The Curious Case Of The Clockwork Menace by Bec McMaster

easy as you
make it sound,” Perry replied carefully. “I hear that there was an
incident outside, where someone tried to grab you?”
    That washed
away any hint of smile. Miss Radcliffe paled. “You don’t think it
was the same man as... as kidnapped Nelly?”
    “ I couldn’t speculate. We don’t yet know if it was a man or
woman who had anything to do with Nelly’s disappearance. Did you
see who tried to grab you? How did you get free?”
    “ I was just trying to take some air in the alley behind the
theatre, when someone grabbed me from behind,” Miss Radcliffe
replied. “I’m sorry, but I was so distracted that I didn’t see
anything - just a glimpse of his hands. He slammed one over my
mouth so that I couldn’t protest. I was certain that something was
going to happen to me - that I was going to end up with poor Nelly,
so I bit him, and managed to scream when he let go. Ned Barham -
one of the stagehands - ran to help, and the man fled.”
    “ Did Ned see what he looked like?”
    Miss Radcliffe
shook her head. “I don’t think so. The fellow cast me aside when he
ran, and poor Ned had to help me up. He didn’t know what had
happened, at first.”
    First, the red
roses... and now someone had tried to assault Miss Radcliffe,
perhaps even steal her away too. “It sounds like someone has an
unhealthy fascination with actresses.”
    “ Do you think they’ll try again?”
    “ They may,” Perry admitted. “Which is why you’re going to take
up Lord Rommell’s generous offer of a man to watch over you during
the day. I’ll arrange for a Nighthawk to keep a watch on your
apartment of nights, though, whilst we try to get to the bottom of
all of this.”
    “ And what should I tell Rommell?”
    “ Tell him it wouldn’t be proper, so arrangements have been
made,” Perry replied. “How much pressure is he placing on
you?”
    Miss Radcliffe
lowered her head, scrunching the handkerchief in her gloved fist.
“He’s like that with all of us,” she whispered. “I knew what to
expect, of course, after the way he went after poor Nelly, but I
just– It makes me feel so helpless, when I know my career relies
upon his good graces. I’d hoped to be able to keep him at arm’s
length, but he’s... persistent.”
    That made her
furious. “If you need help, you should come to us. Nothing, not
even your career, is worth being pressured into a relationship you
don’t wish for.”
    “ What else do I have, other than my career?” Miss Radcliffe’s
smiling facade slipped, revealing a haunted edge to her
eyes.
    A question
Perry had often asked herself. She’d forced herself to put aside
any other feminine dreams to focus on her career. To forge her own
path up the ladder in the Nighthawks, she’d had to be ruthless,
exacting and forgo her own pleasures.
    She also had
no answer for Miss Radcliffe. A woman’s lot was precarious in this
world. “Perhaps... if you made it clear your attentions were
engaged elsewhere, he might relent.”
    “ Nobody else would dare stand up to him.”
    “ Garrett would.”
    Silence
bloomed. Miss Radcliffe flushed. “I-I wasn’t aware that you’d
noticed.”
    So her heart
did lie in that direction. Something squeezed tight in Perry’s
chest, but she forced it down. A woman’s safety was more important
than her own insecurities.
    “ Or perhaps you could earn your right on the stage. If the
audience loves you enough, they’ll clamour your name,” Perry said.
“Rommell wouldn’t be able to cut you from the show.”
    “ The audience is fickle, and I’m not Nelly. She owned the
crowd, you know. Flirted with all of them - men and women alike.
She had this... this ability to make everyone think she belonged to
them - and yet, it’s only now that I realize how private she was in
person. How little I knew of her.”
    “ May I ask you a question?”
    Miss Radcliffe
nodded. “Of course.”
    “ I find it curious the way you said ‘Rommell went after poor
Nelly’. Did he