by C. J. Archer
"Abercrombie senior would have passed on as much information as he could to his son before he joined his maker," Chronos said. "Does he know I'm alive and in London?"
"I couldn't gauge whether he did or not."
"Why didn't you ask outright?"
"Because that might alert him to the fact that you are alive, and here, and I know it."
"A good point," Duke said.
Chronos agreed with a grudging nod.
"Abercrombie thinks you inherited your magic from Chronos," Matt said to me. "He seems to think your father was artless, and he did not mention your other grandparents."
"He wouldn't know about them," Chronos said. "My wife's family kept their magic a secret. As to India's maternal grandparents, their magic was in another craft, and they also kept it a secret."
"So Abercrombie doesn't know how strong she is," Duke said. "I wonder what he'd do if he did."
No one had an answer to that, and the room fell into silence until Matt broke it. "I told Abercrombie you want to know more about your grandfather, India. I asked him specifically about the controversy surrounding the last years of Chronos's life. I mentioned the stories you'd heard and wanted verified. He was pleased to tell me all about your experiments in extending magic, Chronos, and the death you caused."
"It wasn't entirely my fault," Chronos said with a pout in his voice.
"Abercrombie recalled the sensation the experiment caused within the Watchmaker's and Surgeon's Guilds. His father and the master of the Surgeon's Guild at the time met and vowed to bring justice for the victim."
"How?" Chronos cried. "They couldn't even know his name!"
"The only reason they didn't get far is because Dr. Millroy died a short time later—as did you, apparently. I couldn't tell from his expression whether he knew your death had been falsified, however."
A cold lump formed in my chest. I set down my teacup to not draw attention to my trembling hands. I found myself agreeing with Abercrombie on this matter. My grandfather may have believed he was doing the right thing, a good thing, but he was still a murderer. He'd ended a man's life before his time. It sickened me.
"India?" Matt asked gently.
I signaled for him to continue. I couldn't look at Chronos, but I felt his gaze drilling into the top of my head as I stared down at my lap.
"I questioned Abercrombie about Dr. Millroy's murder," Matt said. "He was in his twenties then, and his father was at the height of his powers in the guild. He admitted to knowing only what was reported in the newspapers and suggested Millroy's murderer was probably an opportunistic thief looking for valuables."
Chronos made a scoffing noise into his teacup.
"Do you know if any valuables were found on the body?" Cyclops asked.
"The police file said there was only a pencil," Matt said.
"It may have been opportunistic," Chronos said. "But there are unanswered questions. For one thing, why was Dr. Millroy even in that area? His patients were a better sort, not slum dwellers."
"Looking for another subject for an experiment?" I bit off.
"I told you, he was set against another experiment after Wilson died on us."
"Perhaps he changed his mind."
Chronos grunted but looked unconvinced. "Didn't Abercrombie want to know why you were questioning him about Dr. Millroy?" he asked Matt.
"I told him India wanted as broad a picture of her dead grandfather as possible."
Chronos gave another grunt.
"If he suspects you're here, it's not because of me." Matt glanced at the decanter and glasses then refilled his cup with tea. He resumed his stance by the mantelpiece. In the masculine environment of the library, surrounded by leather-bound books and solid furniture, he looked strong and healthy. It clawed at my heart to know he was not.
"I went to the Surgeon's Guild hall after leaving Abercrombie's shop," he went on. "I wanted to know who the master was at the time, so I could question him." His lips curved into a smooth smile. "You've met him, India."
I thought quickly. There were only two doctors I knew of the right age. "Either Dr. Ritter or Wiley."
"Ritter."
"Who?" asked Chronos.
"The principal surgeon at the London Hospital," Matt said. "We met him while investigating Hale's death."
"Do you think it's a coincidence?"
Matt lifted one shoulder. "Hard to say for certain."
"Did you question him?" I asked.
He shook his head. "He wasn't at the hospital, and I didn't want to drive all over London looking for him. I was running out of time."
There was no need to ask why. We all knew he needed to use his watch and rest. Matt no longer liked using it outside of the house for fear that someone would see. Sheriff Payne had already spotted him using it in the coach. Not that the house was always safe either. His cousin Hope had also seen him use it after bursting into the drawing room one day.
"We'll go tomorrow," I said. "This time I'll join you."
"To keep an eye on me?" he asked with a tilt of his lips.
"To protect you from Dr. Ritter." I winked at him. "He struck me as rather fierce."
He laughed softly into his teacup.
Willie rolled her eyes and shook her head but thankfully made no comment. Chronos sported a smile that was far too smug for my liking. What did he have to be smug about?
"Want me to speak to the nurse I met at the hospital last time?" Willie asked. "She was mighty helpful."
"No need," Matt said. "But thanks."
The door suddenly opened and Bristow entered. He looked hot and his tie sat askew. It was the most disheveled I'd ever seen the butler. "I'm sorry to interrupt, sir," he said, smoothing back his hair. "You are required in the drawing room. Miss Glass is here and she's in quite a state."
Matt strode past him before he even finished speaking. The rest of us had to race to catch up. My mind raced too, thinking of all the things that could have happened to Miss Glass. Neither her mind nor her body were particularly strong.
I should have gone with her.
Chapter 6
"They want to lock me away, Harry." Miss Glass clung to Matt's arm. Her face was flushed, her eyes wide as she appealed to him. "You mustn't let them take me."
"I won't," he assured her. "You're home now, Aunt Letitia. You're safe."
"Take me with you, Harry. I've changed my mind. I want to go to the Continent too."
"Who's Harry?" Chronos whispered.
"Matt's father, her brother," Willie said. "She sometimes thinks Matt is him."
"You mean she's barking?"
I shot him a withering glare but he was intent on the scene playing out before him on the sofa and didn't notice. I crouched in front of Miss Glass, took her hand in both of mine, and spoke quietly yet firmly to her. "It's me, Miss Glass. It's all right."
"Veronica?" She glanced around the room. "What are you doing at Harry's place?"
"And who's Veronica?" came Chronos question.
"A maid she once knew," Willie told him.
I turned and gave Chronos the benefit of my fiercest glare. "This is a private matter. Do you mind?"
"Private?" he said. "But you're not family."
"I am her companion." I turned back to Miss Glass, and although I did not see him leave, I heard his retreating footsteps. "Would you like to lie down?" I asked Miss Glass. "Or sit here and have a nice cup of tea to calm your nerves."
"I need an ice." She flapped her hand in front of her face. "It's quite hot in here."
She did look flushed and her breathing was elevated. I frowned at Matt. "Shouldn't she be with Lady Rycroft?"
"With Mama?" Miss Glass shook her head over and over. "You do say the oddest things, Veronica. Mama passed away some years ago."
Matt and I both glanced at the door. "Bristow!" he bellowed.
Miss Glass covered her ears and I gently chastised him. He apologized before asking Bristow how Miss Glass arrived home.
"I don't k
now," the butler said. "She knocked on the door and was on her own."
"Aunt?" Matt said. "Letitia? Did you walk here?"
"Of course." Miss Glass patted her hair at the back of her head. The carefully arranged curls had dropped and some strands hung loose down her back. "I have no money for an omnibus or hackney. I wouldn't know how to direct one to pick me up anyway. Well, Harry? What do you say? Can I come with you after all?"
She thought she was back in the time before her brother left England, some forty years ago. Apparently he'd offered to take her with him on his travels, but she'd refused, somewhat reluctantly, and had lived a stifled life ever since under the guardianship of her father and then her brother. Even in her advanced years she'd been under the domain of her brother and sister-in-law, Lord and Lady Rycroft, and had rarely been allowed out on her own. It would seem she was re-living those long ago days, perhaps even playing out a different outcome where she did go with Harry to the Continent. It was sad to think she regretted making the decision to stay.
"You can come with me," Matt said gently, holding her hand. "We'll have adventures together."
She smiled at him, her lower lip quivering. "Veronica shall come too."
Peter brought in a tray with tea things and I poured her a cup. She took it with shaking hands and sipped slowly. The familiar ritual seemed to soothe her. No one interrupted as she quietly drank the entire cup and set it down again.
"Aunt Letitia?" Matt asked carefully. "How do you feel?"
She touched the back of her hand to her cheek. "It's very warm in here. Have you got the fire going, Matthew?"
I exchanged a small smile with Matt. He was her nephew again, not her brother. How quickly she changed.
Willie flounced into a chair and expelled a measured breath. "Nice to have you back, Letty."
"Do not put your feet on the table," Miss Glass snapped at her. "This is not a saloon."
"I weren't going to!" Willie grinned.
Miss Glass frowned. "What's got into you? Why are you smiling like a madwoman, Willemina?"
"Guess I'm just happy."
"Well stop it. It's not English to smile like that."
"I ain't English, and we Americans smile like this all the time."
"Where's Aunt Beatrice?" Matt said.
"At home, I expect." Miss Glass frowned at her teacup as if she wasn't sure how it got there. "She took me out."
"Where did you go?"
"Shopping, and then we called on a friend of hers. She used to be a friend of mine too, years ago." She sniffed and turned away to stare into the fireplace. "I cannot abide the woman now. All silly ruffles on her sleeves and a pink flower in her hair. The ruffles and flowers were pretty when she was young, but now they're an embarrassment. She thinks she's still a girl of seventeen having her first season." She tapped her temple. "She's gone quite mad."
The booming voice out in the hall announced the arrival of Lady Rycroft. Bristow tried to inform us but he hadn't even finished saying her name before she barged past him with a click of her tongue. Her three daughters filed in behind her in height order.
"There you are!" Lady Rycroft marched up to her sister-in-law and for one horrid moment I thought she would slap her. She kept her hands by her sides, however, and merely stood like a towering chimney spewing out anger with every huffing breath. "You stupid, ridiculous old woman! How dare you humiliate me like that!"
Patience Glass, the eldest daughter, gasped in horror at her mother's tirade. The middle one, Charity, snickered behind her hand, and the youngest and prettiest, Hope, reddened but remained otherwise unaffected. Her clever gaze hardly lingered on her aunt or mother, however, but took in Matt twice over as if she were drinking in the sight of him after a long absence.
Miss Glass remained surprisingly unaffected by her sister-in-law's outburst. "Whatever do you mean, Beatrice? If anyone is ridiculous it's Penelope. Did you see that flower in her hair? At her age? I couldn't abide her company for another moment."
"So you took it upon yourself to leave?" Beatrice screeched. "Without informing anyone and leaving me wondering where you'd gone? Are you inconsiderate as well as mad?"
"Aunt Beatrice," Matt warned. "Compose yourself."
He didn't need to concern himself on behalf of his Aunt Letitia. Miss Glass was quite capable of standing up for herself these days. Living with him and not her brother had given her confidence. She and I were alike in that regard. "Don't pretend to care about my wellbeing, Beatrice."
"Of course I care!" Lady Rycroft snapped. "Rycroft would blame me for your disappearance."
"Well, it was you who dragged me to see Penelope when you know what she did to me." Miss Glass's voice faded into a choke that had me frowning at her. What had this Penelope done to her to not only make her want to walk home alone but also given her a turn?
"What did she do to you?" Hope asked. As the most brazen of the three, I wasn't surprised she spoke up. Patience was far too shy, and Charity had lost interest in the discussion already and was busy trying to catch Cyclops's attention.
Cyclops edged further away. He might flee altogether if she dared to do anything more than stare.
"Aunt Letitia should not have had to make her own way home," Matt said. "Why was she unaccompanied?"
Lady Rycroft straightened, emphasizing her height. "That is entirely the point, Matthew. Why was she unaccompanied when she has a companion?" She looked pointedly at me.
It was difficult to put on a defiant face when I felt guilty.
"India had work to do for me today." Matt's lie rolled easily off his tongue.
"India is not my full-time companion," Miss Glass added. "I share her with Matthew." She clasped my hand as I'd clasped hers earlier. "As to whose fault it was, it was mine alone. I decided to leave. The blame rests with no one else."
Of all the people in that room who could have responded, it was Willie who got in first. "You weren't in your right mind when you got back, Letty. You sure you even knew where you were?" No one got to the heart of a matter like Willie.
"Of course I knew," Miss Glass retorted. "We were visiting Penelope. I don't like her so I left."
"You thought someone was chasing you, wanting to lock you up."
"She ought to be locked up," Lady Rycroft muttered.
The three Glass girls repeated their responses of before—Patience gasped, Charity snickered, and Hope's cheeks reddened. Hope glanced at her mother, one of the few times she'd looked away from Matt.
"Would you like to stay for tea?" Matt asked.
Sometimes I could throttle him.
Hope smiled. "That would be—"
"No," Lady Rycroft said. The room itself seemed to heave with the collective sighs of relief. "The day has been long enough. Letitia, the girls and I leave soon for Rycroft House to prepare for Patience's wedding. You will come with us. Pack all of your things. It has been decided that you will not return to London. The best place for you—"
"I beg your pardon!" Miss Glass said. Her voice may be frail but she managed to instill as much majesty into it as the queen. "I am not going to travel with you, and I am not staying at that moldy old place. I am staying right here and will only travel with Matthew when the time comes."
"Don't be absurd. You love the estate. You're just being difficult to vex me."
"My aunt is not going with you unless she wants to," Matt said. "If my uncle is unhappy with that arrangement, he can speak to me. Is that clear?"
Lady Rycroft's nostrils flared. She was settling in for battle. "She will do as her brother sees fit."
"No." There was a solidness to that single word; an immovability that could not be swept aside. Matt had no intention of giving in.
"I beg your pardon?"
"I said no." He stood and held out his hand in the direction of the exit. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm a busy man. Please pass on my regards to my uncle."
Lady Rycroft quivered with anger, making her double chins shake. "You are as stubborn as your father
."
"Thank you."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "Consider your family, Matthew. Consider the damage her embarrassing turns can do to our reputation. I was humiliated today in front of my friend. What if Penelope tattles? What if Letitia has another turn?"
"Then do not take her out again. The solution is quite simple."
"She needs to be somewhere she will be well cared for, to stop her running off and saying things to our friends."
"She does not run off when she's here. Don't," he added in a low tone when she opened her mouth again. "Do not say another word on this subject. Is that clear?"
Her jaw tensed, and if her eyes narrowed any further they'd close altogether. "Come, girls."
Hope and Charity followed their mother out, but Patience remained. She was the last of the three I expected to defy her mother. She bent down to Miss Glass and kissed her cheek.
"Thank you for the wedding gift," she said softly. "It's lovely."
"That's quite all right, dear," Miss Glass said. "Run along now or your mother will explode."
Patience turned to go but did an extraordinary thing. She caught my hand and dragged me alongside her. "I need to tell you something," she whispered.
I looked at her but she kept her gaze directly ahead. She walked slowly so as not to catch up to her mother, now waiting at the front door.
"Do you remember that ill-mannered fellow who burst into our dinner party here that night?" she asked.
"Sheriff Payne?" I said. "Yes, why?"
"Hope spoke with him yesterday."
I stopped and stared at her. We were alone, Matt having gone ahead to speak to his Aunt Beatrice, and I was grateful. Patience could not have said anything more shocking. "Why? How did she even know where to find him?"
"My sisters and I were out walking and spotted him loitering outside our house upon our return. Charity and I wanted nothing to do with him, but Hope confronted him. They spoke for several minutes and her expression changed from irate to curious. When she rejoined us, I asked what he wanted and she claimed it was nothing. I didn't believe her."