“I saw him around in the old days, one of those roaring rakehells who came to the squalid backstreets for thrills andended up more of that world than his own. I wouldn’t let him near my girls. His one saving grace was that he accepted each refusal without a fight.”
“How many did you give him?” Solomon asked, truly appalled now, although he strove not to show it.
“Two. One in Mayfair. I think he recognized me, because he laughed as he retreated. I don’t quite see how he fits into any of this, but we need to speak to him.”
“Ido.”
“Solomon, he is not of your world.”
“Nor of yours,” Solomon said implacably. “And I have seen more of life than you imagine. Besides, you are too…recognizable. I can go to such places without notice—”
“No you can’t, Sol.”
“Less than you,” he amended.
“Perhaps, but Griz was right. You really can’t go alone.”
“I’ll take David,” Solomon said, suddenly inspired. “I think he needs something to do.”
“Take one of the establishment men, too.”
“I’m not going to pick a fight, Constance,” he said patiently. “I’m not even going to gamble. If I have to, I’ll just leave word I’m looking for Madly and leave our office address.”
“He might come from curiosity,” Constance allowed.
She lapsed back into silence, and he watched her, loving her.
Now. Now, she will finally tell me the suspicion that’s troubling her.
“Perhaps he knows Veronique,” she said at last.
And Solomon looked out of the window.
At the office, Janey, with Lenny in tow, hustled them into Solomon’s room and closed the door, telling them everything she had learned from Veronique’s assistant, the existence of the dressmaker’s large and threatening husband, and the discovery that Mrs. Willow and her sister were also customers.
“Now that is interesting,” Constance said. “I’ve no idea what it means, but it’s definitely interesting.”
“They were odd,” Janey said. “Not like themselves at all.”
“I thought that at church,” Constance said.
Solomon caught his breath.
He lifted his gaze from the growing pile of case notes in front of him. “Veronique has lost her golden goose. She’s catching another.”
*
Being an observantman, Solomon had learned to suit his posture and his manner to his clothing. With David, it seemed to come much more naturally. As he donned his old sailor’s clothing, with a secondhand coat and a new hat, he actually became the swaggering sailor with money in his pocket and ambitions for more.
He had jumped at the chance to accompany Solomon on the adventure—another sign that he was bored in his new life. As they left Constance at the establishment and headed eastward into St. Giles, Solomon was thinking desperately how to relieve his brother’s boredom.
“So, we’re not going to play, and we’re not going to pick up women,” David said. “I’ve just to watch your back and listen for the name Jason Madly.”
“A dull night out, I hope,” Solomon said lightly. “Play if you want, but the dice will be crooked and the cards marked, and if you take your hands out your pockets, you’ll get them picked.”
“That kind of place. But you know, if you want to be inconspicuous, you should choose another bodyguard. Two not-white men who look exactly alike are going to be noticed.”
“I don’t mind that.”
