Cruel and Unusual - serialised novel EXCLUSIVE to Steemit Part 41

For the full list of episodes, please see this post: Episode List
And Then, 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

Images below from Google and Pixabay

Please read the start of the story using the links above. I promise, it’s well-worth the time to check it all out. At least then, this excerpt will make more sense.

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When she had changed and left the hotel, Hazel made her way to the area where they had witnessed the murder a month before. Once there, she scaled the fence easily and dropped down into the yard.

Too much time had passed, it seemed, for she could not sense what she was searching for. Too many footfalls had been made in the area in the time. She cursed herself for not thinking of it earlier, but it couldn’t be helped, she was too late.

She was not certain of what it was she needed to find, but there was an insistent nagging at the back of her mind of something she had overlooked and she knew that until she had found what it was, she would not feel at ease.

Hazel wandered the area, casting around in her head for the point she was missing. She did not know what time it was and she did not know where she was heading, but she was always aware of her surroundings in the fact that there were sometimes others close by – mostly Humes, and just one or two Wolves.

No one took any notice of her.

Then someone did.

Her elbow was caught hold of – not in a harsh manner, but not gentle either - and she turned to face the one that wanted her attention. She heard him gasp in surprise when he realised that the woman he was about to proposition was his tutor and he let go of his hold on her arm.

“Is there something I can help you with, Keme?” Hazel asked with humour in her tone.

“Ah, Madam Hazel. I did not realise it was you.”

“I would say that was perfectly obvious,” her smile was widening, and he grew more flustered. “I repeat; is there something that I can help you with?”

“No, most certainly no. I must apologise, Hazel.” Then he gave up with pretence and confessed. “There is no point in lying to you madam, I would not insult you by trying. I was enveloped by a need. I am afraid it is one of the baser desires and I am sure that I need not go into details.”

Hazel at once felt compassion for Keme; he must be very lonely, so far from everyone he knew and everything that was familiar to him.

“I understand, and please do not feel ashamed or embarrassed about this. We all have those kinds of needs but I believe that Anton would have introduced you to someone that could help alleviate the problem?”

“And indeed he has, but sometimes… if you would please excuse me, I feel uncomfortable in explaining. This is most odd. I think that I have become a little too close to you to be able to discuss such indelicacies with you now. Please accept my apologies.”

“Why Keme, I do believe you are blushing.” Hazel laughed and took Keme’s arm in hers and led him out of Whitechapel towards an establishment that she knew of that could take care of his particular predicament.

When she had shown him which door to knock upon and whose name to drop into the conversation, she said goodnight to her pupil and allowed him to compose himself before making use of the brothel she had led him to. She was still smiling as she let herself in to her rooms at the hotel, her own problem, for the moment at least, forgotten.

Hazel drifted to sleep feeling safe and peaceful. She was aware of Anton as he returned and his presence arrived on her mental ‘Wolf-finder’ but the awareness did not disturb her.

Out beyond the walls of the hotel, a figure looked up at the windows, wondering in which room Hazel slept.

He knew she was back at the hotel - he had followed her. By chance, he had spotted her as she left Keme at the brothel and had taken advantage of her good mood and therefore her uncharacteristic complacency and kept out of sight and out of range of her senses.

Before morning broke, the yard at the back of the hotel was again deserted until the kitchen servants began their daily grind, starting their workday in preparing breakfast for the guests. Hazel knew nothing of the one that had followed her; her breakfast was served earlier than most of the other guests and she was out and about long before Anton went looking for her.

When Anton finally caught up with Hazel, she was relaxed and refreshed. She had spent a pleasant morning strolling around the park, watching children playing and feeding ducks. She had even indulged in conversation with a polite and well-to-do young man who had picked up a glove she had dropped, and returned it to her. His mild flirting had put her in an excellent temper and on spotting Anton, she waved to him and he couldn’t help but notice the glow in her cheeks and the nimbleness of her step.

“What have you been up to?” he asked, smiling because her mood was infectious.

“I was just walking, watching people going about their daily lives. I sometimes feel a little sad for the Humes; they have but a short time to enjoy this life.”

“If you have never had it, you never miss it, Hazel. They do not know and so cannot mourn.”

“I suppose so, but still, I am glad that I can enjoy it – all of it, for I have seen both sides of the coin.”

Anton nodded agreement. Then his face clouded for a moment and he asked her about what was bothering him.

“Now Hazel, I must ask, why did you leave without saying anything last evening?”

“It wasn’t last evening, Anton; it was past evening and well into last night when I left. The meeting had fizzled out into a reunion of Ancients. I was bored, Keme was bored and I had things I needed to do. Which reminds me, I went out to try to understand what it is that’s bothering me and on my travels, I met Keme. He was in Whitechapel, close to where he had his first lesson with me, where he encountered that…” she paused. “That problem.”