Voices echoed inside the cavernous room. The front half of the office where they stood was all but filled with angry and frightened people, mostly men, but a few women, and of seemingly every social status. Rani drew closer to Mr. Thornbridge. The rise and fall of voices discussing and explaining their errands was a cacophony so loud it was a wonder anyone heard anyone else above the din. At one end of the wide-open room, Rani saw a wood railing partitioning off an area where men sat behind desks and people stood in small groups before them. A man stood guard at a gate in the railing to allow people into the desk area and allow out those inside. Another man with a sheaf of papers in his hand greeted people as they came in, inquiring as to their business and directing them where to wait, or if they should leave.
“State your business,” said the man with the papers, as she and Mr. Thornbridge finally inched their way forward to the front of the crowd. He scowled at them over his spectacles.
Mr. Thornbridge startled Rani when he pulled her in front of him. She looked wide-eyed up at the scowling gentleman.
“Miss Rangaswamy arrived in London this morning with her young charge, but someone has kidnapped the boy off the East India Docks,” David explained.
The man gave an impatient frown. “Did you report it to the Thames River Police?”
“Yes, and they suggested we bring it to your attention.”
“Damn lazy clodpoles. Now everyone wants us to do their work for them. It’s their jurisdiction, not ours. We can’t help you.” He moved away.
Rani made an anguished sound.
“The boy is a relative of the Earl of Soothcoor,” David said sharply.
“Yes, yes,” Rani said, looking from the man to David and back. Her heart caught in her throat.
The man paused and looked back over his shoulder. “Soothcoor, you say. How close a relative?”
Rani stepped forward, desperate. “Lord Soothcoor be Sahib’s brother,” she said, wringing her hands together.
The man frowned and looked at Thornbridge. He shook his head. “What is she meaning?”
“The Sahib she mentions is her employer, Owen Sedgewick,” Thornbridge explained. “He is the Earl’s brother. Soothcoor is the child’s uncle. Sedgewick charged Miss Rangaswamy with bringing him from India to England, so he might live with his uncle.”
Rani nodded vigorously.
The man’s eyebrows pulled together in a deep frown as he stood straighter and drew his head back. “Ah, that changes things. Best you talk to the Chief Clerk, Mr. Safford. He sits at the high desk. Come, I’ll make sure you’re next in.”
He led them to the man at the railing gate, whispered something in that man’s ear. The man nodded and motioned them to stand to his right. The gentleman they’d been speaking with went on through the gate and approached the high desk, deferentially standing to the side as Mr. Safford talked to two men standing before him. Safford glanced his way, nodded once, then continued with his conversation.
David made sure that his charge was out of the way of the shoving crowd, then turned his attention back to the Chief Clerk. From his gestures, it appeared Safford was dismissing the two men.
“It won’t be long now,” David assured Rani. He couldn’t imagine what must go through her mind. She was frightened, he could tell by her expression and posture, but she was holding herself together well, no more wailing as she’d first done. And she was cold, but did not make any complaint, her focus on the boy. He wondered what it must be like for her, a stranger in a foreign country with no support. His countrymen tended to be wary of foreigners, so it did not surprise him that people ignored her on the wharf. But he was the son of a vicar. As a young child, his father had taught him to help others in distress. He could no more ignore her than he could forget his name.
He would miss the lecture tonight at the Royal Academy of Science on the advantages of diverse crops and crop rotation. He had been looking forward to it. He was striving to learn as much as he could about land and estate management. He had to, if he wanted to leave London and the dockyards behind.
A moment later, the gatekeeper motioned them through as the two men who’d been pleading their case to the Chief Clerk exited. They didn’t look satisfied with the results of their meeting with Mr. Safford. David hoped their errand would have a better outcome. Without help from Bow Street, David did not know how they would find the child.
“Mr. Spenser tells me you have lost something of the Earl of Soothcoor’s,” Mr. Safford said severely without preamble once they stood before his high desk.
“Yes, sir,” David began.
“Yes, yes,” Rani echoed beside him. And then, before he had a chance to stop her, she gripped the front edge of the desk to pull herself up to stand as tall as she might.
“Miss Rangaswamy!” David exclaimed softly, as he discreetly tried to pull her back.
Mr. Safford’s mouth curved into a reluctant, crooked smile. “It is all right, sir. I understand her desire to see whom she is speaking to. My desk is high.” He looked up. “Mr. Spenser, if you please,” he called out. “Something for the lady to stand on.”
A startled Mr. Spenser rushed to bring a chair up to Mr. Safford’s desk. When the heavy wood chair was placed in front of the desk, Rani looked at it askance, seemingly not sure how to climb onto it as the seat was higher than her knees.
Seeing her challenge, David stepped closer. He held his hands out. “If you will excuse my boldness, Miss Rangaswamy, I shall lift you up to stand on the chair,” he offered.
Rani’s face blossomed into a smile, its brilliance catching him like a hard thump to his chest. He couldn’t help but smile. He hoped not inanely.
“Yes, yes. Please,” she said.
