“Excellently! My hypothesis has proven correct so far. The minerals in the healing waters here will do very well for the purpose I have in mind. All I need to do is build an apparatus to boil the water into steam in a timely fashion and point it toward a contained object. With a few additions, the minerals in the steam should adhere to the recent residue left by a person’s touch. I should be ready to test the device soon.”
“Fantastic! Brilliant as ever.”
Lyle turned pink with the praise. Katherine meant every word. She was proud to have him as her friend. If only she were more adept at discussing scientific principles with him. Alas, their commonality began and ended with investigative techniques.
Pru coughed into her fist. “Not that this isn’t fascinating, but aren’t you going to tell us the clue you discovered?”
“Oh, yes. I’ve told you all about the cloaked figure.”
Harriet nodded. “We’ll be on the lookout for such a scoundrel. Hardly anyone notices a servant; should I see them, I’ll follow and see where they lead.”
Katherine nibbled on her lower lip. Although she would dearly like Harriet’s help, she didn’t want to put her maid in danger. “Only do so if you’re certain not to be seen. We don’t know what this thief is capable of when cornered.”
“Of course.”
“The clue?” Pru danced behind Katherine, clearly impatient.
After a surreptitious glance to make certain they were shielded from prying eyes, Katherine opened her reticule and removed the vial containing the sliver of silver.
“This was on Mrs. Oliver’s clothes?”
“In her shoe,” Katherine confirmed. When Pru reached for the vial, she relinquished it reluctantly.
Lyle peered at it closely as well. “It appears to be from some sort of filigree.”
“It’s a small sample,” Katherine answered. “It might be scraped from something larger.”
Harriet nodded. “Like a buckle or a button. Should I keep my eyes open for anyone who wears something that might be scratched or tarnished?”
Katherine began to nod, but Pru interjected.
“No need. We already know more than one person who fits that description. Sir Hugh, for example.”
“And Mrs. Julien,” Harriet added in a small voice. When Katherine glanced at her, she wrinkled her nose in shame. “Forgive me, Lady Katherine. I know you think fondly of the Juliens, but you must consider it.”
Katherine knew as much, but hearing it spoken aloud felt like a kick to her kidney. She nodded, her lips pressed together.
Pru held the silver higher to catch the light. “It might even be from something larger. A snuffbox, perhaps the frame of a painting… tarnation, even some of the carriages out front had silver inlay like this! I spotted it while Lord Annandale was showing me his horses.”
Lyle took the bit of silver from her to examine it himself. “If it came from the thief, it must have come from his person. Who opens a snuffbox in the middle of pulling a heist?”
Raising her chin, Pru countered, “Perhaps it was a box larger than a snuffbox and the thief carried it to hide the necklace in.” She glared daggers at him, daring him to refute her.
Lyle shrugged and handed the vial back to Katherine, who quickly stuffed it out of sight again. “Did any of us see anyone carrying a box? The most likely explanation is that it came from the clothing of one of the two people you mentioned or someone else whose clothing is in disrepair. In fact, the shelf of the dressing room might have been the sharp edge that scraped this bit of silver away.”
With a harrumph, Pru crossed her arms over her breasts.
Harriet asked, “Did you see Sir Hugh or Mrs. Julien yesterday?”
“At church, yes. In the King’s Bath…” Katherine hesitated. Where had Sir Hugh gone when he had parted ways with Lord Annandale? Could he have rounded the building and entered as the cloaked figure by means of the windows along the back wall?
Lyle clapped Katherine on the shoulder, jolting her back into the present. “It sounds as though they weren’t there. Perhaps your next move ought to be discovering where they were at the time of the theft? I don’t mean to press you, but I have to hurry along.”
Katherine waved her hand, shooing him as they turned the corner of the path, coming full circle. “Run along, then. Thank you for your insight.”
He tipped his hat to her. “Always happy to help.” Lengthening his stride, he loped toward the nearest exit to the Vauxhall, through the hotel.
Pru immediately insinuated herself next to Katherine. “Did you see the suspects near the baths?”
“I did not,” Katherine admitted. “Unless Sir Hugh entered after I did…”
She shook her head. “I was out front with Lord Annandale. He never approached.”
“Then he wasn’t there.” Katherine pressed her lips together to keep herself from confirming the same about the Juliens. She’d remarked on their absence earlier, when she’d spotted their grandson in the healing waters. Neither had they shown their faces after Mrs. Oliver had screamed. Where had they been at that time?
She didn’t want to suspect such dear, sweet people, but there seemed to be no other explanation. If they didn’t have a plausible explanation for their whereabouts at the time…
No. It had to be someone, anyone else. Perhaps they and Sir Hugh weren’t the only people to have tattered silver ornaments on their clothing. Somehow, Katherine had to fashion an excuse to look more closely at the long-term visitors.
As they approached the gaggle of gossips once again, Emma yapped happily. She lurched forward with such vigor that she tore the leash from Katherine’s hand. Katherine lunged to catch her. She slipped on the loose gravel as she plunged toward the waving leather ribbon of lead, grasping it at the last moment. As she wrapped it firmly around her hand, catching her balance, Emma bolted across her path. The leash pulled taut against Katherine’s legs, and she catapulted headfirst toward the nearest gossipmonger, Lady Dalhousie.
They collided in a pile of flailing limbs. Emma cheerfully jumped into the fray, barking. The old ladies shrieked as Lady Dalhousie toppled backward. Several jumped out of the way. Another two tried to save the old woman from a nasty meeting with the walkway. No one tried to save Katherine, and she landed in an ungraceful, stinging heap at their feet.
The moment they righted Lady Dalhousie, everyone set in to scold Katherine.
“You should pay better mind to where you’re walking!”
“That mongrel needs to be kept indoors!”
“I’ve never been so insulted.” That, said by Lady Dalhousie as she dusted herself off, was accompanied by a sniff as she gathered up the women following and proposed they all take tea inside the hotel, where it would be safer.
As they walked away, Katherine heard the biddies as they resumed wagging their tongues. This time, Katherine was the subject of their juicy bit of on-dit.
“She’s made quite a reputation for herself, you know.”
“Aside from dragging good men into hall closets?”
Katherine winced. At all costs, that particular rumor needed to find its end. She examined her hands for scrapes as Emma bounded into her lap, planting her paws on Katherine’s chest in order to lick her face.
“No, for clumsiness. She was falling over everyone at the Earl of Northbrook’s house party, I hear.”
The women scurried out of earshot. Katherine narrowed her eyes as she watched their backs. Her mind was awhirl. Perhaps she had found just the excuse she needed in order to examine people’s clothing for traces of broken silver. All she needed was to play on her clumsy reputation while at the Theatre Royal tonight.
Chapter Nine
“What is it you wish me to do tonight?”
“Nothing,” Katherine answered, her voice a hiss as she escorted Pru down the stairs. The other occupants of the Sydney Hotel followed in their wake or a few mere steps ahead. She didn’t dare raise her voice, lest she draw undue attraction.
Un
fortunately, Pru had no such qualms. “Nothing?” she repeated, her voice laced with dismay.
Katherine shushed her.
Scowling, Pru leaned her head closer to Katherine’s and persisted in protesting. “You can’t mean to have me watch the performance.” She sounded as though Katherine had suggested she bathe her feet in boiling water.
“That is what one does when one is at a theatre.”
“But there’s work to be done. An investigation! I cannot sit by and do nothing.”
On the first-floor landing, Katherine ensnared her companion’s elbow and led her to the threshold of the long hall. It was dark and cold, not open to the public with the Assembly Rooms hosting another dress ball tonight. “You promised if I helped you steer Lord Annandale’s attentions away from you that you wouldn’t butt in to this investigation.”
Pru held herself stiffly. “You can’t ask me to twirl my thumbs when there’s something I might be doing! Not to mention, whether or not we succeeded in rebuffing Annandale’s interest remains to be seen.”
“He didn’t call upon you yesterday afternoon, nor today,” Katherine pointed out.
“Perhaps… but neither did Captain Wayland call upon you.”
She rubbed her throbbing pulse in her forehead. “Wayland is not courting me. He has no reason to seek out my company.” Perhaps she’d succeeded in driving him away from Bath. After their awkward tea together during which he’d probed for more information regarding the Burglar of Bath and she’d met him with just as much inquiry, without revealing too much of what little she did know, she hadn’t so much as seen his shadow. She only hoped that didn’t mean he had taken it upon himself to solve the thefts himself.
Katherine fell silent as the last of the hotel patrons filed past. She herded Pru toward the staircase after them. “If you don’t hurry, we’ll be late to the theater.”
“Why are we attending the theatre tonight instead of the dress ball? Won’t there be more people at the ball?”
Katherine fought to keep her expression neutral. Her pulse pounded in her throat, an uncomfortable reminder that the true reason she had chosen to attend the theater tonight was because she was afraid. She was hiding from the place where she’d committed her social blunder last time. And perhaps a small part of her was hiding from Wayland as well, until she sorted out these hideous rumors.
“More people, yes. However, the bulk of those who become the victims of the Burglar of Bath are older ladies visiting the town to seek out the healing waters for their aching joints. Older ladies tend not to dance, meaning they’ll be more likely to attend the theater instead of the ball.”
“I suppose…” Pru didn’t sound as believing of Katherine’s hasty explanation as she’d hoped.
Katherine added, “Whoever has been stealing from them must keep a close eye on their victims. They would need to know certain things such as when the jewels would be left unattended and where. The thief took only Mrs. Oliver’s necklace yesterday. Clearly, they had come to the King’s Bath solely in pursuit of it.”
Pru shook her head, befuddled. “But why?”
“That… I haven’t quite puzzled out. However, how they must have learned of Mrs. Oliver’s intention to go to the King’s Bath, as well as her penchant for bringing the necklace with her wherever she went… that, I believe we can lay squarely at Mr. Oliver’s feet.”
“How so?”
Katherine smirked as they reached the ground floor. “Why, you yourself complained of him whining over his wife’s habit of always wearing the necklace. He was also the person who, at the card table, informed everyone of his intention to go with his wife to the King’s Bath after church.”
Pru loped across the wooden floorboards toward the exit, seeming irritated when she had to wait for the older patrons ahead of them to step through and vacate it. She leaned closer to Katherine and whispered, “You think the thief must have been there, with me?”
“Certainly within earshot.”
Why Mrs. Oliver’s jewels, that Katherine still couldn’t fathom. As the biddies didn’t fail to remind everyone, Mrs. Oliver’s pearls were worth far less than some of the other items left unattended in that room. Had the necklace simply been the closest thing to the thief’s questing fingers? Or might this be more personal? Perhaps they chose their victims based not on fashion — a ridiculous theory — but because Mrs. Oliver had angered them in some way. Katherine mulled over the notion as she followed Pru into the open.
There, she stopped short as she nearly collided with the other woman.
“Did you arrange for an escort?”
“No…” Katherine stepped around her and nearly groaned. Instead of finding her carriage waiting to take them, she found a coach with Lord Annandale’s crest on the door — and two men flanking it.
With a smile, the Marquess of Annandale stepped forward. “I heard a whisper ye meant to be takin’ in the show tonight. Cap’n Wayland and I foind ourselves without escort. How about we offer our services to you foin ladies?”
Did his brogue get thicker when he looked at Pru? That couldn’t be a good sign. At least, it wouldn’t be if she still meant not to marry him. Somehow, she seemed to have fascinated him in some way. Either that, or Wayland had a silver tongue. However, as Pru colored up and glanced at Katherine, she seemed more tentative than usual. Was it Katherine’s imagination, or might her charge have changed her mind about Lord Annandale?
With so direct an offer, the only answer was to accept, regardless of Pru’s feelings for him. Katherine inclined her head. “Thank you, my lord. We would much appreciate your company.”
As Katherine approached the carriage, it was not Lord Annandale, but Wayland who offered his assistance in helping her up the steps. She thanked him tightly as she tucked herself into the far corner, facing forward. Despite her hopes, Pru chose the seat opposite her, and Annandale installed himself at her side.
This left the seat next to Katherine free for Wayland to claim. The moment he did and the carriage lurched into motion, Katherine laid her hand on his knee to get his attention. He turned close enough for her to whisper, “Why are you and Annandale here?” After a moment, realizing where her hand was, she snatched it back.
With a frown, he glanced at the pair opposite them making polite conversation — though much to Katherine’s chagrin, Pru appeared to be smirking at her. Softly, he answered, “Annandale has admitted to feeling lonesome up in Scotland, with only his sister for company, and hinted that he wouldn’t be averse to finding a wife. So I’m doing what you asked me to do, promoting Miss Burwick to him.”
“I never asked that!” Katherine bit her tongue before her sharp voice carried too far, for instance across the carriage to where the pair in question might hear. Thus far, the mood was cordial. Pru even smiled at something Lord Annandale murmured in her ear.
Wayland’s frown deepened in contrast. “But you’re trying to match her—”
“As a cover so I might investigate these thefts freely. There’s a reason I left her mother in London. Miss Burwick doesn’t want to be matched.”
He pressed his lips together as he leaned back against the squabs. After a moment’s pause, he muttered, “In that case, this may well prove to be an awkward evening.”
Very awkward, indeed. How was Katherine to investigate when she had to play chaperone to Pru and Lord Annandale?
Fortunately, they reached the Theatre Royal before the atmosphere grew strained. Katherine disembarked last, aided by Wayland. She glanced up at the ornate façade of the massive theater, the carved swags beneath the eaves swathed in nighttime shadow. Above, only the vaguest outline of the statue crowning the decade-old rectangular building could be discerned by the light of the lanterns flanking the broad door. With Lord Annandale escorting Pru, Katherine had no choice but to accept Wayland’s arm. It seemed they were stuck in each other’s company for the evening.
The antechamber opened to a wide arch leading into the bottom of the theater. Despite the ball hel
d at the Assembly Rooms that evening, the ground-floor seats were packed shoulder to shoulder from the door to the stage at the far end. Although there were seats nestled in a ring directly on the stage, close to the performance, none of these was currently occupied. From candelabra twinkling in sconces between each of the three rows of private boxes, Katherine glimpsed several peers mingling. She couldn’t estimate how many, given the distance and the movement of the people as they socialized.
See and be seen. That was the motto of polite society. It wouldn’t surprise Katherine if several of those gathered here tonight later made an entrance at the Assembly Rooms. Hoping to avoid Wayland and the gossips placing them together in private, Katherine hadn’t planned on moving locations tonight.
Lord Annandale paused just inside the entrance to address Pru. “Ye’ve proved a right crack at loo. Do ye play as mean a hand of whist? They’re apt to set tables on the second floor, if you’re eager.”
For a moment, Pru seemed speechless. She shot a pointed glance at Katherine, one that Katherine was able to read altogether too easily. Wasn’t playing loo supposed to discourage him? With any other man, Katherine wagered it would have. He must be indebted to Wayland for some unknown reason, to encourage Pru at another unladylike activity. Granted, many ladies plied their minds to whist, but Katherine was willing to bet that in Pru’s hands, the pastime would be rendered unladylike. Pru did nothing delicately.
Including accept the apologetic look Katherine sent. After all, the only reason Annandale had turned his eye toward her despite her attempts to rebuff him was because of Katherine. With the wry cock of her eyebrow, Pru turned to her escort and accepted.
“I take it you don’t mean to follow,” Wayland murmured for her ears alone.
“Hardly. She’ll be in fine spirits at the card table alone. Let’s greet the others here tonight.”
He cast her a dubious look. Well he should, because she wasn’t one for socializing with vapid men and women unless she needed to learn something. In this case, she was desperate to learn any clue that might point to someone other than the Juliens as having committed the crime. Who wore something silver that might have lost a sliver of embellishment?
The Baffling Burglaries of Bath Page 12