He nodded. “Then they can deal with me. I won’t have ye in danger if it can be avoided.”
I took the revolver and tucked it into my bag. I was quite proficient with it after lessons he and Munro had both provided, and the fact that I had been around hunting weapons as a young child. I had a healthy respect for them, a weapon of last resort that I had been forced to use in the past.
“You’re not going to tell me that I’m not to continue with you to Frankfurt?”
There was that look, that dark gaze meeting mine.
“Would it do any good to tell ye what I want is for you to go back tomorrow with the two of them?”
Rather than a blunt answer he already knew, I decided on a different tactic.
“You don’t speak German,” I pointed out.
While my own familiarity with the language was limited to the usual sort a tourist would speak, still I knew several places including the rail station along with the hotel where I’d once stayed, and I was convinced I could be of help.
Frankfurt was a modern city that included international banking as I had discovered on my travels through there. As with Paris and Brussels, it was very possible that English was spoken as well.
Brodie retrieved supper for us from the dining room, along with a couple bottles of wine, all which we shared with Munro.Alex had no appetite. Munro gave him the last of the whisky and he dozed fitfully, waking groggy from loss of blood and no food, then dozing once more.
Brodie explained to Munro that I had seen the attacker before in Paris, and according to that information from Templeton, the man was known to travel with Angeline Cotillard.
“Best take necessary measures in case the man followed us from the museum today. He won’t want to be caught.
“I would like very much for him to come here,” Munro replied and took out the knife he always carried. He ran his thumb along the sharp edge, his meaning quite clear.
I sat at the desk after we returned to our own room, and made a few additional entries into my notebook. A fire burned in the fireplace, but I couldn’t seem to get warm.
It would have been a lie to say that the day’s events hadn’t affected me. While I constantly shifted about to get comfortable or startled at a sound at the hallway outside our door, Brodie was calm if a bit distracted as he sat in that overstuffed chair before the fire and smoked his pipe.
He eventually moved about, checking that the lock was set on the door, then took off his suit coat and laid it over the back of the chair.
I made the last of my notes, then sat back at the desk.
Since working with Brodie, I had learned a great deal about the criminal mind. Those three words came to mind.
Motive, means, and opportunity.
According to the information Alex and Munro had brought from London, the motive seemed to be providing military secrets to someone willing to purchase them.
In this particular instance, that would be someone who had used Angeline Cotillard, and took advantage of her closerelationship with the Prince of Wales and his inner circle. Most particularly Sir Collingwood.
There was the question if she was not only his Royal Highness’s mistress, but also Collingwood’s.
Sir Collingwood most certainly had the means in his work as Lord of the Admiralty, and the opportunity. Never mind that the opportunity had gotten him killed.
I did suppose that was one way to avoid the hangman’s rope.
I felt Brodie’s hands on my shoulders.
“Come away, lass. There’s nothin’ more that can be done tonight, but plenty enough in the mornin’.”
I tucked my pen inside my notebook and then slipped both inside my travel bag.
Preparing for bed was somewhat simpler than before. I stepped out of my skirt and shirtwaist, then my long slip which was now missing several inches around the hem.
My night shift had been used for bandages along as well.
“Dinna bother.” He removed his trousers and shirt. “I’ll buy ye a new one. And no one will ever know that yer not wearin’ one.”
