyes from me until the door closed softly behind her. I pondered whether I wanted to eat my dinner in the kitchen with what were sure to be the same three skinny guys slouching around a sticky Formica table, or if I wanted to dine in the comfort of my room, or if I wanted to drop everything and run screaming into Alex’s arms.

  That pesky little inner voice who insists on giving me the benefit of her advice chose the last option, but New Alix shoved her aside and gave me the strength to make my way up four flights of stairs, past the toilet on the third floor, the tiny, claustrophobic shower on the fourth floor, to the safe haven of my room. I pulled down the blinds, pushed the rickety desk in front of the door, and sank bonelessly down onto the bed. I knew that if I turned my head I could see my list lying on my laptop on the desk, but it somehow seemed to lack the comfort it usually gave me. Despite the heat of the day, I wrapped the blanket around me and curled up into a ball on the bed.

  My decision to leave Beale Square suddenly seemed hasty and not terribly well thought out. I prayed it would all come out right.

  “The new Alix,” I told Bert and Ray as I spun around obligingly for them, “may not be perfect, but she no longer allows herself doubts as to the correctness of the path before her.”

  “Sounds foolish,” Ray grumbled as she twitched the blinds back to peer down onto the street.

  “Not foolish, dear, just ambitious,” Bert corrected her as I came to a halt. “Remaking yourself is never easy. I wish you all happiness with your new life.”

  I pushed aside the thought of the tears I had been unable to hold back in the warm darkness of the previous three nights, and struck a fashionable pose. “So what do you think?”

  She smiled. “I think you will dazzle the eye of every man you meet, and one man in particular.”

  I let my smile slip just a little. “Well, that doesn’t matter, it’s not on the list for tonight. I’m going to have enough on my plate without tackling off-list items.”

  “Alix, about this list of yours—”

  “They’re gone. Wonder what happened to them.”

  We both turned to where Ray was peering through the window at the street opposite.

  “Who’s gone?” I asked, moving over to look out the window with her. I didn’t see anything out of place, just the usual people coming and going at the shops, generally acting just as they had every other of the three days I had been in residence. “What happened to who?”

  “Whom,” Bert corrected softly as she followed me to the window.

  “Tarts,” Ray said succinctly.

  “What?” I nudged her aside so I could see better. “Where’s a tart?”

  Ray shot me a disbelieving look. “They were right in front of your nose. Gone now.”

  I glanced down at the people on the street. None of them looked like tarts. “You’re kidding! There were tarts on the street? How’d I miss them? I don’t see anyone now but two bobbies and some kids in the video arcade place.”

  “Exactly.” Ray gave me an expectant look that I had no idea how to meet. I turned to Bert for help.

  “Surely you noticed the unusual amount of activity on the street when you moved here?” Bert asked gently.

  “Well, yeah, but I figured it was just the video arcade. Lots of people seemed to hang around there…” My mouth dropped open as it struck me that the people hanging around outside were mostly women, women dressed in a flashy manner that would have instantly screamed hooker to me if I had seen them back home. Somehow, though, the idea of prostitutes in London just seemed alien. “Oh. They were tarts?”

  Both women nodded.

  I frowned out the window. “But I only saw them the first day I was here. I remember thinking the next day how nice it was that the street had quieted down.” I gnawed on my lip a wee tad bit. “There’ve been lots of bobbies on the street, though…oh, good Lord! Genghis!”

  “Genghis?” Bert asked, scooping up her bag and a silk scarf that complemented the soft green sleeveless silk sheath dress she wore.

  “Yeah, Genghis. The guy next door with the snakes on his neck. One of the students told me yesterday he had disappeared, that no one had seen him since Tuesday night! That was three days ago, the day I moved in. You don’t suppose there’s some sort of Jack the Ripper type murderer running amok in King’s Cross, do you? I mean, the hookers are gone, the head pimp who extorts money from innocent students disappears, bobbies are crawling all over the place—good Lord, that’s probably it! There’s some vigilante madman running around cleaning up the streets! And I’m right in the middle of it!”

  Ray gave a short bark of laughter and exchanged glances with Bert. “Simpler explanation than that. Black’s had his hand in this.”

  Really, I was getting quite good at that goggling look. I practiced it now on Ray, staring at her as if she had completely lost her mind. “Black? Alex? You think he is the vigilante?”

  “Could be,” she said with a wicked grin.

  “Ray, don’t tease Alix, she’s had a difficult week. We really should be going now.” Bert slid her arm through mine and tugged me toward the door. I resisted. I wasn’t going to leave the room until Ray was straightened out.

  “Alex is a lot of things, but he wouldn’t subscribe to vigilante justice,” I argued. “He’s very law-abiding. If it came right down to it, he’d get a bunch of his police buddies and have them crack down on—”

  Ray’s smirk stopped me cold. A little thrill of excitement rippled through me—excitement and a warm glow of pleasure. “Oh. You think Alex is protecting me? But why? And how does he know where I’m living?”

  Both women just looked at me. I nodded at their silent answer. “Isabella. Isabella would have told him that I had moved here.”

  Ray shrugged. “Might not be him. Could be a coincidence.”

  It could, but if it wasn’t…the warm glow of pleasure burned a little hotter. Despite everything, he was trying to protect me. No one had ever protected me before! It was a very heady feeling to know that Alex cared.

  Heady, but not allowed on my list. I pushed down the warm glow and paid heed when Bert nodded at my alarm clock. “If we don’t wish to be late, we’d best be on our way.”

  Half an hour later we piled out of a taxi and stood in front of the glass doors of The Ivy, one of London’s most popular restaurants, certainly the most popular in the area around Leicester Square, the heart of the theater district. Normally it took up to six weeks to book a table at The Ivy, but the prior week when I was explaining my plans for making Alex’s thirty-sixth birthday something he’d never forget, Isabella mentioned being a friend of one of the owners. Three phone calls later, a mi
racle had been granted us.

  “Miracle or plague, I wonder,” I muttered as I stood outside the shaded glass doors and tugged unobtrusively at the hem of my little black dress. It was a twin of the red one hanging in my wardrobe, both having been purchased at a consignment shop back in Seattle, the brand label and fit too good to pass up. Whereas I hadn’t felt anything but pleasantly sexy when I wore the red version to the dinner at Isabella’s to meet Karl, at the moment I felt sick to my stomach with apprehension.

  I clutched at the tassels of the silk scarf Bert had thrown over her sheath dress. “Bert, I don’t feel very well. I don’t think I’m going to be able to get through this.”

  “Alix, you’ll be fine. Just try to relax.”

  I clutched the tassels even harder. “What if he’s not here? What if he’s so ticked off at me that he decided not to come? What if he wants to humiliate me in front of everyone? What if he brought a date?”

  She smiled and gave my arm a reassuring squeeze. “You’re being silly. Isabella said she and Karl would be sure to bring him with them, and he wouldn’t be so tactless as to bring a date. Now stop worrying and try to look like you’re not going to be sick all over the floor.”

  I released my stranglehold on her tassels for a moment, then lunged after her as she started for the door.

  “Wait! Maybe you should go in first, just to see if he’s there, and to see where he’s sitting and if Isabella is sitting next to him, and if he’s laughing and looking like he’s having a good time, or if he’s looking sulky or angry or hurt or something—”

  Bert turned back to say something to me, but I’ll never know what, because Ray, previously engaged in paying off the taxi, grabbed my elbow and marched me toward the white and black door. “The new Alix wouldn’t whinge,” she said firmly, and pushed me inside. I cursed her for her insight. She grinned in return.

  The inside of the restaurant was everything it was rumored to be, all wood-paneled and stained glass and oldworld ambience, but I didn’t consciously notice any of it as we approached the large round table in the back.