“I don’t exactly know,” responded Wheeler. “It had to do with the plans for some sort of engineering innovation. Milton had apparently decided what to do with it, and Oliver Carrick was furious with him. He tried to convince Milton to change his mind—and when he wouldn’t, Carrick said there would be hell to pay, and Milton must be prepared to suffer the consequences.”
“Those were his exact words?”
A grim nod. “Yes, milady. Carrick then stormed off. Milton finished his mug of ale—he sounded as if he had already imbibed several—and then he, too, left.”
For an instant, Charlotte couldn’t help thinking of an old adage—Be careful what you ask for.But of course she knew that one couldn’t pick and choose the facts if one truly believed in the concept of Justice.
No matter how much they might hurt.
Wheeler’s next words were an even more visceral reminder of that.
“It was not my place to spread gossip about a private altercation. But now that you have told us the news of Milton’s murder, I shall have to inform the proper authorities of what I witnessed,” he reflected. “Empirical evidence is the linchpin of science. If it is ignored, it can cause a false conclusion.”
Put that way, it took on a rather cold detachment, but she couldn’t muster any argument.
“Is there a magistrate in charge of the investigation to whom I should recount the facts of what I witnessed?”
Charlotte gave him Whalley’s name and location.
The return of Cordelia and the other two men curtailed any further probing, but she had already sensed that she would get nothing more out of Wheeler.
* * *
“That was bloody clever of you to create mayhem!” chortled Raven, after passing around the platter of ginger biscuits that McClellan had sent up to welcome Peregrine back to the nest. “But how did you manage to make the stink bomb without one of the other boys noticing?”
Thecrunch-crunchof the sweets roused Harper from his slumber and drew a baleful stare.
“Cousin George is much nicer than my late Uncle Belmont,” replied Peregrine. “He readily agreed to pay for a private bedchamber in my lodgings when I told him that I needed quiet in order to concentrate on my studies.”
Most Eton students were housed in private lodgings in the town. Only the King’s Scholars—boys who received scholarships to attend the elite school—actually lived in the school’s buildings.
“Given the chemicals we selected for you, the smell must have been disgusting,” said Hawk.
“Oiy, it was so noxious that a number of the students puked, which only added to the stench,” said Peregrine with a note of satisfaction. “It took several hours for them to clean up the mess and air out the Great Hall.”
Raven’s grin disappeared. “You told us that the schoolmasters at Eton beat boys who break the rules.”
Peregrine, who was lying on his belly, reached for another biscuit. “It was worth it.”Crunch, crunch.“I got the boot, as well as a thrashing. Though they waited a week to summon Cousin George to fetch me in order to allow the welts and bruises on my back and bum to fade.”
Harper pricked up his ears and growled.
“Bastards,” muttered Raven.
“It wasn’t all bad. Mister Angelo comes weekly to give fencing lessons to the Upper School. And there is a new Classics master who makes reading theIliadinteresting. He’s not as stuffy as the others. But as for the endlessly dull hours of memorizing Latin declensions and mind-numbing dates in history . . .” Peregrine made a face. “What if m’lord and m’lady won’t agree to have me here? I fear Cousin George will either send me to another horrid school or make me stay with Aunt Belmont.”
“Of course they will!” assured Hawk. He looked at his brother. “Won’t they?”
Raven hesitated. “Dunno,” he admitted. “Your cousin is your legal guardian, which I think makes things complicated.”
“It’snotcomplicated! It’s simple!” protested Hawk. “We all think of Falcon as part of our family. Ergo, he belongs here with us.”
“That’s true in principle. But dressing it up in Latin won’t make all the complexities go away,” said his brother. “Wrex and m’lady both know how fraught family relationships can be, and I get the feeling they believe it is morally wrong to meddle where they have no official right to do so.”
“But . . .” Hawk’s voice faltered.
“Let us not imagine the worst,” counseled Raven. “I’m just saying that we have to wait and see.”
* * *
