“And I trust ye. Although I must admit that fer a moment there when the Admiral spoke to ye as he did, I thought it was a good thing that he was sitting in the chair. If he’d been standing, ye might have dropped him to the floor with one of yer moves.”
“I did take that into consideration,” I replied.
“I thought as much. But then when ye explained yer observations and wot ye had read in a book, he knew that he’d been taken down a peg.”
“I was not trying to take him down a peg...well, I had perhaps considered it. He was quite pompous and full of himself.”
“And offended yer womanly intellect.”
He was right of course. It did seem that the ladies had a long way to go before our ideas, opinions, and experiences would be accepted on the same level as a man’s. We just needed to help that along whenever we could.
“And now?” Brodie inquired.
“It is not my womanly intellect that is offended, it’s my appetite. I’m starving.”
There was only a marginal comment from Brodie as we returned to the Strand and then promptly entered the Public House across from the office.
The fare of the evening was stewed chicken with vegetables and dumplings.
Brodie started to make a comment about that fourth dumpling, but I gave him a warning look.
The problem with stewed chicken and dumplings was that I could hardly keep my eyes open as we returned to the office.
Mr. Cavendish greeted us, and Brodie informed him that Alex Sinclair would be meeting with us in the morning.
He then joined me in the lift and escorted me into the office.
I reminded him that there were notes I needed to make.
“In the morning, lass,” he said as he laid my clothes aside, then his own as well and joined me.
Next to Brodie, chicken and dumplings were really quite marvelous. Not that he would have appreciated the comparison.
Eleven
THURSDAY 16 APRIL, TWO DAYS UNTIL...
Alex Sinclair arrived promptlythe next morning. He had matured since we first met, no doubt in part due to his responsibilities at the Agency, with a neatly trimmed moustache and a few lines about the eyes he had acquired along the way.
Still, that shock of dark hair had a habit of falling across his forehead, as now, when he entered the office and went directly to the side table where he deposited a portfolio of papers on the edge of Brodie’s desk.
“The information is to be kept secure at all times, and no one else is to know. Sir Avery was very specific about that. And I am to make certain that everything is in order when I return with it.”
He smiled, and I was reminded that at one time I had thought he might make a good match for Lily. However, I was reminded then, and now, that she had a mind of her own regarding such things.
Our last conversation in regard—“I have no need for a man. They are overbearing, thick-headed, and refuse to listen to anything I say. I’ve gotten along well enough without and will continue to do so.”
I thought of Brodie with that somewhat accurate description. Yet, there were other things she might eventually appreciate. Though she had assured me there were none.
“I have taken care of meself since I was seven years, and I can take care of meself now.”
That had been when she first arrived in London several years past. Though in the time since, with her education and some refinement, it seemed her opinion had not changed.
Now, as I greeted Alex, I did realize that he might have had his hands full with her, even though he was highly intelligent, very pleasing to look at, brilliant with his inventions, and quite adventuresome considering his work for the Agency. In particular, the coding machine he had invented and now connected to our electric.
“And I’m to assist in whatever way that I can,” he added. “I’ve been making inquiries regarding the...matter at hand. That is if you are agreeable to sharing information you have learned.”
A suggestion. I suspected it had not been a ‘suggestion’ from Sir Avery, but rather an order.
