Shanghai Sparrow by Gaie Sebold Page A

mean?”
    “That means it’s made of gold, you see? So it’s most probably genuine. I think the pawnbroker, seeing an innocent young girl... you’re not long up from the country, are you?” He put his hand on her shoulder this time.
    “Why, that’s right, sir. However did you guess?”
    The clergyman gave her back the pin, tapped his nose, and gave a smug smile. “I think this villain tried to get this from you for less than it was worth, that’s what I think.”
    “Oh, sir, how dreadful! Whatever shall I do? I daren’t go to another, what if they are all such cheating wretches?”
    “I tell you what, I’m about to go visit my dear mother at Tunbridge Wells. Why don’t you accompany me? The train leaves shortly. And then perhaps we can...”
    “Oh, dear,” said a voice. “Eveline, what are you about now?”
    It was him, the grey-coat man, turning up right there, quiet as a cat, smiling patiently. He knows my name! She jumped up, but before she could run, his hand was on her arm, clamped like a steel cuff. “Don’t be foolish, child.”
    Fear rose jittering in her brain, all ratsqueal and clawscratch. Her hands went cold. But part of her pulled back, like it always did, watching. She knew that trick, speaking the target’s name; she’d heard of Whicher doing that. It was meant to make a person feel hopeless, as though he knew so much they might as well give up. But cons did the same, getting under a mark’s skin by seeming to know things about them.
    He wasn’t acting like a copper. He hadn’t arrested her. “My dear sir, I hope she hasn’t been troublesome. I’ll take her now.”
    Eveline realised she was gaping like an eel on a slab and closed her jaw.
    The clergyman looked almost as confused as she felt. “Are you... who are you?”
    “The person who just prevented you from being robbed.”
    “Let go my arm!” Damn, in her panic she’d let the accent slip. “I don’t know what you want, but I don’t know you!” She tried to shift her arm and his grip clamped down harder, grinding flesh against bone. Eveline turned to the clergyman. “Please, sir, don’t listen to him, I’ve never seen him before!” She widened her eyes and looked helpless. The clergyman was going red with discomfort.
    Grey-Coat leaned down and muttered in her ear, “Stop it, Eveline, or you’ll be on a transport to Australia within the week. Be still .”
    Transport? So he was a copper. How long had he been following her? What did he want? He had her arm behind her back now, pulling her tight against him so the clergyman wouldn’t be able to see. If she tried to run, she’d tear her own arm out of its socket.
    “She seemed to be in distress,” the clergyman said. “She told me some story about her mistress, and a diamond stick-pin...”
    “A diamond stick-pin? If she has such a thing, sir, I assure you, she did not come by it honestly. It seems I intervened just in time. The pin?” He held his hand out with a patient expression. Evvie thought about jamming the pin through it, but he gave the smallest possible shake of his head, as though he’d heard her think it. “I don’t advise any foolishness, either.” He raised the hand holding her arm, so she was almost on tiptoe. It hurt. If she jabbed him, he’d dislocate her, that seemed clear enough.
    She dropped the pin in his palm. There. Now you’re handling stolen goods. Maybe I should call a copper. The grey-coated man raised his eyebrows, and put it in his pocket. “I can assure you she stole it,” he said.
    “Well, sir,” the clergyman said, glaring at Eveline, “I shan’t waste any more of my time. I might have missed my train!”
    Eveline felt an uprush of fury. She knew what he’d intended for her, she was certain. A little ‘now don’t you worry,’ a hand on your arm, and the next thing you knew they thought you owed them whatever they wanted to take. And of course he’d believed every word Grey-Coat said, just because he was a man, and