‘I have already instructed the Bow Street Runners to locate those involved in the repairs,’ he said. ‘Perhaps one of them may be persuaded to talk.’
Charlotte found herself unexpectedly impressed and looked at him anew. Beneath the aristocratic reserve lay a mind far sharper than she had first imagined.
‘Even so,’ he continued thoughtfully, ‘I noticed something peculiar the other evening. Whenever Payne spoke, Oswald became remarkably quiet. Not politely quiet—immediately so. Like a man accustomed to being corrected.’
‘You think he fears Payne?’
‘Yes,’ Lord Stanley replied carefully. ‘Even Fraser deferred to Payne. Like a subordinate obeying a superior.’
Charlotte stilled.
Had they finally found the Falcon?
For one suspended moment, she and Lord Stanley simply looked at one another.
‘It would appear that we have sufficient reason to suspect Payne may indeed be the Falcon—the head of the Odd Fellows,’ she said carefully.
Charlotte could scarcely believe it, feeling at once relieved and deeply unsettled by the discovery.
He gave a slow nod of agreement before asking, ‘I wonder why they meet here each year with their families, no less?’
‘I suspect these creepy fellows have been engaged in villainy together for years,’ she replied indignantly. ‘No doubt they gather annually to conduct their business meetings and devise fresh ways to be evil beneath the respectable disguise of a house party.’
‘I believe they are called the Odd Fellows. “Creepy Fellows” would be rather too obvious a name, do you not think?’ he replied with a smirk.
‘Well, whatever they choose to call themselves,’ she said, her lips twitching, ‘the devil ought to thank them for sparing him the effort.’
‘Unfortunately for them, the devil did not account for you.’
Charlotte suppressed a smile.
‘Do you think all their businesses are merely fronts for the Odd Fellows’ operations?’ she asked slowly.
‘Yes. I am almost certain of it. Thanks to you, we finally have the missing pieces necessary to connect everything.’
Lord Stanley’s expression sharpened with grim understanding. ‘No merchant acquires that many warehouses unless goods are moving constantly through them.’
The implications struck Charlotte with dreadful clarity.
‘If Hamilton controls the shipping routes,’ he continued slowly, ‘then Payne’s warehouses become holding points.’
Lord Stanley’s knuckles whitened against the armchair.
‘It seems hundreds—if not thousands—of girls have been transported through their commercial network,’ he said quietly. ‘Warehouses to ships. Ships to plantations abroad.’
Charlotte swallowed hard. ‘I wondered how such a steady stream of girls could disappear without anyone noticing. But Wolverton practically admitted they choose girls with no family connections. No one important enough to raise alarm.’
‘Precisely. Since the crackdown upon the brothels and coastal operations led by Lord Armitage, they have adapted by selecting their victims more carefully. Once the girls are out of the country, they become almost impossible to trace. Particularly if they are being moved through established slave routes.’
‘That is why they were so troubled by the abolition efforts,’ Charlotte whispered.
‘The Slave Trade Act of 1807, achieved largely through Wilberforce’s campaigning, abolished the slave trade throughout the British Empire. Yet elsewhere—particularly under Napoleon—the buying and selling of slaves remains in high demand.’
A dreadful heaviness settled in her chest as the true scale of it became clear.
‘So the Odd Fellows simply went underground on English soil,’ she said quietly.
Lord Stanley nodded grimly.
