“Never mind,” murmured Jeremy. “But be assured they can run rings around any Bow Street Runner.”
“Weasels, you play a part in this too,” went on the earl. “Can you recruit your reliable raggle-taggles for surveillance duty?” The boys had a trusted circle of smart, savvy street urchins who had proved extremely helpful in solving the Holworthy murder case.
“O’ course,” replied Raven. “Skinny, One-Eyed Harry, Alice the Eel Girl, Pudge—”
“I leave it to you to assemble the group,” interjected Wrexford. “I’ll inform you of the assignments by the end of tomorrow.”
Octavia was looking more and more mystified but she kept any further queries to herself.
“Then there is the question of finding Mr. Hillhouse.” Wrexford shifted his stance to face Jeremy. “You know him well. As, it appears, does Miss Merton. The two of you are tasked with thinking of where he might have gone to ground if he were in trouble.”
“He would have come back to the house,” insisted Octavia.
The earl looked down his long nose at her. “And lead whatever danger was pursuing him straight to you?”
“Oh,” she said in a small voice.
“I’ve some ideas,” said Jeremy. “I’m sure Miss Merton will too, once she’s thought about it.
“Do any inquiries discreetly, Sterling,” cautioned the earl.Swoosh, swoosh. He was moving again. “Given your background, I assume you can manage that.”
“If you’re asking whether I can manage not to trip over my aristocratic feet, yes I think I can manage that,” came the cool reply.
“I can search Mrs. Ashton’s parlor and private quarters when she is occupied elsewhere,” suggested Octavia.
“No,” said Charlotte firmly. “You must promise to do nothing. As you’ve discovered, clandestine activities are not quite so easy as you might think. Alerting the widow that she’s under suspicion could be disastrous. The element of surprise is key if we are to catch them red-handed.”
Octavia looked unhappy, but as Charlotte had hoped, her innate good sense prevailed. “I understand.”
The list was already daunting, but the earl had mentioned three avenues of pursuit. “And what, sir,” asked Charlotte, “is the last thing?”
CHAPTER 19
Wrexford’s peregrination around the room had brought him back to the doorway, where the other sword stood propped up against the wall. “We can’t ignore the possibility that the real villain is someone else entirely. Our suspects aren’t the only ones who would reap enormous profits if they possessed Ashton’s invention. And as a man of science, I’ve learned one must consider all factors when one is conducting an experiment.”
He slowly set his weapon next to its mate. “Else you risk having it blow up in your face.”
“Yes, but . . . where do we begin?” mused Charlotte. “With Mr. Hillhouse in God knows what difficulty, time is of the essence.”
“The answer is actually very simple. We—or rather, I—start at the Royal Institution, where all the latest gossip concerning the world of science echoes through its august corridors before it ever reaches the public.” Wrexford allowed a cynical smile. “Men tend to be even more loose-lipped than the drawing room tabbies. If McKinlock’s company has any new projects in the works, one of the Institution’s members will have heard rumors about it.”
Charlotte nodded slowly. “An excellent idea, milord. It makes sense that whoever is looking to make a fortune from the invention would want to partner with someone who already manufactures steam engines.”
“It would, indeed.” Wrexford cast his gaze on Ashton’s technical drawings, which Charlotte had placed on the table by the sofa. “Miss Merton, I know you’ve gone to great trouble to retrieve these, but I’d like to keep them for now. Not only will they be safe in my townhouse, but it will also give me and my laboratory assistant the chance to understand on what sort of revolutionary innovation Ashton was working.”
“Valves,” whispered Octavia. “It’s all about valves.”
Steam power, he knew, had to do with heat, condensation and creating a vacuum. The quicker and more efficiently an engine could cycle through the process, the more pressure—and power—it could create.
“I’ve not the technical expertise to give you more than a rudimentary explanation of how the design works. It involvesfourvalves in each cylinder. The linkages for opening and shutting them are independently controlled, which keeps the temperature at a constant. The result is far more power. In addition, Eli and Benedict calculated that the new engine will be far more efficient, and run on thirty percent less fuel.”
“Revolutionary, indeed,” murmured Wrexford.
“As for keeping the drawings, I’m hardly in a position to argue,” added Octavia with a cynical shrug. “Besides, I agree that they are probably most secure in your hands.”
As the earl leaned down to pick them up, Charlotte cleared her throat. “A thought just occurred to me. Without these as reference, would someone have the knowledge or expertise to build the new engine?”
A good question.Wrexford was already taking a closer look at the schematics.
