“A lady’s corset would do.”
It did seem as though Mr. Conner was enjoying this, as Brodie glared at him.
I went into the adjacent room that we shared and tore through the clothes in the wardrobe as well as the chest of drawers. Then turned to the bed and quickly removed the sheet.
Mr. Conner stared at me with some amusement as I returned with the sheet.
“I do not wear a corset,” I informed him.
“I thought not. No offense, Lady Forsythe. We'll need that cut into strips to bind him with.”
I proceeded to cut then tear the sheet into long strips several inches wide.
Much cursing followed from Brodie and then silence, as he sat on the chair and Mr. Conner bound him about his ribs.
“There,” Mr. Conner declared, standing back to inspect his work. “That should do for a while.”
Brodie shifted in the chair. “Ye might explain wot ye learned,”
“Of course.” He looked over at me. “Another dram, if ye please, Lady Forsythe.”
He waited until I had poured more whisky.
“I managed to visit four pubs Burke has been known to frequent. The man did get around.”
He downed the whisky and held out his glass once again.
“With this leg of mine, it required the services of a cabman, as I canna walk as far as I used to,” he continued. “Ye owe me sixpence,” he told Brodie, then took a long sip of whisky.
“The first two pubs, he hadn’t been around for a while. But he had been to the third one before visitin’ the Old Bell on the night he was killed.
“There was somethin’ else. It seems there was another man askin’ about him.”
He provided the description he’d been given, and I saw something shift in Brodie’s expression. Mr. Conner saw it as well.
“Perhaps the man ye encountered tonight?” he suggested.
Brodie nodded. “Aye.”
“There’s more. The man was recognized by a man at the bar who used to frequent the sports club in Germantown.”
The sports club was well-known across London. I had been there several times and Lily as well, as they now had a women’s exercise program, as well as other sports training.
I had insisted that she take formal lessons in handling a sword, admittedly not the usual interest for a young lady. However, I could hardly argue the matter, and lessons did seem necessary for the safety of everyone at Sussex Square. As it turned out, she was quite talented.
“It could be useful to see what the owner knows about the man,” Mr. Conner suggested. “I’m for my own bed. It’s been a long time since I patrolled the streets and made inquiries. And this knee of mine is stiffening up. By the way,” he added. “Ye look like the devil, and ye shouldn’t move around with those ribs busted.”
“Ye are not my mother, nor my wife.”
However, I was much in agreement, and amid much protest, Mr. Conner assisted in removing Brodie from the outer office to the adjoining bed chamber.
Though not without a good measure of curses, mostly in the language they both understood.
Then as he turned to leave, “That will be another sixpence for assisting an invalid,” he remarked, good-natured in spite of the fact that it was two o’clock in the morning and he obviously had some discomfort of his own as well as being tired.
I thanked him for his ‘assistance.’
“It will be worse the next couple of days,” he warned. “I know from experience. The challenge is to keep him quiet. Good luck with that.”
