Darker London

There were reasons why Daria had never read a mystery novel where the main character was eight months pregnant with twins. She thought this, bitterly, as she tried to heave herself toward Lily's hospital and figure out exactly what had happened. There was a reason women got downgraded to backup characters when they got this big.

Daria had been real fucking tempted to downgrade herself and stay in bed. Her hips ached so bad today, and the Braxton Hicks contractions kept coming (making her panic, every time, but never turning into actual labour.) She’d slept about three hours before Phoebe had wandered into her room, woke her up to tell her she’d thrown up, but it was okay it was in the toilet and she felt better now so Mummy could go back to sleep.

( ... )

Sundays were very important to Illyana Drescher, formerly Nikolovica. Sundays were the most important.

She rose early, leaving her husband sleeping beside her. Aleric rarely came to bed early on Saturday nights, and Lily had long since given up pestering him about it, and about accompanying her to Church. He came often enough to satisfy her belief that he was still a Christian, as befitted her husband and any member of her family, but she had come to terms years ago with the fact that he would never be as devout as she was. That was not unusual. She found that men were often more involved with themselves than with God, that women were the ones who safeguarded the family spirituality.

( ... )

Miles wasn’t joking when he told Zoe he was going to find someone more competent to help find Astrid. At least, he desperately hoped that it wouldn’t turn into a joke. The possibility was always there. Asking for help from his family was always going to be a risk, always going to feel like stretching his neck across a chopping block and hoping no one would swing a sword.

Little Moscow was a last ditch effort, he knew, but he’d run out of ditches. He was tired, worn, badly scarred, and desperate. All of this showed, he was sure, despite his efforts to cover it all up. All of it showed. These people were career criminals; they were fluent in body language. Aleric knew he was desperate the moment he walked into his office, and relished in his crisis.

But there was nothing Miles could offer that Aleric wanted, and he was not about use his resources searching for a girl when he couldn’t see anything worth getting in return.

( ... )