Page 79 of Speculations in Sin

Mrs. Gibbons brightened as she gazed at the vast array of vegetables strewn before her. “An excellent suggestion. Thank you. You pop by any day you’re free, love. It’s nice to have someone to chat to.”

I made a vague promise to and climbed the stairs to the street.

I strolled a little way along Wilton Crescent, ignoring Daniel and Lewis, as though I truly had come to saunter through the elegant area on my day out. I heard the hansom slowly following. Once I turned onto Wilton Place, I waited for Lewis to reach me, then Daniel stretched out an arm and assisted me into the cab.

“I know where all the embezzled money has gone,” I said as soon as I was seated and Lewis drove on. I described the house and Mrs. Wheeler in a few strokes, then my anger bubbled over. “The blasted man. Mr. Kearny made me like him by defending Sam. And all the while, he is a cheat and a fraud. He will not get away with it.”

Daniel’s mouth set in a grim line. “No, he will not.”

“Then let us find him and haul him to the police.”

“I will do that,” Daniel said in the tone that told me Mr. Kearny would have no quarter. “I’ll hunt up Inspector McGregor and have him and his boys lie in wait for Mr. Kearny. They’ll get him. You go to your daughter while you can.”

The afternoon had slipped by, and my time with Grace would soon be at an end. Pain bit my heart, but I sat up straight.

“We will go to Mr. Kearnynow,” I declared. “I do not want Sam to spend another night in that awful place. Joanna andhis children need him at home.” Grace, I thought, would not only understand my choice to pursue Mr. Kearny instead of coming to her, she would also approve.

Daniel studied my determined expression, then he turned and called out to Lewis. “Take us to Daalman’s. Double your fare if you’re there before it closes for the day.”

Lewis shot a nod at Daniel, flicked his whip, and sent the bay horse lurching forward in a swift trot.

23

We crossed the metropolis in a remarkably short time. Lewis knew not only how to encourage his horse to move quickly but also how to maneuver the cab through and around carts, carriages, omnibuses, and pedestrians with deft precision.

He charged through Cheapside and the short way along Poultry and through Cornhill to Leadenhall Street. Moments later, he halted the cab in the tiny lane before the discreet house that was Daalman’s Bank, the horse barely breathing hard from his exertion.

Daniel descended first and handed me out, and it was a mercy he helped me down. I was so angry I barely knew what I was about. I clung to his steady hand as we made our way to the bank’s front door.

The doorman observed us frostily when he answered Daniel’s ring of the bell. Whether he recognized me from when I’d accompanied Lady Cynthia, he made no indication.

“The bank is closed, sir.” He pronounced thesirdubiously, raking his gaze over Daniel’s working clothes.

“That’s all right,” Daniel answered cheerfully. “We’re only waiting for Mr. Kearny. He’s still about, is he? It hasn’t gone six yet.”

“The employees are working, but the bank is closed to visitors after four. Even then, you must have an appointment to enter.”

Daniel shifted his weight from foot to foot, peering past the doorman into the dim interior. “We could wait for him to come out, I suppose. No one will notice us lurking, will they?”

“You willnotlurk,” the doorman stated. “Or I’ll send for the police. Clear off.”

Before the doorman could retreat, I stepped in front of Daniel. “Please inform Mr. Kearny that Mrs. Holloway wishes to speak to him,” I said in my frostiest tones. “It is of vast importance.”

The doorman took me in, a woman in a neat frock and coat and carefully kept hat. At the moment, I was far more presentable than the scruffy Daniel.

I was prepared to bring out Lady Cynthia’s name to make him admit me, but he heaved a sigh and retreated into the shadows of the foyer. “I will inquire.”

He closed the door heavily, leaving us outside.

I was about to give the bell a long and indignant push, when the door creaked open again. The youthful doorman’s assistant in his red uniform peeked out, glanced behind him, then beckoned us to quickly enter.

Daniel and I stepped into the unnatural hush of the front hall. A whisper of voices echoed down from above, unintelligible by the time they reached us. The doorman, who must have gone to deliver the message himself, was nowhere in sight.

Daniel murmured something to the doorman’s assistant I did not catch, because I had started marching toward the stairs. I would not tamely wait for anyone in Daalman’s to deign to admit me.

I ascended without impediment to the first floor, the whispers seeming to recede as I did, which was most unnerving. My plan was to walk to the room I’d looked into on my last visit to see if Mr. Kearny was in it or demand anyone there to tell me where he was.

What I’d say to him, I had no idea. The fact that Mr. Kearny had pretended to befriend Sam, then blithely let him take the blame for his embezzlement filled me with incandescent rage. Sam, the man my best friend loved with all her heart, was having his reputation tarnished and his body endangered because of Mr. Kearny’s perfidy. Fraudsters were good liars, I should have remembered.

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