Chapter 16

C hapter 16

We searched Elizabeth’s room to no avail, finding nothing useful beyond a few missing dresses and some personal items, which lent credence to the thought that she had indeed run away. A kidnapper was not likely to allow his victim to pack first. After arranging to meet Nathaniel at Bow Street, I hurried home to pack for our trip to Bibury.

I slipped inside the front door and padded up the stairs. I hoped Mama was still sleeping. If she saw what I was up to, it would only cause another quarrel, and I had no time. I hadn’t any idea where Grandmama might be. Likely spying on the neighbors with her opera glasses again.

I packed quickly, stuffing everything into a portmanteau I’d pillaged from the small attic room. I was half afraid Nathaniel might try to leave without me. He was still frustrated with me for keeping the letter a secret, and I could not blame him.

Even frustrated, though, he’d kept a clear head. He’d asked me to bring any sketches I had of Elizabeth, so I carefully placed those on the top of my full bag. Then I left a note for Mama on my pillow, and I crept down the stairs with the portmanteau in one hand, my half boots in the other. I stepped carefully, not wanting to alert anyone to my escape. When I reached the front door, I carefully pulled on my boots, knotting the laces securely, then picked up my bag once again.

“And where are you off to?”

I whirled. Grandmama sat before the fire, her eyebrows arched.

“Drat it all.” I leaned against the door. How had I not seen her when I’d come in? “Heavens, Grandmama, were you waiting just so you could frighten me?”

“Yes,” she said dryly. “I’ve nothing better to do than terrorize my granddaughter.”

“It would not surprise me.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” she said, stabbing at the carpet with her cane. “Where are you going? I may be old, but I know you haven’t any plans to travel.”

The blasted portmanteau had given me away. “I’m working a case,” I said. “I wrote Mama a letter explaining everything.”

“Hmm.” Grandmama stood, wizened arms shaking as she braced herself on the cane. “And will that handsome gentleman who met you this morning be joining you?”

“Grandmama,” I accused. “Have you been watching from the windows again?”

She cackled. “As if I have anything else to occupy my time with.”

I rubbed a hand over my closed eyes. “And here I thought I was rather inconspicuous.”

“Ridiculous?” she said, pretending to mishear me. “Yes, quite.”

I sighed. “Mr. Denning is coming with me. We’ll be gone a few days at most. Please tell Mama not to worry.”

“That is like telling the clouds not to rain.” She shuffled toward me, cane clattering loudly against the floorboards. I tried not to wince. “She’ll be furious I let you go.”

“Then don’t tell her.”

A wicked grin caught her lips. “The two of you are more alike than you think, you know.”

I didn’t want to think of it now. My quarrel with Mama seemed so long ago. I had to focus on Elizabeth. “I must go.” I moved for the door. “I’ll be home soon.”

“Wait.”

I turned back to see her pulling a gold chain from around her neck. A brass pendant swung at the end, encasing a dark stone. She held it out to me.

I eyed it warily. “What is that?”

“A bezoar,” she said. “A talisman against bad fortune.”

I stared at her. “You wish me to take a stone from the stomach of a goat for good luck.”

Grandmama shook the pendant at me. “It’s not doing me any good. You need it.”

I sighed. I knew it was her way of telling me to take care. That she loved me. “Thank you,” I said, taking the chain from her. I made to slip it into my reticule, but she tsked and pointed at my neck. I looped the chain over my neck and tucked the pendant beneath my pelisse.

“There you are,” she declared. “I feel better already.”

I stepped forward to kiss her cheek, her skin papery soft. “Do keep out of trouble while I’m away.”

“I make no promises. Trouble is the only sort of fun I have these days.”

I left a moment later, my heart lighter. Grandmama often had that effect, though she didn’t mean to.

I hurried down the road, determined not to be late and give Nathaniel any more reason to be cross with me. My bag knocked into my knees every other step. I cast a quick look over my shoulder as I prepared to cross the street ... and I paused.

I’d seen a figure—or I thought I had—from the corner of my eye. But now as I looked, I saw only two maids with baskets and an old man with a cane, none of whom paid me any mind. Nonetheless, a skitter ran up my spine.

Crossing the street, I tried to push away the feeling, but it persisted, drawing lines of ice through me. I walked another minute, listening for footsteps behind me, but the noise of the street covered anything I might hear. I slowed and pretended to look in a shop window, peering back as surreptitiously as I could. There. I saw it, a shape in the shadows two buildings away.

Starting off again, I waited until the street was nearly clear. I could barely hear the scuffle of footsteps, but I knew he was there. I set my heel and whirled about. “If that is you, Wily, you’d better show yourself before I pull my pistol.”

A moment passed, then he stepped from the darkened doorway of an apothecary, eyes glinting. He held up both hands as he grinned. “You’re a difficult woman to surprise, Miss Travers,” he said, sauntering forward.

“If only that were true.” I narrowed my eyes. “But no, I was plenty surprised when Mrs. Webb told me you were in league with Tobias Higgs, the very man I was trying to find.”

Wily’s hands lowered. “Ah,” he said. “You know about that.”

“I know,” I said tightly. “And I’ve half a mind to turn you in.”

“It was just a job,” he said, hands in his pockets. “Higgs came to me needing to sell off the larger pieces he’d lifted. Once I’d sold them and taken my cut, I was going to tell you where he was.”

“How kind.” My voice was dry. “You make a hefty commission while my friend is missing.”

“Missing?” Wily repeated, confused. “What do you mean?”

“Miss Harwood, the friend whose letter you were supposed to help me find.” I took a step closer. “She’s gone. We think she’s run away. At least, we hope she has.”

He stared at me, his ruddy cheeks growing redder by the second. “You can’t be blaming me. I had nothing to do with that.”

I set my jaw. “No, it was my fault. For trusting that you might care more for helping me than for profit.”

“I never ...” But his voice faded off. He shook his head. “Did she run because of that letter?”

I lifted one shoulder. “I have to believe so. She was consumed with finding it.” Then my eyes focused on him. “Why? Do you know what became of it?”

Wily shifted uncomfortably. “Perhaps.”

I took a step closer. “Tell me,” I demanded.

“All right, all right,” he stammered. “After you and I met in the park, I asked Higgs why he’d thought it a brilliant idea to rob a baronet right outside a theatre. The man’s no fool, no matter what you think.” Wily paused. “He said someone paid him to do it.”

My brow furrowed. “Someone paid Higgs to attack a random group of theatre-goers?”

“No,” he countered. “Someone paid him to attack your friend and her parents.”

I stared at him. “The Harwoods? But why?” I knew they were wealthy, and their jewelry had likely been worth a small fortune, but why them among all the extravagantly rich at Drury Lane that night?

Wily shrugged. “Haven’t the foggiest. But Higgs said the fellow told him to take everything from them. When Higgs brought the loot to him, the man only kept the young miss’s reticule.”

“With the letter,” I said, stunned. “But who was it? Who was the man who hired Higgs?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I never met him, and Higgs didn’t know him. Didn’t care to either, especially not after the man let him keep the jewelry.”

Someone had paid Higgs to rob the Harwoods, to take their things and attack Sir Reginald. Because of the letter? Had this mystery man known Elizabeth would have it?

I held one hand to my head, trying to think. “Why are you here now? Why did you seek me out?”

“I finished my business with Higgs.” He scuffed his boot along the stones.

“So now that you’re finished with him, you’ll sell him out.” I scowled. “No honor among thieves, indeed.”

His head jerked up. “I’m not a thief, Miss Travers,” he growled. “I’m a fence.”

I snorted. “I am finding that distinction impossible to see at the moment.”

“A man’s got to eat,” he said, squaring his shoulders. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I knew Higgs, but I didn’t see the harm at the time. I’d get my money, and you’d get your man, eventually.”

“Oh? And where is he, exactly?”

“St. Giles,” he said promptly.

My stomach dropped. St. Giles was a rookery north of Covent Garden, with crime so abundant that even Bow Street rarely ventured within its boundaries.

But it was not the danger that worried me. St. Giles was an intricate maze of twisted lanes and narrow passages. It was known to disorient even those born and bred there. What chance did we have of finding Higgs among its crowded lodging houses?

“Anything more specific than that?” I asked, disheartened.

“He was trying to lie low.” He blew out a breath. “I couldn’t very well ask for an address. A bit suspicious, don’t you think?”

I crossed my arms, bumps rising along my skin even though the sun shone overhead. Higgs had simply been a front man. Who was the stranger who hired him? Had Elizabeth somehow made an enemy?

So many questions raced through my mind, but one resolution clarified like a strike of lightning. I had to tell Nathaniel. If we found Higgs, perhaps he could lead us to the man who had hired him.

“I have to go,” I said abruptly.

“To Bow Street?”

I shot a look at him. “Yes. Someone has to find Elizabeth.”

Wily coughed. “Perhaps you might not tell the Runners about me.”

“We’ll see,” I said, allowing a hint of a threat into my voice.

He held up one hand. “I came in good faith to help you.”

“And for a share of the fifty pounds.” I didn’t bother to mention that I’d already given up the reward to Nathaniel in my mind.

He took a backward step. “I don’t want it,” he said, more serious than I’d ever seen him. Wily was always flighty and ridiculous, but now I thought I heard a touch of regret in his voice. “I’m sorry about your friend. Truly.”

I nodded, glancing up the street. When I looked back, he was gone.