Page 53 of To Dare the Devil

“Oh!” she wailed, sinking her hands into her hair and tugging as if she could pull it out by the roots. Kathy stalked up and down the confines of her room like a caged tiger until she could bear it no longer. What was she to do?

Grace had told her to stay away from Max, and Kathy had agreed, but….

Her gaze fell on the hat. The beaver skin covering was worn and patchy and, as she picked it up, the dares all rustled together. Kathy stared at them. Well, why not? Perhaps it would take her mind off Max. Doubtful, but she’d try anything. Kathy peered into the hat, wrinkling her nose. It smelt musty, a bit like mothballs and old books. Carefully, she reached in and took out a dare. The thin slip of paper crackled as she opened it, and she saw it was one of the original dares, old and yellowing now.

Go somewhere you are not supposed to go.

Kathy stared at it in awe, a shiver rolling down her spine. That had been her mother’s dare. She must have put it back in the hat. Mama had gone to Papa’s house alone, though she had known it might end in her ruin. Papa had been rude and difficult and rather unkind, but Mama had believed in him. She had seen that he was a good man, a lonely man, who just needed to be loved, and so she had risked everything, and done just that.

“Oh,” Kathy said, wondering if this was fate telling her to give Max another chance, or just her own foolish heart wanting to believe it.

There was one man who might know more about him, who might give her some insight into who Max really was, and she was going to see him. And it was definitely somewhere she was not supposed to go.

“Thank you, Burt. You’ve relieved my mind.”

Burt shook his head, bewildered. “You’re setting us up in a fancy new house with a garden and you’re thankin’ me? Touched in the upper works, that’s your problem.”

Max smiled. “No. I’m being selfish. It took me a long time to realise it, but you taught me we find the greatest happiness in making others happy. So, I’m doing it for me, really. And think of all the people you can help with a big comfortable place like that. You can fill all the bedrooms with the people who really need you, and there will be a kitchen and a cook, so you can feed them all up. You’ll make it a wonderful, safe place to be, and when you retire, Pike will take it over and it will be his place.”

Burt’s eyes glittered, and he sniffed, shaking his head. “You’re a good man, Maxwell Drake. Do you hear me? Because it’s about time someone told you. You might have been a villain once, but that’s done now. You’re a good man, and I’m proud of you.”

Maxwell swallowed hard. That was the first time Burt had called him by his real name, not Valentine. And those words, coming from him, eased the pain in his heart, just a little.

“Goodbye, Burt.”

“Bye, lad. And don’t forget, it’s not just other people that need kindness. You be kind to yourself, eh?”

Max smiled and nodded, raising his hand in farewell before he turned and walked away, out into the melee of filth and vice that was the Seven Dials. Though Burt’s words rang in his ears, bringing him a little comfort, he could not rid his mind of the way Kathy had looked in the last moments before she’d left his home, as if he had taken all the joy from her and shattered her dreams. His guts clenched, but he forced himself to look up and take stock of his surroundings. He’d learned his lesson about this place, and you never let down your guard. Pausing, he stopped, listening intently as the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. The road was narrow, dingy, and disgusting, and no different from most roads in this part of London. It was not the alley he’d been attacked in, but suddenly it felt the same, or perhaps it was him who felt the same as a prickling sense of alarm skittered down his spine. Shaking it off, he turned and hurried on.

“Miss Kathy!” Burt exclaimed in horror. “Tell me your brother is with you?”

Kathleen shook her head and gestured to the side, towards two burly builders. She had borrowed them from the school building site with the promise of a large reward. They’d finished for the day in any case, so it wasn’t as if she was delaying the build. “No. He’d murder me quicker than anyone in the Dials if he knew. But I’m not stupid. I know it’s dangerous, so I brought Len and Paul with me.”

The two men nodded at Burt, who sighed.

“Right, why don’t you two have a pint in the Crown? I’ll send my lad to fetch you when the lady is ready to leave.”

The men nodded and ambled away, happy enough to comply with the instruction.

“Right, miss. You’d best come in and tell me what it is I can do for you, though I reckon I can guess.”

Kathy stepped into the dark confines of Burt’s home, turning back to him with a frown.

“You can?”

“Reckon so. Valentine—that is, Max—was here not long since. You’ve had a shock, eh?”

His intelligent gaze missed nothing. Kathy swallowed.

“Yes,” she said, dismayed to hear her voice quaver. “Yes, I have. Do you know why, Burt?”

Burt nodded. “Happen I do. Come along, and I’ll tell you what I know.”

Sometime later, Kathy sat by the fire in Burt’s kitchen, or the part of the main room that passed as a kitchen. He said they kept the fire going year-round, for the room was damp and cold even in summer. There was a healthy stack of fuel, courtesy of Max, and Burt had supplied her with a large mug of strong tea with a generous tot of brandy in it. She sipped the potent brew now, digesting what he’d told her, about Max, about Grace, and what had happened between them.

“He did a terrible thing. I ain’t saying he didn’t. He ruined that girl without a thought, but that’s the thing, see? He didn’t think. No one had ever taught him to think about others.”

Kathy frowned, wondering if that was a good excuse.