It was a good idea. Pretend to be a whore and a client and they would look like the myriad other couples finding cheap accommodation for an assignation at the bathhouse.
‘I’ll leave you to explain this to Jacob,’ muttered Dora, adjusting her dress to make herself look less reputable. She lether hair tumble around her shoulders. ‘All right, ’andsome, I charge five shillings. I’m no daggle-tailed jade.’
He grinned at her. ‘No. You, my dear, are in your prime and you really should charge more.’ He walked with confidence and knocked on the door of a house with a mermaid over the door.
‘Do I want to know how you know this is a house of ill-repute?’ She slouched against the ornamental doorway, hip cocked, scanning the crowds with the hard assessing gaze of the professional streetwalker. She could see the heads of their pursuers bobbing at the back of the crowd, trying to push their way through, hats obscuring their features, but she didn’t think they’d spotted her and Alex yet.
The door opened.
‘That’s a story for another time, Sally,’ said Alex. He dug into his pocket and passed over a handful of coins to the beefy man who guarded the door. ‘We don’t want to be disturbed, Colin.’
‘Oh, it’s you. She’s not your usual type, is she, sir?’ leered the guard as they bustled past him.
‘You know me– always ready to experiment with something new.’
‘Third door on the left is free,’ said the man, getting down to business. ‘Unless you want to share and engage one of the house lads? Then you can go into the main chamber where the baths are– or watch from upstairs.’
‘Not today, thank you.’ Alex ushered her further in.
Dora span, walking backward to give the doorman a saucy smile. ‘But another time, eh?’ she said with a wink.
The door to the unoccupied room closed behind them and Alex gave a sigh of relief. ‘Safe– for the moment.’
‘Do you think they saw us go in here?’ Dora checked the walls for spy holes, then dropped her pretence when she decided they were in the clear.
‘Perhaps, but they won’t see us leave.’
‘How so?’ The sideboard had a tray of wine and biscuits so she helped herself then poured a glass for Alex. A gulp proved it a cheap and cheerful blend that drove away the chilling memory of the last few minutes.
‘Cheers.’ Alex tossed his back in one go. ‘This is one of those houses that is friendly to Molly. I happen to know there is a back exit in case of a raid.’
She patted his shoulder. Molly houses catered for men who loved men. ‘How very useful of you.’
He caught her hand and gave it a squeeze, both relieved beyond words still to be alive. ‘Anthony will be pleased that my education with him is not wasted. Let’s give them a moment to look for us and draw a blank, then we can make our escape.’
Dora looked around the room with new eyes, thinking of Alex and her brother coming here in happier days. It wasn’t a mean establishment and smelled clean– or as clean as a bagnio could be with the passing trade of people after sex. Music played somewhere close by, a fiddle and pipe, and masculine laughter rang out accompanied by some feminine giggles and cries of delight. Someone was having a good time. The squeaking of a bed in the room above came as no surprise, though that encounter sounded less fulfilling for the partner involved. She hoped Anthony had been happy here. There had been precious little happiness at home for either of them.
She sat down on the sofa to wait. How long would it be before the people who were following them gave up their search?
‘That was a reckless attack,’ said Alex, refilling their glasses. ‘If it was an attack and not coincidence.’
Dora rubbed the base of her spine. Some of the jolts had driven right through her. ‘The chances of them being able to get to us to search us was slight. Perhaps they were watching us and followed when the horse bolted, but I don’t like coincidences, not when we already have had two attacks in one evening.’
‘What do you think they were doing then?’
‘We might need to reconsider. Perhaps their aim is not so much recovery of thecomte’s last report, as disruption of our investigation.’
‘And what better disruption than killing or maiming the investigators?’
‘Exactly.’ She nibbled a biscuit. ‘Sally? Really, Alex? Do I look like a horse to you?’
He laughed and settled down to wait with her.
Chapter Seventeen
Bruton Street
Jacob woke late the next morning with a single thought in his brain.
