“She was strangled and then a mark left on her face.” Zach’s words were unemotional. Had he been the one to find the girl? Mary had done many things, but she had yet to see a body and never wanted to. That had to leave a stain on your soul.
He looked her way, and their eyes held for long seconds before she turned away. Everything was different between them now, and she doubted there was any going back.
“She bore the marks like we have seen before?” Monty asked, and Zach nodded.
“The Falcon?” Mary whispered.
“What do you know of him?” Zach demanded.
“I was told about him.” She dismissed his words, not willing to say more. In fact, she and Monty had played a hand in ensuring the man was locked away. “I had not long joined Alexius when his name came to our attention.”
“He murdered and mutilated his victims. He is a sadistic bastard who I thought we’d seen the last of,” Monty said. “It seems we were wrong. Someone is copying him, or he is pulling the strings from Newgate.”
“He should have been hanged,” Mary said. The man was an animal and just thinking about what he had put his victims through made her sick to the stomach.
“He should have been,” Zach agreed with her. “But someone has made sure he stayed away from the hangman’s noose.”
She kept her expression calm. This, them speaking about such things, would never normally happen in the presence of a woman. That the Devilles were doing so meant they had accepted she was part of Alexius for now. Maybe not all of them, she thought, looking at Zach.
“His aim two years ago was to cause an uprising and forge support for the old order. France was changing, but he and others wanted it to stay as it was,” Gabe said.
“They wanted everyone to stay subjects of the king of France?” Mary said.
Zach nodded. “All rights and status to flow from the social institutions. No national citizenship.”
She shuddered. “I’m glad they failed.”
“But whoever is doing this wants Falcon’s release first and foremost. My guess is there is more, but as yet we do not know what,” Monty said.
“We believed last time that he was working for someone high in the French monarchy who cared nothing for his methods, only what he achieved,” Nathan said. “Perhaps it is them wanting him back?”
“He is a man who knows a great deal. I should imagine it will not just be the British who are nervous he still lives but the French also,” Gabe said.
“We need to visit Newgate,” Forrest said. “We must find out who has visited him.”
They all nodded, and Mary understood she would not be part of that. That they were talking openly in front of her—for now, that was enough.
“Francine said she called at the house and was told she could have this other girl, Julia’s room as she had left and never returned. She said the man was very angry about that. The offer he gave her was if he wanted either a woman or money, she must provide it. He would also have things he’d need her to do. Notes to deliver and men to meet,” Mary added.
“She got no name?” Zach asked her.
“No. She was to call him ‘sir’ only. Francine said he scared her, so she did not go back or take the room.
“I feel like the Falcon’s stench is all over this, which should be impossible considering where he is,” Monty said.
“Agree,” Gabe agreed. “But I also think there is a nobleman in league with him.”
“The Alexius traitor?” Monty asked and the Devilles all nodded.
“What part did you both play in Falcon’s capture?” Zach asked.
“Enough to ensure the man was imprisoned” was all Monty said.
“We need to find this Julia,” Michael said.
“If she is still alive,” Zach said.
Mary nodded. “I told Francine to send word if she finds anything to my maid’s father. He owns a pie cart.”
