Katherine glared. She propped one hand on her hip and wagged her finger at him. “We were in no danger to begin with—”
He claimed her hand and bowed over it, brushing his lips against her knuckles. Katherine snatched her hand away fast.
Wayland looked amused. “Goodnight, ladies. Murphy.”
Lyle nodded to Wayland as the taller man turned and strode along the well-lit street.
Straightening, Pru stepped up next to Katherine and stared off after him. “What a curious man. He does seem rather eager to be in your presence tonight. What were you talking about in the carriage?”
Katherine blew out a breath and turned her back. “Nothing significant. Did you learn anything of use while you were at the card tables tonight?”
Pru frowned as they strode toward the hotel door, opened for them by a footman. Lyle trailed behind them.
“Anything of use? What do you mean?”
“You don’t think I situated you there simply to make a spectacle of yourself. There is always gossip at the card table. Did you learn anything that might be prudent to the investigation into the robberies?”
Pru faltered for a moment before a broad smile capped her face. “I thought you didn’t want my interference. I knew you wouldn’t shut me out of the investigation like that.” She threw her arm around Katherine’s shoulder and squeezed. “You had me fooled!”
Guilt niggled at Katherine’s belly because she’d meant every word earlier. Yet if she could use any of the gossip Pru had gleaned at the card tables to further the investigation, all the better.
“I played most of the night at the same table with Sir Hugh, Lord Annandale, Prince Karl of Prussia, and a few other gentlemen who came and went. Most didn’t care to stay after they lost their fish to me.”
“Did anyone talk of the robberies?”
Pru frowned. “Aside from Mr. Oliver, no. He whined about his wife insisting on wearing her best jewels around town, though they haven’t been the target of the thief yet. The prince, though…”
“The prince?” Katherine mounted the stairs alongside Pru. “I heard he hasn’t been a target of the thefts. Do you think he is the thief?” She couldn’t think of a single reason why a prince would need to resort to thievery.
He was a prince, wasn’t he? Perhaps she should ask around and verify his heritage. If he was only pretending to be visiting royalty…
Pru made a face. “I can’t be certain. He certainly wears enough jewelry for him to be sporting the efforts of the thief’s labors. Though if that were the case, I imagine the victims would remark upon him wearing their jewelry…” Shaking her head, she opened the bag containing her winnings and pulled out a large amethyst ring. “He goes through money as fast as he does spirits. When he was out for the evening, he tossed this down on the pile. A horrible player, but a good sport, I suppose. He never accused me of cheating.”
Katherine gave Pru a pointed look and paused on the landing of the first floor to examine the ring. Only a single tallow candle provided light on this floor for the moment. “I hope you weren’t cheating.”
The other woman scoffed. “As if I needed to. I had more skill than everyone else at the table combined, even if the cards weren’t always to my advantage.” She shrugged. “The ring is rather pretty, even if it is too big for me.”
Katherine memorized the shape and flourishes in case she later found a report of a stolen ring matching this description. What had Lady Carleton’s anniversary ring looked like, again? She would have to ask or consult the newspaper clippings she’d brought with her.
Footsteps on the stairs alerted her to someone following them up. She passed the ring back to Pru, who quickly hid it from sight just as Sir Hugh slipped past Lyle onto the landing. He frowned as he beheld them.
“Lady Katherine, Miss Burwick.” His gaze strayed to Lyle, but they must not have been introduced because Sir Hugh didn’t greet him by name. In fact, he didn’t greet him at all. “Why are you congregating on the first floor? Is something amiss?”
Pru opened her mouth. Although Katherine had no clue what the other woman meant to answer, she jumped in to do so first. “We were trying to think of who might be the owner of this earring, actually.” She fished it from her reticule. Since he had been in Bath longer than she, perhaps he would better know to whom the jewel belonged. “I found it in the corridor earlier this evening.”
The moment Sir Hugh peered closer at the earring, he stiffened. His friendly expression turned to ice. “The corridor? No, it couldn’t possibly have been there.”
Her chest constricted as if an unseen hand squeezed her. Should she confess to Emma’s part in this? Her voice as brittle as her smile, she asked, “Have you seen it before?”
“It is mine.”
His? Katherine exchanged a dubious look with Pru. Men didn’t wear such elaborate earrings. They resembled small chandeliers in the intricacy of the interlaced diamonds.
“I beg your pardon.”
“I have the other.” He dipped his hand into his pocket and emerged with an identical earring. “I have to thank you for finding it, even if I was certain they never left my room aside from being in my pocket.”
Hesitantly, Katherine held out the jewel for him to take. Weakly, she asked, “Are you certain they weren’t in your pocket and didn’t fall out?”
The stony look in his eye chilled her. “Quite.”
When he snatched the earring from her hand, she couldn’t think of a single reason to stop him. At the same time, she couldn’t think of a reasonable explanation as to why an unmarried man might be in possession of women’s jewelry, either.
Unless that man happened to be a thief. Had she just given the Burglar of Bath precisely what he wanted?
“Thank you for returning it,” he said sharply. He tucked the matching pair into his pocket once more. “They belonged to my mother. Now that she’s passed, I like to keep them with me… for sentimental reasons.”
An heirloom.
Katherine ducked her head in a polite nod. “You’re quite welcome.” She wrestled with doubt and suspicion as he mounted the steps to the next floor, where their rooms resided.
Judging by the speculative look on her face, Pru shared Katherine’s misgivings. No one said a word as they followed in Sir Hugh’s wake. At the top of the steps, Pru beckoned them toward Katherine’s room, silently. Her lips were pressed together.
Emma gave a happy yip upon spotting so many visitors entering her domain. Wagging her tail, she set upon them, twining between their legs and threatening to send them down in a heap.
Harriet jumped off the bed. Her cheeks darkening, she hastily shoved something that resembled a notebook beneath the pillow and stood, clad in her nightdress. Because the room was so small, Katherine had invited her maid to share the bed during their stay in Bath, rather than sleeping on the floor. The hotel didn’t have accommodations for servants or enough rooms at hand for Katherine to rent another. She had hinted for Harriet to share with Lyle, but that had only earned her a look of befuddlement on both their parts. Despite how she’d sung Lyle’s praises to Pru, Harriet, it seemed, did not think of him in a romantic light regardless of her penchant for teasing him.
Pru ushered Lyle inside and bade him to close the door. Although he obeyed, he turned as red as a rose and examined the ceiling rather than look directly at Harriet. Normally, that would have been the sort of thing that would have earned him a cheeky word from the maid, but tonight she was much too busy rearranging the pillow over the book she’d hidden.
Frowning, Katherine followed Harriet’s movements. “What were you reading? Was that my journal?”
“As if I would bother,” Harriet answered with a high little laugh that told Katherine she was lying. “Your journal is as dull as ditchwater.” A sly look overtook the guilt in her expression. “Unless, of course, you’ve had something to add of late. Perhaps featuring a tall, handsome captain and a secluded ballroom corridor?”
Katherine gaped. �
��How do you know about that? We’ve only just left the ball!”
Harriet laughed and stepped closer to scoop Emma off the ground and provide the attention for which the dog begged. “Gossip travels fast. Does he kiss well?”
Lyle cleared his throat, blatantly uncomfortable as he shifted from foot to foot. “Am I needed here?”
“Yes,” Pru snapped.
At the same time, Katherine protested, “I did not kiss Wayland. I was searching for clues!”
Harriet’s grin grew. “And did you find any in the poor captain’s clothing?”
“No. I didn’t look in his clothing. He was with us at the house party and cannot be the thief. The person lurking in the corridor, on the other hand—”
Pru interjected, “If we could discuss Katherine’s indiscretions at another time…”
Katherine threw her hands in the air. “There was no indiscretion! I pursued the cloaked figure into the corridor. Wayland followed. The End.”
Continuing to pat the dog, Harriet quipped, “That isn’t how I heard it. My sources tell me you dragged him into the other room with the promise of a kiss.”
Katherine held up her hands in surrender. With the scrutiny of her friends, her cheeks flushed with heat. She grasped for dignity as she said firmly, “There is no conversation. In fact, there is no foundation to justify having this conversation, as there is no romantic inclination on either part.”
Lyle frowned, removing his gaze from the ceiling to study her. “Actually…”
Harriet spoke over him. Relieved, Katherine gratefully turned her full attention to her maid, even if she endured further teasing. She didn’t want to know what he had to say on the matter.
With a false look of exasperation, Harriet said, “Pity. I have nothing about which to gossip with the other servants. You spend all your time working, plying your intellect to solve one puzzle or another, and the balderdash you wrote in your journal at the house party is all drivel about clues and murders.”
A laugh slipped from between Katherine’s lips. “I know. I wrote it.”
“I was hoping for something more exciting! A titillating tale of you and the captain in the garden, for instance.”
Katherine let out an exasperated breath. “That never happened, just as—”
She cringed as a piercing whistle split the air. All eyes turned to Pru, who looked cross. She braced her hands on her hips and glared at them.
“I did not bring you in here to discuss Captain Wayland or any other hanger-on in Katherine’s life.” She wrinkled her nose at Katherine, giving her a studious look. “In fact, I have to wonder at the fact that she would have a man at her heels in that outfit.”
Katherine balled her fists. She had had enough of Pru disparaging her choice of clothing for one night, even if she had hoped to look plain. “I’ll have you know he said I looked comely tonight.”
“He wants something from you,” Pru stated, her voice frank.
“I know.” What she hadn’t yet deduced was what he hoped to gain.
“I know what he wants,” Harriet said with a lascivious smile.
Katherine glared her into silence. “He likely wants to seduce me into telling him the details of my investigation.”
“Oh, yes,” the maid grinned. “Seduce. That’s what I was thinking, as well.”
Loudly, Pru interrupted, “I herded you in here for good reason. Unless, of course, your primary aim while in Bath has changed from finding the thief to seducing Captain Wayland?”
“I think not,” Katherine bit out, her jaw clenched with irritation.
“Would you like to hear what I learned about Sir Hugh or not?”
Her interest piqued, Katherine immediately turned her full attention on the other woman. Her suspicions about the baronet rekindled, she leaned closer and urged Pru to continue with a wave of her hand. “Of course. I’m listening.”
Smug, Pru stood taller. She drew out the silence, seeming to revel in the attention directed to her by the three other people in the room. She would have made an admirable opera singer.
“Sir Hugh has recently come into a large sum of money.”
Katherine frowned. “How large?”
“No one knows, nor from whence it came, but he’s been freer with his money at the card tables these past few weeks, I’ve been told.”
If he had such an influx of quid, then why were his clothes in such a shabby state? Katherine frowned, mulling over that information.
Pru added, “He seemed most attentive whenever Mr. Oliver was complaining of his wife’s insistence on bringing her jewels everywhere, including the King’s Bath, where they mean to go tomorrow after church.”
“Do you think he means to rob them?”
She widened her eyes in a look of innocence. “I would never presume to form such a theory when knowing so little. I am not the investigator in this matter. What do you mean to do?”
Clearly, she had yet to forgive Katherine for telling her she could have no part in the investigation. As long as Katherine could limit the other woman’s role to that of information gathering, she ought to have a reasonable chance of solving the thefts on her own. After all, she had to learn her gossip from someone. Why not Pru?
“The thief has yet to rob anyone at the public baths. I suspect there are far too many people nearby for them to try.”
As Pru scowled, Katherine held up her hands.
“Nevertheless, I think it is prudent that we also attend the baths tomorrow, just in case Sir Hugh — or someone else — intends to help himself to somebody’s jewelry. Perhaps we might be able to catch them in the act. Lyle?”
At her question, he shrugged. “The Pump Room, where the Dowager of Bath has graciously allowed me to access the water for my invention, is next door. I’ll be nearby.”
“Excellent!” Pru opened the door and slipped out to the corridor. With a wave of her hand, she said, “Feel free to resume taunting Katherine.” In a lower tone, she mulled, “I wonder what I’ll wear to look horrid…”
Katherine didn’t want to know. She turned to her companions. “It’s too late in the night for taunting.”
“In the morning, then,” Harriet said with a twinkle in her eye. “I’ll be sure to let you know if you whisper the captain’s name in the middle of the night.”
Katherine heaved a sigh. Why did she have to be such close friends with her maid? Others of her station didn’t have to put up with such insolence.
Beleaguered, she shooed Harriet toward the bed. “I will not be whispering his name in my sleep. In fact, unless we cross paths again, I shan’t even think of him.”
Cradling Emma, the maid sat at the foot of the bed. The dog wiggled in her arms but settled the moment Harriet started rubbing her belly. “Well then, if you’re right in thinking he’s interested in the investigation, you’re bound to think of him often.”
Katherine sighed. She herded Lyle into the corridor. “My apologies for all… this. I know you’d rather not hear it.” Truthfully, neither would Katherine.
Instead of accepting her apology with aplomb, he paused on the threshold of her room and caught her gaze. “I think you’re wrong.”
Katherine frowned. “I beg your pardon?”
“Wayland is not interested in the investigation. Goodnight.” He nodded to her and Harriet before striding down the corridor to his room.
A stroke of luck, on Katherine’s part, for she hadn’t the faintest idea of how to answer him. If anything, he had to be wrong. Wayland couldn’t possibly have any other reason to be in Bath except to solve the very investigation upon which she had turned her attention.
And she was determined to solve it first.
Chapter Six
The respectful hush shrouding the congregation lifted the moment the gentlemen and women strode through the carved arched doors of Bath Abbey and into the square. Katherine’s gaze skated past the epitaphs artfully carved into blocks in the wall and floor as she exited. She paused, craning her neck to view th
e cloudy gray sky. The trees, angels, and bishops carved into the façade of the abbey loomed over her between the elaborate arched stained-glass windows.
Pru approached and steered her to the left, out of the stream of people. “Should we return to the hotel and change clothes?” The woman had been in a sour mood all morning, upon finding that she didn’t have a day dress ugly enough to suit her needs. She had been forced to accept Katherine’s advice of choosing a plain one instead, in the hope of fading into the background.
Katherine’s dress was beige, she hoped neutral enough to match the stone walls of the King’s Bath and render her presence unremarkable. Pru had chosen gray for the occasion.
In answer to the question, Katherine shook her head. “We have no time. I want to install myself at the baths in time to see everyone lingering nearby. We cannot risk the thief striking while we are away.”
The other woman pulled a face. “Surely you’re being too stringent. Won’t everyone want lunch before they use the pool?”
Katherine smirked. “Haven’t you heard not to swim after eating? They’ll bathe first in the healing waters then adjourn for lunch. If we’re lucky, they’ll take lunch in the Pump Room and we won’t need to stray far to keep everyone in our sights.”
Her gaze meandered across the square to the brown stone building by that name. A covered walkway, the roof held aloft by carved Ionic columns, separated the square from the street beyond and adjoined the building. Latticed windows, Corinthian pillars, and elaborate scrollwork decorated the Pump Room, noticeable even from a distance. Although Katherine had yet to set foot in the building, she had been told that they served refreshments in the afternoon and housed the spring of healing water accessible to the public. Lyle must already be ensconced within those walls, for he hadn’t attended the sermon with Katherine and Pru.
Katherine slipped her arm through Pru’s and steered her into motion. “Come, let’s go to the King’s Bath.”
Although Pru didn’t protest, she glanced over her shoulder every few feet. Whatever she saw had her agitated. She leaned closer. “Are you certain that acting unladylike is the proper way to dissuade a man from thinking of you romantically?”
The Baffling Burglaries of Bath Page 8