The carriage stopped and a voice trumpeted, “That one, there. Let me see his face!”
One of the Haggers approached, ripped down Ornery’s veils, then waited while Ornery’s heart half-stopped and her breathing did stop.
“Good enough,” the woman called. “Put him in the cart.”
“What?” Ornery cried. “What is this?”
“Press gang,” said the Hagger, not without some satisfaction. “Mistress Marool is pressing some of you supernumeraries to take the place of some … servants of hers.”
“But I’m a seaman!” cried Ornery. “I’ve a legitimate job. I’m not a supernumerary.”
The woman had alighted from the carriage. Now she too approached, glaring into Ornery’s face. “If I say you are a supernumerary, boy, that’s what you are. If you speak out of turn again, you’ll serve my needs without your tongue.”
Ornery choked herself silent. The woman went by her like a storm wind, and the Hagger who held her thrust her past the carriage to the cart that waited there, where Ornery was unceremoniously put inside and chained beside two other unwilling passengers, from whom she learned what little they knew about what was going on.
Meantime the woman had gone on to the main doors of House Genevois, where she jerked the great bell into such a clamor that it sent a cloud of birds flying from the roof, screaming outrage. The door was opened, and she went inside to find Madame herself awaiting her.
Marool presented the edict of the Hags, her sneer of authority ready for use at the first sign of recalcitrance.
“Wait here,” said Madame, leaving with such alacrity that Marool had no time to be rude. She was gone long enough for Marool to have worked up a good fume by the time she returned.
“See here,” she began, in an angry tone.
“In here,” said Madame, throwing open the double doors that centered the farther wall. Inside the gymnasium thus disclosed were several ranks of young men, arranged by age.
“I have not included the Consorts already purchased, since they are not my property to dispose of,” said Madame, crisply. “The younger boys would be of little use to you as laborers, for they have not come into their strength. All the others are here.”
Marool’s eyes gleamed. She did not notice the pinched look of Madame’s nostrils, or the wariness in the faces of those before her. She had no hint of what had been said by Madame to those youths in the intervening moments. She was interested in only one thing, and that was to discover the boy she had seen in the park. The light veils the youths wore were no impediment to her search. She walked down the line, spotting him immediately. It was the boy she had seen. She could not possibly have missed him. He was the largest boy in the room.
“Him,” she said, pointing at Bane.
He regarded her with insolence. “I go nowhere without my brother, Ma’am,” he said, making little pretense of politeness.
“Your brother?” She laughed. “By all means. If you have a brother.”
Dyre stepped forward. Marool nodded. “I have a cart outside. They will be taken to Mantelby Mansion.” She turned to stalk away down the line of youths, paying the rest of them little attention.
One of the Haggers who had accompanied her opened the door into the entry, admitting a slight breeze that lifted the veil of the young man at the end of the line. The movement drew Marool’s eyes to the face behind the veil. It was a beautiful face drawn into an expression of horrified recognition. Why horrified? She had never laid eyes on him before.
“What’s the matter, boy? You never seen a woman before?”
“My apologies,” he bowed, hiding his eyes. “I meant no disrespect.”
Something in his manner both annoyed her and piqued her curiosity. “Feh,” she barked, angry at him. “I’ll take you as well, boy. You hear, Madame? I’ll take this one as well. Does he have a name?”
“His name is Mouche, Mistress Mantelby.” Madame said it in a dead, impersonal voice. “As I understand this matter, you are to give me a document agreeing to return these young men when the current emergency is over. If you will join me in my office, I will enter all the pertinent data on both our copies. Their names. Their annuities, which you would be expected to fulfil, if they should be incapacitated in your employ. Also their value to me, which you would be expected to pay if anything happens to them to reduce their value. Anything at all.”