I looked up, Lily standing at the entrance to the parlor.
“I don’t like that man, the one wot was here. I can help.”
“No!” Quite adamant, the meaning clear, as Munro strode purposefully past me to the hallway.
“I can!” she insisted, her blue eyes snapping with fire. “Mr. Brodie is not a criminal!”
It was one thing for me to go with Munro to a destination unknown. And it wasn’t as if Lily hadn’t encountered the unsavory side of the streets before, but there was something inside me that simply couldn’t allow that. Possibly some protective instinct...
“My aunt is quite elderly,” I pointed out. “She often thinks that she is much stronger than she is. At her age…”
“What about the safari?”
“Going about on safari is quite leisurely, and will be restful for her,” I lied. It seemed that I was accumulating several of those. “Still, this business can be most distressing, and I would not want to risk any harm coming to her.” I continued.
Lily’s blue eyes narrowed with suspicion.
“I need you to stay here, should the Chief Inspector return. You have become quite skilled with the rapier,” I reminded her. “It would be your responsibility to make certain that she is not harmed.”
“I canna see anyone harmin’ her.”
I would have placed a bet on my great-aunt over anyone as well. After all, she was descended from William the Conqueror. And there was a houseful of servants.
“I need your promise that you will see that she is well protected.”
“All right,” she grumbled, a sound not unlike the hound. “But only because she has been good to me.”
Victory. A small one, but I would take it.
I went to find Munro as Lily went to the lift, no doubt on her way to the Sword Room. I almost wished that Abberline would return.
I was not inclined to have Lily imprisoned for assaulting the Chief Inspector.
Still, it would have been most enjoyable to watch.
I found Munro coming out of his room adjacent to the servants’ quarters. He had changed his trousers and coat for clothes I might see on the streets of the East End with a cap pulled low over that sharp gaze.
“I am going with you,” I insisted.
“He would not want it,” he replied with that strong Gaelic accent that reminded me of Brodie. “Where I have to go, I canna be seen with a woman.”
“Nevertheless,” I replied.
And something else that reminded me of Brodie, a curse in Gaelic.
“I have heard that before,” I commented. “I have information for him that is important. He would want to know.”
He did not attempt to leave without me, however, there was another curse.
I found the clothes I’d arrived in the night before. They had been cleaned as best as possible, no doubt by my aunt’s servants.
I quickly dressed in the trousers, shirt, and jacket, then pulled on my boots, grabbed the carpet bag and tucked it beneath my arm. I returned to the kitchen where Munro waited.
“Ye think that will keep others from knowin’ there is a woman under yer clothes?” he snapped.
I did wonder how Templeton had ever gotten on with him. Yet, there had been the proof in that mural painted above the headboard of her bed…
“It has worked before,” I pointed out, then asked, “How do you propose to get past the police at the front gate?”
