“Have I told ye that I like yer hair down like that?” That dark gaze, including the bruised one, darkened even more.
I felt my cheeks warm.
“Come along, miss,” he told Lily.
Then they were gone to confront the thief.
In order to avoid a scene earlier, I had the bracelet returned to Mrs. Pomeroy by Mr. Symons, my aunt’s head butler, with the explanation that the clasp must have come undone, and it was “found.”
I followed downstairs and caught a glimpse of Munro who was in the process of removing the man in question.
I made our farewells to my aunt and sister, then approached Sir James.
He was in conversation with Sir Robert Crosswhite, a member of Parliament and a long-standing acquaintance of my aunt.
“You must attend now that you have returned,” Sir Robert was saying. “Your father was a highly regarded member. Perhaps yourself as well in the future?”
“I appreciate the invitation,” Sir James replied.
“Of course, and I will notify my people as well that you are my guest. One can’t be too careful these days.”
Sir Reginald appeared and politely reminded my aunt that his people would be back promptly in the morning to retrieve the panorama and the other Egyptian artifacts.
“Of course,” she smiled.
When he had gone, assured by Mr. Munro that everything would be quite safe, I reminded my aunt, “Do be sure to returnbothsarcophagi to the museum, as well as all of the screens.”
“Whatever do you mean, dear?” she replied appearing most innocent.
“They are on loan from the museum,” I told her. “They expect everything to be returned.”
“Of course, dear. But it had occurred to me that one of the sarcophagi might add a certain flair to the garden room for my ladies next luncheon…”
She was teasing, of course. At least I hoped that she was.
Brodie and I returned to the office on the Strand after leaving Sussex Square, and once again it occurred to me that the small space that was in fact no larger than my bedroom at the townhouse was quite welcoming.
And of course, there was the adjacent room— the barest of accommodations to be certain, with outside plumbing down at the other end of the landing. Most would have thought it a dreadful inconvenience.
I did not. Perhaps it had to do with my travels to foreign places where accommodations were often limited. Or possibly it had something to do with the person who was there with me.
Brodie stoked up the fire in the stove with more coal and poured a bit of Old Lodge to warm the chill in the bones, as he called it.
I had left the notes Helen Bennett had given us for Dr. Bennett’s second book as well as his first book, in the file cabinet after leaving Belgrave Square.
Was there something in either that might tell us the reason he had undertaken that basement office in Aldgate? And the reason he was murdered?
Or had it merely been his way of fighting back against the Society of Medicine and those who had censured his work? Then come upon by a street person, looking for coins or possibly some narcotic?
“Ye didna reprimand the girl for taking the bracelet,” Brodie commented as he stepped from the adjacent room, struggling with the tie as he attempted to rid himself of it.
I set my glass on the desk, then went to him. I brushed his hands aside. He had pulled on one end of the tie, tightening rather than loosening it. I slowly worked it loose, then pulled one end from the knot, and removed it. His hand closed over mine.
“Some would say the lass deserved it,” he added.
“I was quite a bit younger than Lily when I broke one of my father’s strict rules. That was before…” I hesitated, then let that part go.
No need to go back through difficult things, although Brodie was now well aware of most of the circumstances of my younger years.
