The rest of the brothers and their wives approached. As organized earlier, a beadle hurried up with a wooden box. Kemble stepped out from the bookshop doorway, and climbed up on the box.
The brothers gathered around him, their wives on their arms. The audience stilled, waiting to find out what was about to happen.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Kemble said loudly. “The Sheppard brothers are no longer subject to Teign’s tyranny, and he will no longer be deciding our social calendar, nor threatening our younger brothers to gain our compliance. Should you care to send invitations to any of us—my brothers, myself, our ladies—my sisters-in-law, Lady Baldwin and Lady Donald, have agreed to receive our mail. Thank you all for your attention.”
He stepped down, and offered his arm to Mel. “Finis,” he said.
It was not, in fact, quite the end. Continuing Kemble’s play analogy, Mel supposed she could compare the walk to a series of encores, as people claimed an acquaintance with one of the brothers, or one of their wives, and presumed on it to ask questions or offer an invitation to call.
They kept walking however, claiming another pressing engagement, which was true enough, for they all wanted to be somewhere else by the time Teign learned what had happened here this afternoon.
The people that Clara had hired—bodyguards from a firm called Moriarty Protection—closed around them as they left the arcade, and saw them to their carriages. The agency had assigned a team to each couple. One team followed Mel and Kemble when Winifred’s carriage dropped them at the mouth of the alley that contained the gate to the tunnel.
“We shall be safe from here,” Mel told them. “But I should like to reassign you, with Lord Kemble’s permission, to guard my daughter, sister, and nephew.”
“We could put another team on them, Mrs. Blackmore,” said the senior of the two bodyguards.
“I need a team on my daughter and brother-in-law,” said Kemble. “If Teign finds them, he will use them against me. But I agree that Mrs. Blackmore’s family are also at risk. Talk to your employer and arrange for both addresses to be covered. As for Mrs. Blackmore and me, we are heading for our beds. We won’t need guards until at least noon tomorrow, and can meet them here. I’ll cover any extra costs.”
The bodyguard peered at him with narrowed eyes and then nodded. “If I can have those addresses then, my lord, ma’am.”
Mel felt in her reticule for a notebook and pencil. “I shall write a note for my sister, and put the address on it,” she said.
“A good idea,” Kemble approved. “If you would be so good as to spare me a sheet of your paper, I shall do likewise.”
It took only a couple of minutes. Soon, the bodyguards had gone and Mel and Kemble were locked inside the gate and on their way down the tunnel and up the stairs.
