“Should I be concerned about the animal?”
“Not unless you make a threatening gesture,” I replied. “He does have a dislike for that.”
Sir Avery glanced at the wall board.
“Most interesting,” he commented. “You’ve accumulated quite a lot of information.”
“With assistance from Alex and Lucy.”
“You seem to have a gift for investigating crimes.” He looked at me thoughtfully. “I look forward to your work with the Agency, Lady Forsythe. Good evening.”
I looked around for the invisible net that might have been laid to entrap me—merely a reaction, of course.
Still...I had made that promise in exchange for Brodie’s care. I was not one to break my word, yet I couldn’t help wondering what I might be getting myself into. And then there was the question—what would Brodie have to say in the matter?
“Any difficulty?” Munro inquired after Sir Avery had gone.
I was more than aware of Brodie’s own thoughts toward Sir Avery—someone that he had once described as a spider continuously spinning a web. Not exactly a recommendation. It was more a caution of the man.
“Not at all.” I hoped that I was right and didn’t go into my own reservations about the bargain I had made with Sir Avery.
“You’re leaving then?” I asked.
He was returning to Sussex Square. “To see that all is in order,” he explained.
I suspected it might have something to do with my aunt’s fascination with her motor carriage.
He glanced at the cot against the wall.
“He’ll be all right, miss,” he reassured me. “He’s doin’ well enough. The broken ribs are the worst of it. Give him time.”
“Is there anything that I can bring with me when I return in the morning?”
My first thought was that there wasn’t anything. Yet studying that board with Lucy’s latest notes about what she had learned had most definitely raised new questions, and there was someone I wanted very much to speak with who might be able to answer some of those questions.
“There is something you can bring back with you...”
Nineteen
I rose earlyafter a fitful night, the hound nudging my hand.
No one was yet in the offices of the Agency except for those Alex had referred to as the‘night guard.’
There were occasional sounds that echoed down the passage from above, as the yeoman warders stationed during the day had arrived from their respective apartments or flats to begin the day.
The hound made a somewhat urgent sound, and I unwrapped myself from the blanket that had twisted about me. I swung my legs over the edge of the cot to the stone floor.
There was no window in Alex’s office, and therefore little light except from the hallway. No doubt to prevent anyone escaping, I thought drily.
I found the electric light on the desk and turned it on. The marvels of electricity still amazed me, especially here—modern inventions in a thousand-year-old fortress. I did wonder what my ancestor would have thought of it all.
Considering stories I had heard from my aunt about that particular ancestor, he would have probably smashed the lightbulb with his sword. After all, one could never be too careful when it came to one’s enemies.
Rupert made another sound, and I decided we needed to go in search of hot coffee. I picked up the pot with only the dregs of coffee grinds, and turned toward the hall that led to the green.
He sounded quite urgent as we passed the infirmary and stone steps beyond that led into the upper level of the tower compound.
We encountered a warder, and I explained the urgency. He directed us to an outside area, and the hound bounded on ahead. When he returned, I retraced our steps back down into the area that contained the Agency offices.
