Black Jack undresses down to his smock without taking his eyes off his find from the alleyway. The girl who is a boy who looks finer than any girl he’s ever seen. She, no, he, appears to have fallen asleep as soon as they climbed into bed.  The pretty thing’s scrunched up, eyes shut, breathing steadily.

Jack twirls his knife between his fingers. The fair one’s chest rises and falls. There is no other movement.

After a few minutes, Jack allows himself to look out of the window. Nothing out of the ordinary. No one lurking in the shadows. Nobody whose business Jack doesn’t know.

He climbs under the covers without snuffing out the candle or drawing the bed curtains. He flips his blade over in his hand a couple more times before stowing it under his pillow with a sigh and settling down.

If this little creature is working her own scheme with unseen others, they’ve trained her… him so well, and covered their tracks so expertly, it’d be no shame to be taken down by them.

If his gut is right, and it almost always is, then John is alone and lost. It seems Bess and Old Nick had seen him, but not realised what he was. Leaving Black Jack to be the Fortune blessed one who chanced upon him and claimed him. Soon he will turn that luck into gold. But right now he can rest.

He closes his eyes. In the darkness of his own mind, he first runs through the mistakes of the day that led to him nearly being caught. Then, he moves on to his plans for the next few days.

He rotates his shoulders and fidgets his legs. It’s been some time since he’s slept in a proper bed, or had this much sleeping space. Strange how it’s easier to adjust to cold floors than soft comfort.

Tossing from his side to his back, he thinks about things he needs to do, things others want him to do, and things he himself desired. Before bribing the jailers on behalf of Old Osmund, convincing Sweet Maria to leave a window open after the family has gone to bed, seeking out Kind Kate and charming her into lowering her prices, he must deal with this curious find. With a little luck, he should be able to find at least four people who will pay good coin for the beauty sleeping next to him.

Black Jack opens his eyes to gaze at the fine lines of the slumbering face. With a grunt he shuts his eyes again and focuses his mind back on practical matters.

Would she struggle? She’s followed Jack along easily enough. Despite obvious nervousness about everything else, she’s trusted him completely. Can anyone truly be that innocent? Would she… he have any idea what was going to happen?