As for the personal ramifications . . .
Now that they had evidence of Taviot’s guilt, she hoped that the authorities would move without delay to apprehend him and bring the investigation into Greeley’s death to an end.
And put Wrexford’s old ghosts to rest.
Strangely enough, Charlotte found that the question of whether Taviot’s consortium was a fraud had also come to matter to her, despite having no personal connection to the outcome. At first, she had seen it as merely an all-too-common story of business competitors resorting to skullduggery to reap great financial rewards. However, she now realized that given far-reaching economic and military consequences, it would be dangerous for the new technology to end up in such unscrupulous hands.
A discreet cough from Riche, who was standing in the open doorway, drew her out of her musing.
“A note just arrived from Lady Peake,” he announced.
“Thank you.” Charlotte rose and went to take it. “Ah,” she murmured. A smile blossomed on her lips as she read it. “Would you kindly go to the kitchen and warn McClellan that she had better bake an extra batch of ginger biscuits? Aunt Alison is bringing her young relative, Midshipman Horatio Porter, to visit with the boys.” Their fencing lesson done, the Weasels and Peregrine had returned to their eyrie.
“Very good, milady.”
As he withdrew, she pondered the other information contained in the note. Alison had just received an invitation from Lady Kirkwall to attend a soiree this coming evening—a small and exclusive gathering for potential investors in advance of the gala reception—at the Taviot townhouse in Mayfair, and asked if Charlotte would like to accompany her.
At first it seemed a simple question—with an equally simple answer. Charlotte’s first reaction was an emphaticno. It seemed at cross-purposes to have any contact with the family.
But on second thought, she considered the ramifications. Wrexford had not yet met with Griffin, and given his concerns about how the government might choose to deal with Taviot, perhaps it was wiser to attend. Wrexford and Sheffield had been wearing knitted toques and scarves that hid their features during the break-in at the secret laboratory, so it was likely that they would be thought mere thieves. However, it was imperative not to give the miscreant any reason to suspect that his misdeeds had been discovered.
If cornered, a desperate man was wont to do desperate things.
But of course, she told herself, it wouldn’t come to that.
After dropping the note on her worktable, Charlotte turned and headed for the stairs to inform the boys of Horatio’s impending arrival.
As she approached the half-open schoolroom door, the clack and whir of spinning metal, punctuated by hoots of laughter, announced that the boys were working on Peregrine’s mechanical hound.
Thank heavens. Charlotte paused to savor the sounds of playful exuberance. Of late, she had found herself worrying that the investigations were putting too much responsibility on their youthful shoulders. Granted, Raven and Hawk were no strangers to the dark side of human nature, but . . .
Peregrine’s sudden shout of mirth made her heart lurch. She had come to think of him as part of their family, but circumstances demanded that he leave soon for the Michaelmas term at Eton.
Change is an inexorable part of Life.
“Whether we want it to be or not,” Charlotte whispered.
More laughter.
“Carpe diem,” she added, reminding herself that fretting over the future did no good.Seize the day—and every precious moment it offered in the here and now. In that instant, she vowed that when the current troubles were over, she and Wrexford would take Raven and Hawk to their country estate near Cambridge for some peace and quiet. An imperfect plan, as Peregrine would likely have naught but a few days to spend with them before school started. But one must bend with the prevailing winds rather than snap.
Forcing her thoughts back to the present, Charlotte rapped lightly on the door. Taking a happywooffrom Harper as permission to enter, she stepped into the room, a smile chasing away her fretting as she surveyed the chaos. Screws and levers of various sizes were scattered helter-pelter over the rug. Raven had just released the spring mechanism which moved the mechanical hound’s legs while Peregrine lay sprawled on the floor, his nose perilously close to fast-moving pieces of metal as he watched the assembly of spinning gears.
“They are deciding whether to put in smaller gears to make the hound go faster,” explained Hawk, pitching his voice to be heard over the noise. He was sitting above the fray, his chair angled close to one of the school desks.
Sidestepping the jumble of metal parts, Charlotte went to join him. “What are you drawing?” she asked, seeing he had a colored pencil in hand and several others lying beside his paper.
“Wrex gave us the scrap of fabric that he tore from his assailant’s coat last night.” Hawk’s eyes narrowed in concentration as he contemplated his sketch. “I’m copying the bits of embroidery. My guess is the colored threads were part of an insignia, so I’m trying to see if I can spot a clue that might help me figure out what it might be.”
“What a clever idea,” she exclaimed. The thought hadn’t occurred to her, and for a long moment, she, too, studied the bits of gold and red.
Alas, the flecks of thread refused to stitch into any coherent image.
The whirring slowed and then stopped. Raven scrambled to his feet and went to fetch a tiny tool from the wooden box beside Peregrine. “Would you like to see it walk again?” he asked her. “Falcon figured out a very clever way to install a spring mechanism, based on a sketch that Mr. Hedley gave him.”
Charlotte repressed a wince on seeing him scrub his hands on the seat of his pants. However, compared to the hideous substances that usually clung to his fingers, whale oil was fairly harmless. “It’s quite marvelous,” she answered. “But why don’t you save further displays for when Horatio arrives. Aunt Alison is on her way here, and she’s bringing him for a visit.”
She smiled. “Alison and I have a soiree to attend this evening, so I will suggest to her that it would be a nice treat for him to spend the night here with you boys.”
