I remembered the conversation. I exchanged a look with my great-aunt.
“Quite remarkable,” she commented. “The coffee you made is most excellent.”
“Please continue,” I told Lily as I sat at the desk.
Lily took the chair that I usually occupied when Brodie and I were discussing some point about a case.
“It was the time that Miss Charlotte came to Sussex Square for my music lesson, before…” she stopped, emotions there in that blue gaze. She gathered herself.
“She was right sad. When I asked her about it, she didn’t want to say at first. But after a while when I asked again, she said it was a difficulty between her and the man she was goin’ to marry. She said it was probably just nervous feelings before the wedding.”
Understandable, I thought, having experienced such things myself.
“Did she say what it was over?” I asked.
“It seems that someone came to her with some information about him, from a long time ago, and asked a lot of questions about something that happened before.”
“Did she say who it was?”
“She said that he was from the newspaper and wrote for the dailies.”
“Did he give a name?”
“She mentioned it…”
“Was the name Burke?” I asked.
She nodded. “That was the name. She said that he was serious, that he found some information about a case that her fiancé had handled and asked if he had ever mentioned it. It frightened her.”
Theodolphus Burke, doing what Mr. Burke did, obviously looking for that next story. The man really was a snake.
“Did she say what that case was?”
“She was too upset, and then ended the lesson time. It was the last time I saw her.”
That blue gaze filled with tears. “Do ye think it could be important?”
I reached across and squeezed her hand. “As I said, everything is important until the case is solved.”
She nodded. “I just wish I thought of it before.”
“But it may help now,” I told her.
Blaming oneself was too easy, I knew for a fact.
“They ye’ll tell Mr. Brodie when he returns.”
I promised that I would.
The service bell rang on the landing. It did seem as though Munro and Mr. Hastings had returned from the leathermakers. And the weather had set in, rain hitting the street and sending clouds of mist into the air as I went out onto the landing.
I assured Lily that I would add what she had shared with me to the chalkboard, and attempt to learn what it might mean. I then watched as they departed, Lily with a strong arm looped through my great-aunt’s arm as they descended the stairs.
I might have done the same once or twice while my sister and I were growing up.
It did seem that there was a deep affection between them.
Munro was there at the curb as they arrived. There were several moments of conversation and I caught the stubborn angle of my great-aunt’s chin, when she finally accepted the point he was obviously determined to make.
