Isobel muttered a curse. “I need fresh air,” she said, shoving from her chair. “I’ll take a turn around the block.”
“The saber is in the bureau by the alley door,” Samantha called, not looking up.
“I shall risk Lumley Street with no weapons today, save my parasol.” She took her umbrella and gloves and was halfway to the door when she paused.
“What is it?” asked Samantha.
“Nothing, I’m sure.” Isobel looked right and left out the windows. “It’s just that... this isn’t the first time I’ve seen this person. Do you think that’s odd? To see the same lurking man three times in one week?”
Samantha’s head popped up. She glared at the spot where the man had stood, narrowing her eyes as if she was taking aim.
“Do not overreact,” said Isobel. “I’ve noticed him here and there. He’s committed no offense.”
“That remains to be seen. Where ‘here and there’?”
“Waiting to be served in the tearoom on the corner. Leaning on the wall behind the flower cart. With a horse in the hostler’s yard at the end of the street. He appears one moment and is gone the next.”
“I knew it,” said Samantha, her voice filled with excitable dread.
“I really do think he means no harm,” repeated Isobel. “I’d not bother to challenge him, except for today. Of all days. He must not—”
“Hunt for unsuspecting women—”
“Loiter around the shop,” corrected Isobel.
“And your plan is—what? Stern words and a formidable look?”
“I’m hoping a simple introduction will suffice. Ask him how we can help. Request that he call another day. How long before Drummond Hooke arrives?”
“An hour. At most.”
“Right,” Isobel sighed, making a face. “An hour.”
Drummond Hooke was the disaffected and mostlyabsentowner of Everland Travel. Barely twenty-two years old, his parents had died three years ago and willed ownership of the shop to him. Drummond was lazy by nature and a miser by choice, and if left to his own devices, he would have driven Everland Travel to bankruptcy within months.
But he hadnotbeen left on his own; his parents’ will had wisely left ownership of the shop to their son, butmanagementof Everland Travel to their most valued employee, Isobel Tinker.
Drummond accepted his parents’ terms so long as the shop succeeded—which Isobel made certain it did. She also indulged him as the unseen mastermind of the success, which he most certainly was not.
Isobel and Samantha devoted hours to preparing for each Hooke visit. The office and clients must appear prosperous and esteemed, while Isobel must appear humble and matronly. Meanwhile, Drummond’s role—despite being five years Isobel’s junior—would be critical and patronizing.
If Isobel made everything appear immaculate, the young man would return to the Hooke estate in Shropshire and not be seen for another six weeks.
But lurking men were not immaculate. At even the slightest whiff of irregularity or alarming behavior, Hooke would usurp Isobel’s management role, relocate to London, and ruin everything.
Isobel wasdeterminedto outpace ruin by Drummond Hooke.
In fact, Isobel’s true goal was to save enough money topurchaseEverland Travel from him and become not only the manager but the owner, free and clear.
She needed only five more years of savings. Ten at most.
Now she pushed out the door into Lumley Street, motivated to dispatch the Lurker well before Hooke’s arrival. The August sun was bright today, illuminating Mayfair with sparkling light. It would be impossible to hide in the brightness, and Isobel didn’t try. If the Lurker had come to seek her out, well—here she was.
But he wasn’t stalking or hunting her, no matter what Samantha thought. The man didn’t feel dangerous to Isobel, merely out of place. Honestly, he seemed little more than curious. Isobel was accustomed to curious. She was a young woman who operated a successful business. Female businesswomen were unexpected at best and scandalous at worst. This was not the first lurking husband or brother she’d encountered.
Isobel Tinker designed seamless holidays for women and girls. Her voyages were safe, respectable, and luxurious. They offered the finest destinations in Europe with white-glove service. A lady’s world broadened. The envy of her friends.
It was why Mr. and Mrs. Hooke leftherto run the agency instead of their prize-idiot son.
