He shook his head, chewing on his lower lip. He didn’t say anything, just indicated that I should turn around. I heaved a sigh and rotated on the spot, trying to keep the fabric of the dress up so that it didn’t slide down and show him more than I wanted him to see.

            “Stay still,” he said firmly.

            I was about to make some kind of biting remark when I felt his fingertips brush the small of my back, drawing the dress tight around my hips. I suppressed a shiver at the light touch. His fingers felt warm on my skin. The top part of the dress was corset-like, and I could feel it pulling tight around my torso as he did up the clasps. It seemed like I stood there for ages, feeling his feather-light touch move up my spine, all the way up and up, until I felt the fabric pull tight across my chest.

            “There,” he said softly. “Turn around.”

            I turned, and found myself staring up into Kiran’s blue eyes. We were both silent, and then he blinked, gaze flicking down to take in the dress. His eyes got bigger.

            “It looks…nice on you.”

            Embarrassment flooded through me, enough to make me take a step back from him. What the hell was wrong with me? I let myself get forced into a dress by a stranger, a famous thief no less, and then catch myself making eyes at him. I fumed inwardly, looking down at myself.

            My mouth fell open.

            The dress was form fitting, to say the least. It pushed and padded all the right things. I could feel my cheeks burn, and had to resist the urge to fling my hands up, to cover myself like a blushing teenager.

            “I don’t…I can’t go…”

            “Not what you’re used to?” Kiran was covering his mouth with one hand, and the words came out muffled. He looked very much like he was trying not to laugh, and I narrowed my eyes at him, feeling the burning urge to punch him in the throat.

            “I don’t wear this type of thing. I’m not some trollop…”

            “It’s just for tonight. I promise.”

            “And what if some idiot decides he wants a piece of the action? What then, genius? I can’t fight in this thing.”

            “Tonight you’re not just any trollop,” Kiran said, and his shoulders were shaking with laughter. “You’re my trollop.”

            That’s it.

            I clenched my fists and launched myself forward just as he was saying, “I won’t let anything happen…woah!”

            Fists swinging, I dove for him, determined to knock the laughter right out of him. My foot snagged on the bottom of the stupid dress, on the layers of crinoline and whatever crap was layered under that, and I felt myself pitch forward, stumbling, stubbing my toes on the floorboards. I was about to crash face-first onto the ground, when Kiran was suddenly there. His arms circled around my waist and brought me back up. But now…now I was pressed against him, the full length of my body was tight against his. I was breathing heavily, still angry and now confused as well. I could feel him, his body, even through the layers of the dress, even through the corset that seemed to be pressing tighter on my chest suddenly. I could feel the contours of his body pressed against mine. My hands were on his back. I’d grabbed him when he’d grabbed me.

          An instinct, I told myself. Something you do automatically when you’re falling.

            Kiran had stopped laughing. “Are you alright?”

            I tore myself away from him, stumbling backwards in my haste to put distance between us. “I’m fine. Don’t touch me.”

            He shook his head. “I was stopping you from eating floor. And that was after you launched yourself at me, I’m going to wager, with nefarious intentions.”

            “If nefarious means I want to choke you, you’d be right,” I said sullenly.

            “You’re ridiculously ungrateful.”

            “You forced me into this stupid dress, so it’s your fault I fell in the first place.”

            “Right.” Kiran’s eyes were sparkling. “Anyways, are you ready to go? It’s just starting to get dark, so we should head over next door.”

            I narrowed my eyes at him, then glanced out the window, surprised to find he was right. “What? What time is it right now?”

            “Just before supper,” Kiran said. “You slept for most of the day.” He shrugged apologetically. “It’s the iron, it drains the strength out of anyone with fairy blood, takes awhile to regain it totally.”

            I regarded him suspiciously. “How much do you know about me…I mean…about fairies?”

 “Technically I didn’t agree to that particular bargain…”

            My hands balled into fists automatically, and I took a step forward, fully intending to punch him. Kiran stumbled back, laughing. “Only joking. Keep your shirt on…or at least…what little there is of it…”

            “Start talking before I put my boot up your…”

            “Okay, alright.” Kiran indicated that we should sit on the edge of the bed, and I trailed after him reluctantly, making sure to sit on the other side of the mattress.

            He leaned his back against the wall, blue eyes resting on me long enough that I became uncomfortable. I was just about to snap at him when he sighed and said, “I’ve been following you for weeks now.”

            I shouldn’t have been shocked. He was named “Lightfoot” for heaven’s sake, but I still felt like a complete idiot for not noticing I was being followed. “Weeks,” I said, my voice flat.

            Again he shrugged apologetically. “I needed to see if you were actually fairy. You can’t tell at first glance, not like you can with some of them.”

            That made my ears perk up. “What? You’ve seen others…full-blooded fairies?” I hoped I didn’t look too eager…or pathetic. I’d lived like a nomad up until now, traveling from city. Always telling myself it was because of the gambling, because if I stayed in the same place people would catch on. It was partly true.

            But in every new city it was the same. I would scan the faces of the crowd, keeping an eye on the dark nooks and crannies, creeping down the alleyways and scouring each new road I came across. I don’t know exactly what I was looking for. A flash of gold? The flutter and buzz of wings beating the air?

            But in all my years, I’d never seen anything. Not even a hint.

            The thought that Kiran might have seen something…well, it filled me with excitement, and something that felt a little like jealousy.

            Kiran paused, and I could feel my nails digging into the palm of my hands. Did he know I was hanging on every word? Why did he have to stop and think about the question?

            “I’ve met one,” he said. “Let’s just say the encounter wasn’t pleasant.”

            I was itching to ask him more, but his face was closed off suddenly. Inwardly cursing, I tried to think of something to ask that wouldn’t make him withdraw further.

            “Were they…like me? What did they look like?” My eagerness must have been leaking through the careless mask I was attempting, because Kiran actually looked sympathetic.

            “That’s how I knew you were one. There’s a little bit of fairy about you. The way you move and talk. And it became more obvious the more I watched you. Your luck...well, let's just say I knew it couldn’t be just luck. It wasn’t natural how you always won at games of chance.”

            I shrugged. “I don’t do anything on purpose. Things just happen.”

            “Exactly,” Kiran said smoothly. “That’s a perfect description of fairy magic. Things just…happen.”

            “What are they like?” My eyes were probably shining, but I didn’t care. All I wanted was to hear more about the fairy he’d met. He couldn’t keep it from me, it wasn’t fair.

            “Tricky,” Kiran said grimly. “If you ever meet one, be sure you don’t take anything they offer, or enter into a contract with one. You can bet your small amount of fairy blood wouldn’t keep them from buggering you over as much as the next person.”

            I blinked, not sure if I should have been getting offended on behalf of my fairy ancestors. But then again, what had my fairy ancestors ever done for me? Jack shit, that was what.

            “So, that’s it.” Kiran spread his hands as if to show me they were empty. “That’s the story. I heard about you from someone on the streets, about a woman gambler who always won, and I followed you until I was sure.”

            A woman gambler who always won…I had definitely stayed longer in New London than I should have. Clearly I was starting to get sloppy. “So that’s it, that’s all you know about me? I have fairy blood and I gamble?”

            Kiran shrugged. “Is there more? You have deep dark secrets?”

            “No,” I muttered. “I mean….the fairy blood is something I don’t go on about, seeing as it’ll get me tossed in the clink.”

            Kiran grinned. “Yet more incentive for you to stick with me, m’lady.”

            “So now it’s m’lady’?” I said sourly. “What happened to trollop?”

            His expression grew serious. “You know I was just joking.”

            “I don’t know anything about you,” I said sharply. “Don’t make the mistake of thinking we’re friends, Lightfoot. You don’t know me, and I don’t know you.”

            Kiran frowned, and I could tell my words had stung him a little. Good, let them sting. I was still irritated that he wasn’t going to answer any more questions about the fairy he’d met. I was burning to know more. I wanted to reach into his brain and extract the answers somehow.

            Maybe, if I got him drunk enough…

            The idea of getting drunk with Kiran led to other thoughts. Motivations that weren’t purely about extracting information from him, and I could feel my cheeks turning red.

            Kiran stood up abruptly. “Let’s go, we won’t have too much time to get in and out. I want to win a fair amount of money tonight, and then we’ll hit other gambling dens and collect over the next few days so we don’t arouse suspicion.”

            I followed him to the door, aware of the feeling of the crinoline skirts swishing around my legs. Plus the silky fabric was loud. I wasn’t used to the ridiculous amount of rustling that came with every step.

            “I don’t like this dress,” I muttered.

            Kiran strode down the steps two at a time. He either didn’t hear me, or he was ignoring me.