That dark gaze opened, narrow, barely a slit that fastened on me as I continued to explain the visit from my great aunt.
“I didn’t know about it, as the invitation would usually have been sent to the townhouse. Instead, it was included with her invitation sent to Sussex Square.”
There was no ‘aha’ moment, no other exclamation. He simply listened.
“It makes sense,” I then added my thoughts. “We know that three men of position were meeting in secret at St. John’s Wood. From Adele’s notes, we know that it has something to do with the submarine the Royal Navy is having secretly built at Portsmouth. Along with the three men who went by the aliases of Torch, Hammer, and Saber.”
Secretlydid seem a moot point after our trip there.
“And according to Alex, the Agency has received coded messages about a man who goes by the name of Torch.”
And that date, also disclosed in the things Adele had overheard and then put down in her journal before she sought out Burke.
Had she sinned, as she had tearfully asked? And then caused Burke’s death?
I could never accept that and would defend that what she had done in the end took more courage than many of those I knew.
I had added notes about what Brodie and Mr. Conner had discovered at that flat in St. Giles, including the description of that mark that had been burned into Kitty’s body. I then added my own thought about that.
I do believe there is a special place in Hell for those like Steiner. As Lily had once said about the death of a friend from an early experience in Edinburgh before she came to London.
People like Steiner, those who procured his services for their own purpose, and anyone who would commit murder and leave a young girl terrified in the shadows had no soul...only the evil that fed them.
Quite profound from one so young.
As I finished my notes, I looked up. The fire was low in the coal stove and the room had taken on a sudden coldness.
Brodie had still not touched the supper in front him, the glass tumbler empty, his handsome features drawn.
Aunt Antonia had telephoned earlier to say that she had spoken with my sister. Linnie was thrilled with the news that we would be attending the reception at St. James's Palace.
She had no way of knowing the reason, of course. That we hoped to discover the importance of the date to those three men at St. John’s Wood.
She had promised to send a gown over in the morning that I might wear, and surely there was something her husband hadthat Brodie could wear, with such short notice and no time to purchase a formal suit of clothes from a tailor’s.
I closed my notebook. I went to the stove and closed the two doors across the front to hold in the heat, then set the lock on the door. I left the plate of food where it was. Rupert would appreciate it in the morning.
Brodie eventually stood. He had not spoken after he first returned, but had simply listened as I explained what I had learned from Aunt Antonia, and my thoughts on what that date meant. I reached for his hand.
Other than the barest details of what he and Mr. Conner found, he had kept the rest of it locked inside, determined, as he was so often, to protect me from the more gruesome part of it.
“Do you know how fine you are to me?” I told him and laid my hand against his cheek.
“There are things we need to talk about,” Brodie insisted.
I knew perfectly well what he meant, and where it came from.
But not tonight, I thought, as I led him into the bed chamber and unbuttoned his shirt.
Then held him against me as he had held me so many times.
It was his habit to rise early, often times having not slept at all, a holdover from his time with the MET and other things.
This morning was no different, as I awakened to find him already dressed in trousers and a jumper, his hair quite wild about his head.
He had placed a call to Alex Sinclair earlier.
“I’m to meet with Sir Avery at the Agency when I arrive. He needs to know wot we’ve learned.”
