Handing his overcoat to one of the porters, Wrexford headed up the grand staircase to the top floor of the building where sounds of whirring and clacking in the north corridor announced that he had reached one of the areas devoted to engineering.
A knock on the far door elicited a hearty, “Come in, come in!”
“Ah, Wrexford!” Parnell Hamden looked up from his worktable, revealing a long, craggy face that was currently streaked with mud-colored grease. “I thought you were rusticating in the country for the month.”
“Alas, so did I,” answered the earl. “However, a matter of grave importance has required my presence in London.”
At the wordgrave, Hamden’s welcoming smile faded. “Dear heaven, are you investigating another murder?”
Wrexford chose not to answer. “Might I ask you a few questions about a recent lecture given at the London Society for Progress by Oliver Carrick?”
“Carrick! A brilliant fellow,” responded Hamden. “He isn’t in any trouble, is he?”
“That is what I am trying to discern,” Wrexford answered. “Have you perchance seen him lately?”
“I have not, milord. However, it is my understanding that he doesn’t live in London. I believe he’s currently employed by Thomas Telford as a project manager for one of the Holyhead road and bridge sections.”
“Do you know exactly where?”
Hamden shook his head. “I don’t, milord.”
Wrexford considered what he had just heard. “You just called Carrick a brilliant fellow, and yet I’ve heard that it is his friend Jasper Milton who is considered the real genius when it comes to bridges.”
Hamden rubbed at his chin, leaving another streak of grease on his sallow skin. “An interesting observation. I suppose it depends what materials and technology you believe are the most likely to allow the most impressive innovations.”
“I’ve been told that Milton was using advanced mathematics to shape his structures and determine optimal weight-bearing designs. What did Carrick talk about in his lecture?” asked Wrexford.
“He seemed to believe that Telford’s work with suspension cables was the right direction, but my sense was that he and his fellow collaborator were developing a new and innovative idea.”
“In what way?”
Hamden chuffed a laugh. “That he didn’t say. But then, inventors never give away their actual designs. Patents are potentially worth a fortune, so they merely tantalize their audience with hints of their cleverness.”
Wrexford had good reason to know all about patents and their worth. But something else that Hamden had just said suddenly stirred a question.
“You mentioned that Carrick had a collaborator. Any idea of who he is?”
“Again, Carrick was rather coy about revealing any specifics.” A smile. “But my guess is that it’s ashe, not ahe.”
* * *
Charlotte buttoned up the padded fencing jacket and flexed her knees, enjoying—as always—the feeling of freedom that came with wearing breeches rather than layer upon layer of stifling skirts. The carriage had dropped her and the boys off at a discreet back entrance to Angelo’s Fencing Academy, allowing her to enter the building unobserved.
The boys peltered off to one of the practice rooms while an attendant led her to a dressing area attached to the room where Harry Angelo gave his private lessons.
The ring of steel against steel echoed through the outer corridor, stirring a flutter of butterflies inside her rib cage.
“What if I’m about to fall flat on my arse?” she whispered as she tugged on the heavy leather glove that she had been given. Her brush with disaster in the stews had left her confidence shaken. In the past she had never doubted her physical abilities. But now . . .
Atap-tapon the door roused her from such worries.
Squaring her shoulders, she clicked open the latch and stepped onto the canvas mat.
“Good day, milady.” Harry Angelo cut a flourish through the air with his fencing foil and dropped into a graceful bow.
“Thank you, sir. But I am here merely as a student,” said Charlotte. “Let us please dispense with social formalities.”
A twinkle lit in his grey-green eyes. “As you wish.” He moved to the side wall and took down a face mask made of wire mesh. “Please put this on as a safety precaution—it goes on by tying the two leather ribbons together at the back of your head.”
