“I was there with her, and then Howard arrived,” Ambrose forced out of his tight throat. The idea of Tilly out there alone was lodged inside his head. Tilly in pain. “We-we talked, then he left. She was next, refusing my offer of a ride. By the time I’d left the bookshop, she’d disappeared,” Ambrose recounted. “I was only minutes later, and I looked for her to ensure she got into a cab, but I could not find her anywhere.”
He should have looked harder.You should never have let her leave alone.Guilt, thick and heavy, slithered its tendrils through him. Ambrose should have searched every shop, every lane. Now Tilly was missing, and he could have prevented that.
“We need to go there and retrace her steps,” Leo asserted. “Alex is on his way. Between all of us, we may find clues.”
“God’s blood, what has happened now?” Mungo demanded, entering with his wife, Eliza, and taking up all the remaining space in the room.
“Tilly is missing,” Bram said.
The scowl on the Scotsman’s face darkened.
“What is to be done?” Eliza asked.
“We are working that out,” Bram said.
“Has anyone gone to The Iris Club to check she is not there?” Ambrose asked suddenly.
“She would not go there without telling us,” Mr. Wilson said.
“Still, I think that should be the first place we look,” Ambrose said, giving Charles a look, which he hoped conveyed that he was sure Tilly did many things her parents were unaware of.
“Right, yes, good idea. We shall leave now,” he said.
“I will come with you,” Mr. Wilson said.
“I think you and Mrs. Wilson should go home in case your daughter returns,” Charles advised. “You can then send word here if she has.”
He didn’t want to, but as his wife was clearly distraught, Mr. Wilson reluctantly agreed. Mungo escorted them out of the house to their carriage.
“I need to find that bloody thimble again,” Leo said. “I’ve already had to find it once.”
“Thimble?” Violet asked.
“Tilly had it attached to a chain in her reticule,” Leo added.
“I’ve had a vision of Tilly.”
Everyone seemed to still at those words because they came from Theo, the youngest of the male Nightingale siblings. A young man now, with the look of his brothers, Theo was pale as he braced a hand on the chair before him.
“You have visions?” Violet asked. “I hadn’t realized you were a clairvoyant also.”
“They are getting stronger,” Ellen said, reaching for her youngest brother’s hand. “What did you see, Theo?”
“I’m here!” Alex burst into the room before Theo could speak, his coat half buttoned and his dark hair disheveled as though he’d run the distance to Crabbett Close. His eyes swept the assembled faces and landed on Bram. “I felt something wasn’t right, but didn’t think it was family, and thenyour note arrived, saying you needed me because Tilly was missing.”
Bram filled him in on the details, with others adding what they thought needed to be said.
“Theo has had a vision,” Ellen said, and something passed between the Nightingale siblings, a silent language Ambrose had learned to recognize over the time he’d spent in their company.
Alex crossed the room in three strides and gripped his youngest brother’s shoulder. “It’s all right now, Theo. Tell us what you saw.”
“A child,” Theo said again. His voice was steadier now, though the pallor had not left his face. “She was a scruffily dressed girl with long dark hair. And Tilly was—there was something over her. Like a sack, or a coat.” He pressed his fingers briefly to his temple. “It was dark. Not night, but dark. Like she was indoors, or below ground. I think she is scared.”
Below.The word settled in Ambrose’s head. “The Iris Club,” he said and looked at Charles.
“Yes, I think you’re right. We need to go there,” he said. “If Tilly is there, I may be able to hear her.”
“This woman I tried to talk to Tilly about has been yelling things in my head all day, and the scent of lavender has been lining my nostrils,” Alex said. “She’s getting more and more agitated.”
