“CB’s Aunt Camilla knew Maria’s husband. She’d urged my friends to warn me of the man’s capacity for vicious cruelty. And then CB told me his aunt had said Maria had played the same dangerous game many times, the game she now played with me. And each time, her ‘secret lover’ had ended up dead, one of many anonymous bodies found floating in the Thames in London. No one could ever prove the earl’s involvement, but everyone was well aware of the penalty for dallying with Maria.
“I still wasn’t afraid, but then Maria began arranging for me to offer my services to several of her friends. They were all wealthy, bored, married women who would pay me well. At first I recoiled, hurt and confused. But then I realized what I was. I’d been accepting money as well as sexual favors from Maria. I’d believed she’d loved me, but I was nothing to her but a boy-satyr for hire.”
* * *
April 6,1826
Covent Garden Coffee House, London
Col started and nearly fell off his chair when the old chess player across from him rapped his knuckles with the battered cane he kept beneath the table. “Pay attention—. I don’t have all night to wait for you to make up your mind.”
He shook his head hard and re-focused on the board. He’d been going over in his mind the events of the night earlier that week when he’d chased the chess murder suspect into an unfinished tunnel beneath the Thames.
“I know exactly what you’ve been saying.”
“Then tell me what you’ve learned, if anything.”
“The pawns - they’re best for advancing attacks where one can be sacrificed while another takes the opponent’s piece.” Col paused for affirmation, and the old man gave him a grudging nod. “And then there are the knights. Good for sneak attacks when your opponent is busy worrying about other pieces on the board. It’s hard to predict where they’ll land.”
“Not bad for your first lesson.” The old man pulled a clay pipe from one of his pockets and a flint. He filled the bowl from a bag of tobacco he kept next to the board, scratched the flint against the sole of his boot, and coaxed an ember of a flame. Leaning back, he took a deep suck on the stem and gave Col a long, critical look. “If you’ve no choice but to fling yourself at this chess chit again this week, perhaps you’ve learned enough not to embarrass yourself as much as the last time.”
Col pressed an extra pence into the man’s free hand and rose quickly. He pulled a pocket watch from his waistcoat and clapped his hat back onto his head. “I have to attend to some more business tonight, but will you be here two nights from now?” Col looked around the nearly deserted coffee shop. Fear of the chess murderer seemed to have taken its toll on the denizens of the neighborhood.
“I’m here every night.” He blew several rings of smoke towards Col and added, “If you’ve got the blunt, I’m at your service.”
“You’re not afraid, like the rest?” Col swept his arm around the near empty room.
“Mebbe I know something those blokes don’t.”
“Like what?”
“Like who disappears the night the murders occur.”
“You mean there’s someone whose movements coincide with the nights the murderer strikes?”
“Could be just a coincidence.”
“Who? Whose movements coincide with the murders?”
“Not ready to say yet. Mebbe I’ll have more for you at your next lesson.”
Col looked around, uneasy their conversation might have been overheard. “Be careful what you say. If I were you, I wouldn’t rattle word around that you’re marking the movements of a possible murderer.
The old man looked up, his rheumy eyes watery from the smoky coffeehouse. “I’m not afraid. He knows better than to tangle with me.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“If anything were to happen to me, he knows I’ve made sure his dark secrets will spill out like rats from a burning house.”
5
APRIL 6, 1826
CHESS NIGHT AT GOODRUM’S
Charlotte stared down at the stubborn Bow Street runner bent over one of Goodrum’s chess boards. He could not win, and she’d even given him an out earlier. The infuriating man had stared intently back when she’d said “Check,” and then had refused to acknowledge her outstretched hand. Instead, he’d found an impossible move behind a pawn. She’d made short work of the protective pawn with her queen and then had uttered the word of chess finality again.
However, he’d given her a momentary bad moment earlier when he’d unexpectedly taken out one of her rooks with his knight. The man was definitely getting better at the game.
