Victorian Vigilantes 01 - Saving Grace (7 page)

“This is it,” Stoneleigh repeated.

The driver cracked his whip and the urchins scattered. William alighted from the carriage, sniffed the putrid air and almost gagged. A young crossing sweeper stepped forward, apparently the person who had identified Eva. William showed him a miniature of his wife that had been painted the year before and the man nodded.

“That’s her.” He sounded absolutely certain. “I saw her not two hours ago.”

William flipped the lad a coin. He doffed his cap and scampered off.

“It’s this way.” Stoneleigh led the way into a dilapidated house that smelled of boiled cabbage, and worse.

“Lord have mercy,” William muttered beneath his breath, trying not to breathe as he climbed the rickety stairs.

Stoneleigh pushed opened the door to a tiny room and stood back to let William in first. A woman in a grimy gown entered behind him, presumably the owner of the premises, a calculating expression in her eye as she sized William up.

“Did you rent this room to this lady?” William again produced the miniature of Eva.

The woman screwed up her eyes and took her time to think about it. “It looks like her. Pale she was, but well-spoken and polite.”

The woman’s words forced William to face the truth. Only Eva would consider it necessary to be polite to such a woman.

“Did she occupy this room alone?”

The woman pushed out her scrawny chest. “I don’t hold with no funny business here. This is a respectable house.”

“Is it indeed?” William cast a scathing look around the room. “What time did she go out this morning?”

“I have no idea.” But the avaricious look in her eye told a different story.

William reached into his waistcoat pocket and tossed a half-sovereign her way. “Nine-thirty,” she said promptly. “She asked me the best place to hire a handsome cab and I directed her to Mitre Square.”

“Did she say where she was going?”

“No, sir, and I didn’t ask.”

“What was she wearing?”

The woman described the same gown Eva had been wearing on the morning she disappeared.

“You can leave us,” William told her, satisfied she knew nothing more.

“How is it that my wife wasn’t recognised before now, given she only had that one gown to wear?” William asked. “It’s way too fine for this district.”

Stoneleigh opened a rickety closet, inside which hung a garment in a dull grey that looked fit only to polish William’s carriage with.

“I reckon there’s your answer,” Stoneleigh replied.

“So, she was going somewhere today that required her only good gown.” William rubbed his chin, pacing three steps one way, then three the other—the maximum movement the limited space permitted. “But where?”

There was a newspaper on the narrow bed, several days old, open at the situations vacant page. William snatched it up and perused the positions on offer. Almost immediately his eyes alighted on the requirement for an educated lady. William rolled up the paper and smacked it against his thigh.

“Come along,” he said, striding from the room. “I’ll wager I know precisely where my wife went to today, and why.”

So animated was he, that William no longer cared if he looked like a cuckold, incapable of controlling his own wife. He would go to the address shown in the advertisement and find out who had been advertising for an educated lady to carry out organisational duties. He especially wished to know what those duties were.

That was where he would find his Eva.

***

Isaac and Jake excused themselves and moved to one side of the room, leaving Lady Eva seated beside the fire.

“We can’t ask her to do it, Jake,” Isaac said firmly. “She has been through enough already. Besides, she’s petrified of her husband and he will beat her to within an inch of her life if she goes back to him.”

“Greater considerations are at stake here, Isaac.” Jake grimaced. “I know you’re taken with her, and I don’t blame you for that. I felt the same way when I first saw her six years ago but—”

“No buts, Jake. We will just have to use Franklin to rescue her child
and
get the information we need from Woodstock.”

“Isaac, no matter the sorry of state of her marriage, she
is
still married.”

Isaac snorted. “You think I am likely to forget that?”

“I think…well, that you are not thinking coherently.” Isaac simply fixed his friend with a steely gaze. “All right.” Jake threw up his hands and sighed. “We’ll do things your way, but first I have to answer her question. I suppose I could invent some plausible story for bringing her here.”

“Invention is what you excel at, Jake. It is one of the reasons why the Home Secretary thinks so highly of you. When it comes down to it, you’re a spy and spies learn to be economical with the truth from the word go, otherwise they wouldn’t last long in their chosen career.”

They both glanced towards Lady Eva. The disappointment reflected in her eyes reignited Isaac’s protective instincts.

“You can see just from looking at her that deception is now all she expects from life. I can’t stand it.” Isaac clenched his fists, truly impassioned. “She has become conditioned to it, being married to that ogre, and expects the same thing from us. But unlike Woodstock, we are gentlemen and simply can’t do it to her.”

“All right.” Jake clapped Isaac’s shoulder. “I shall find another way, but in return I need you to remain focused on the mission, not Lady Eva.”

“Agreed.”

They returned to their seats.

“Yes, Lady Eva,” Jake said. “To answer your earlier question, that is precisely why I brought you here.”

She swallowed. “Thank you for your honesty, at least.”

“But since hearing the truth about the state of your marriage I have had a change of heart. I do not believe you can help me after all.”

She elevated one brow. “You expect me to believe that?”

“No, I can quite understand why you would still be suspicious. Will you at least accept my apology?” Jake spread his hands and sent her a charming smile. “In my line of work it is sometimes easy to overlook peoples’ feelings for the sake of the greater good.”

Isaac could see that Jake’s candour had taken her by surprise and she didn’t quite know how to answer him. The air between the three of them was taut with a tension Isaac would give much to know how to dispel. Lady Eva happened to glance his way, their gazes clashed and the crystalline silence intensified. Isaac cleared his throat but didn’t attempt to speak. It was Lady Eva who found her voice first.

“You were doing your job,” she said. “A little collateral damage is presumably inevitable when set against the duty you owe to Queen and country.”

“Hang our duty!” Isaac cried passionately, ignoring Jake’s warning glower. “We will not ask you to go back to that man’s house and there’s an end to the matter.”

“Is that not up to me to decide?”

Jake answered her question with one of his own. “What will he do to you if you do return?”

“Beat me, humiliate me, punish me in lots of small, public ways the servants cannot help but see, or hear about. That is his way of showing he has absolute power over me. But all the time he will pretend he is delighted to see me again.”

“Will he restrict your access to Grace? Your freedom?”

“Possibly the former.” She shrugged. “As to the latter, I have no freedom to speak of anyway.”

“Well then, I see no advantage to your returning.”

“I might very well need to return.”

Isaac felt ready to explode with anger at the thought of the things the oaf would do to this delicate beauty. “The devil you will!”

“You don’t understand. He will think I am with friends to whom he would never be granted admittance if he enquired about me at their addresses. The only way to get close to them, or to find out where I am, would be to talk to my brother and engage his help in hunting me down. Gerald will have to do so; otherwise William will find a way to ruin him.”

Jake nodded. “I had heard your brother shares your father’s love of the gaming tables.”

“Yes, the will to self-destruct appears to run through all of us.” She spread her hands, looking indescribably sad. “Just look at the mess I have made of things.”

“Hardly your fault,” Isaac said softly, somehow resisting the urge to touch her.

Parker entered the room and whispered something to Jake. Jake nodded grimly and Parker withdrew.

“It is fortunate you came here this morning,” he said, turning towards Lady Eva. “I sent people to watch over your room in Whitechapel once you told me where you had been staying. It seems your husband and one of his men just arrived there.”

Lady Eva gasped. “How did he find me?”

Jake shrugged. “The man has resources.”

She looked totally defeated. Pale, frightened and tormented. “Then it is hopeless.”

“Not in the least.” Isaac, seated beside her, grasped her hand. “Will you place your trust in us to keep your safe?”

“How can I ask you to concern yourselves with my affairs when you have more pressing demands on your time?”

“You can either return to Whitechapel, where your husband will be waiting, or to Sloane Street, where you will be beaten.” Isaac’s voice softened. “I won’t allow either fate to befall you.”

“It is hardly your choice to make, sir.”

“No, but I can offer you a third choice.” Jake’s voice caused them both to look in his direction. He took a seat across from them and arranged his limbs in his habitually elegant style. “You can stay here, where no one will be able to get anywhere near you. I give you my word that I will reunite you with your daughter. I shall have Franklin bring her out.”

“And lose your inside man?”

“Unfortunately I cannot afford to do that, so it won’t happen immediately. But it
will
happen, if only you are prepared to be patient.”

“Perhaps we can find a way for Franklin to bring her out without giving himself away,” Isaac suggested.

“Yes, very possibly. I shall give the matter some thought.”

“Concerning yourself with my daughter will distract you from your work for the government.”

“We would be more distracted if I had to think of you suffering at the hands of that monster,” Isaac replied for them both, squeezing the hand he was still holding.

“He won’t hurt me, not really.”

“How can you say that?” Isaac asked. “You already admitted he beats you without provocation. This time he will claim plenty of provocation.”

“I don’t feel it,” she said, shaking her head. “I have taught myself to withdraw, to rise about whatever he does to me so he can’t reach the part of me that feels emotional or physical pain.”

Her response made Isaac even more determined not to let her return. “Even so, please don’t think about going back there. You will be doing us a service by staying clear of him.”

She frowned. “How so?”

Isaac wasn’t surprised when Jake supplied the answer that had only just occurred to Isaac. “All the time he’s looking for you, he will be neglecting other matters.”

“He will be less vigilant, which is all the opportunity Franklin needs to find the information we require,” Isaac added, overcome by a torrent of protective feelings, willing to say whatever was necessary to convince her to stay safely with them. “Please say you will be Jake’s guest.”

Her gaze swivelled between the two of them, firm and resolved, and she shook her head. Then, in a heartbeat, the fight appeared to drain out of her. She looked tired, defeated and heartrendingly wretched.

“Very well,” she said with a deep sigh. “I accept your offer with thanks. At least temporarily.”

The address in the newspaper led William to vacant premises above a shop in Regent Street. The vendor below, a haberdasher, knew nothing about the people who had briefly occupied the apartment above.

“Some sort of employment agency, far as I could tell,” he said, repeating what William already knew. “They were here for just a few days, and then left again. Lots of people came and went. Couldn’t say who was in charge.”

“Who owns the premises?”

The man couldn’t tell him that either. He paid his rent to the former tenant, who had sublet his shop to him. William submerged himself in a simmering silence, aware that it would be a waste of time trying to trace the owners. Whoever had taken the place didn’t want to be found, and clearly had sufficient means to ensure they were not.

Damn it, William didn’t have time for this! Eva had been within his grasp. He had smelt her perfume lingering in that awful room in Whitechapel, could almost feel her voluptuous curves beneath his hungry hands, could anticipate the fear in her eyes when she was required to account to him for her disgraceful behaviour. Now she had slipped away again, like a shadow without substance.

He was so angry he wanted to hit something, or someone, but retained his composure by the sheer force of his will. Without a word of thanks William strode from the shop, Stoneleigh keeping pace with him.

“Now what?” Stoneleigh asked when they had returned to the carriage.

“You’re the person I charged with the simple task of finding my wife,” William replied with icy disdain. “I should be asking you that question.”

“Someone’s helping her,” Stoneleigh said with conviction.

“Idiot! If someone was helping her, she would not have been hiding away in Whitechapel.”

“She was hiding there to start with, but now she’s got help.”

“Even if that’s true, unless we can discover who’s come to her aid, it gets us nowhere.”

“The child’s the key to it all,” Stoneleigh said stubbornly. “She loves that kid and sooner or later she will feel compelled to either come back to her or try and snatch her from beneath your nose.”

It was the first time Stoneleigh had dared to imply Eva didn’t want to return. William had to accept all his servants were now aware he had no control over his wife. Fortunately, no one other than Stoneleigh would dare to say so to his face–not if they valued their positions.

“What are you suggesting?” he asked.

“Have Mary start taking the child to the park again. That ought to do it.” Stoneleigh nodded emphatically, sniffed and then wiped his nose on the sleeve of his coat. “Women are funny about their kids and if you don’t mind me saying so, Lady Eva’s funnier than most. She would give her life for that child. She’ll be pining for the brat and won’t be able to settle if she remains parted from her for much longer.”