98 Chapter 98

"What do you mean she 'ain't' here?" Kendall demanded. "Where the hell is she, then? Well?"

Having descended from his carriage, presently being hammered by rain worse than the forty days and night's worth that had troubled Noah, and having battered for what seemed an eternity on this lantern-jawed harridan's door, 'ain't here' were not words Kendall had any desire whatsoever to hear. Mrs. Hanney folded her skinny arms across her scraggy breast.

"And I should know? It might be Timbuktu. It might be the North Pole. Ireland, where the leprechauns live."

Irritation swelled his veins, matching the water swelling around his best leather boots. Whatever accent that was-Birmingham, Liverpool-he recognized the tones.

Splendor might be upstairs for that matter, or lurking behind the door, she might be in hiding behind him, standing to his left, or his right, but nothing was going to be revealed unless he forked over thecontents of his wallet-in their entirety.