“Youhavebeen gone a long time. Rupert liked to keep the older vampires close and under his thumb. Dominic and many others were forced to relocate years ago. I’ll find his direction for you.”
“Thank you.” He and Dominic went back a long way; it would be good to see him again. Kendrick tapped the note. “Back to the matter at hand—beyond their knowledge, I can’t fathom how no one saw them come and go.”
“Worrying, if this mysterious note-leaver can breach your chamber. Can others?” Etienne mused.
“Well, it isn’t like I lock the door,” Kendrick muttered. “Even so, the notes could have been slipped under the door. But I can’t even catch a scent from the scrap of paper. Nothing to identify the sender.”
“You ought to thank her,” Addie said from her chair at the end of the table. “She’s saved your life.” She set her head in her hands.
“Yes, but how is she learning of these plots?” Etienne asked.
Kendrick said, “She?”
“The handwriting,” Addie said, rubbing her eyes with her fist.
Etienne moved to her side. “Do you have the headache,mon chaton?” He ran a hand over the crown of her head, stroking her hair.
“I don’t like it down here. Everything echoes off the stone and it’s all close.” She shivered.
“Then we shall go. Kendrick, can you manage to stay alive another night?” Etienne asked. “I will take Addie home.”
“Home to Brompton?” Addie lifted her head hopefully.
“For now,mon ange, but I have secured us apartments on a basement level of a house. Only a little more time until the work is finished, and then we can take up residence.”
“In time for Christmas?” Addie sat up straighter, her eyes sparkling.
Etienne kissed her hands. “Perhaps. I had meant to surprise you but then thought better of it. I will take you to see it, and then you shall beggar me furnishing it to your taste.”
“A real home of my own,” Addie said wonderingly. “With you all to myself.”
“To be sure,ma chère.”
Kendrick noted with some amusement that Etienne’s eyes were suspiciously moist behind his pince-nez. He ribbed Etienne cheerfully in French, and advised, “Take a cab. It will be light soon.” He waved them both off.
With his sword set close at hand, Kendrick reached for the note again and spread it flat on the table, staring at the script once more.
Fashionable handwriting style and script changed from century to century, but itcouldhave been a woman’s. It was a quickly scrawled cursive hand—an attempt to disguise a known script, or dashed off in a hurry?
He brought it to his nose and breathed in again.
No scent.
Who could have left it?
He had not had much to do with the vampire women in the underground Ossuary besides Addie, and Gisela, who had been Rupert’s woman. He suspected she would not spit on him if he were on fire, though she uttered all the right blandishments when he came upon her in passing. He could not bring to mind any other woman’s face with clarity, though there were many down here—more than the men. And several had given him looks he could not misinterpret.
Kendrick leaned back, fingering the scrap of paper. He had not had a woman in several decades, and it would be a good long while before he had another, he suspected. If he wasde factolord of the London Ossuary and its surrounding demesnes and stayed as such for an extended period, those he took to his bed would seek to gain what status and gifts they could from him, so he would have to be choosy and politically minded about it. Not go through the Ossuary like a randy lord bedding his house servants.
Not that he was randy. Nothing had sparked his blood for years, though in long ages past, he had had animal spirits in abundance. All things passed away, it seemed.
Was the note-leaver an innocent bystander or somehow tangled in a web of conspiracy? Did he need to worry over her safety?Why wouldn’t she just speak to me, instead of leaving cryptic notes?he wondered.I’m not going to eat her.
Well, she wouldn’t know that, would she?
Not many vampires knew him at all anymore.
Kendrick pondered the note again. It was not a neat piece of stationary. It looked more like a corner of dirty newsprint ripped free. He squinted at the ragged edges and brought the paper to his nose again.
