Jamie, Toby, and Anthony left the room.
“Are you sure you can trust them?” Anthony asked after they’d moved away from the door.
“I don’t think there is much choice. We need someone in here who can notify us when and if Jackson comes back. I have hopefully secured their trust with the money I handed them.”
Anthony nodded, but didn’t look convinced. “We found nothing upstairs other than debauchery. None of the men we encountered were Jackson.”
“I’m not sure I’ll ever recover from seeing so many naked men and women.” Toby shuddered.
“Did you recognize any?” Jamie asked.
“The Earl of Pankhurst, and that surprised me,” Anthony said. “I will never be able to look at him again without seeing his spotty bottom.”
“Come. Madam Ravelle—who brought me up here for a tour, before leaving to tend to something upstairs—will return to look for me soon, if she hasn’t already. We will head downstairs.”
“And what is the plan?” Toby asked.
“If Gideon Ravelle is downstairs in the parlor, we’re going to enter. And then you’ll need to distract him so I can get behind the bar and into his room. I want that book because it may lead us to Jackson.”
“Or it may not, Jamie,” Toby cautioned.
“I have to try.”
“Very well.”
Jamie walked to the staircase leading down to the parlor. He opened it and started down the stairs, his friends close on his heels. The sounds below grew louder with each step. When he reached the bottom, he pushed open the door and strode in as though they had every right to be there.
Men sat around the room in various states depending on how far down their tankards they were. Tables were set up in one corner where men gambled. Women dressed similarly to Molly and Ada served drinks and sat on knees. One man had his face in a pair of naked breasts.
“Gideon Ravelle is at the bar, on the right. Two left from the man serving,” Jamie whispered to his friends.
Anthony moved around him in that direction, and Toby went the opposite way. He would create some kind of distraction.
So far Ravelle had not noticed Jamie. Skirting the room, Jamie moved to the bar to stand in the shadows to one side of the entrance and wait.
Pipe smoke made his eyes itch and hit the back of his throat as he inhaled. It was warm in here, heat from the fireplaces thickening the air even more.
“Well now, you’re a fine one.”
The woman who now stood before Jamie was young, and the smile on her lips didn’t reach her eyes.
“Can I get you a drink, sir?”
“Whiskey, please,” he said to get her away. She nodded and left.
His eyes found Toby, who was standing at a card table watching the play. He stepped back as a woman walked by carrying a tray full of tankards. It was done so fast and looked like he’d genuinely tripped, but seconds later the tray and its entire contents were heading to those seated nearest.
The roars of displeasure drew the room’s focus, and Jamie used the noise to ease behind the bar, to the curtain just two steps away. Slipping behind it, he found a door and opened it.
The space beyond was small, and a very male domain. A narrow shelf held books. The desk wasn’t big, but had ink, paper, and other things a man would need to run a business. Moving behind it, Jamie searched for what Molly and Ada had told him would hold the names of those who visited the Crimson Serpent. He took precious seconds to go through the drawers and found nothing that looked like what he was after.
Had the women been lying to him?
“Where could you be hiding?” Jamie muttered as the noise beyond the curtain started to ease. His eyes fell on a jacket hanging on a hook beside the entrance. Unsure why he thought the book could be there, he found himself heading that way. Seconds later, he was going through the pockets and found a small black book. Opening it, he read the first page, and then stuffed it into his jacket pocket.
Heading back out of the room, Jamie ran into the barman.
“What are you doing back here?” he demanded.
