Page 82 of Affair

Is there any news? I am most anxious to hear from you. Surely you have uncovered some information by now.

Sincerely,

Lady T.

P.S. Lady G. is already inquiring as to the wedding date. I have put her off for a while but I cannot do so forever. You know what an inveterate gossip she is. Perhaps we should simply announce a day sometime in the distant future? Next Christmas?

As if he did not have enough problems, Baxter thought. On top of everything else, Rosalind wanted to set a fictitious wedding date to crown his fictitious engagement to Charlotte.

“Begging your pardon, sir.” Lambert appeared even more dithery than usual. “I shall, of course, attend to the matter of acquiring a new housekeeper and I shall see that the message is sent. But this is the day of my regular appointment with Dr. Flatt. If you do not mind, sir, I would very much like to keep it. My joints are quite sore this morning.”

“Of course, of course. Do not miss your appointment.” A thought occurred to Baxter. “Does Dr. Flatt utilize any herbs or incense in his therapies?”

“No, sir. He uses the power of the gaze and certain movements of the hands to focus the animal magnetism. Works wonders, he does.”

“I see.” Baxter yawned as he folded the note for Esherton. “I vow, I do not know what I would do without you, Lambert.”

“I try to give satisfaction, sir.” Lambert took the note, turned, and moved slowly, painfully down the hall toward the kitchens.

Baxter eyed the staircase through the open doorway. His bedchamber seemed very far away at the moment. The sofa was closer and much more convenient.

He closed the door of the library and walked back across the room to set his eyeglasses down on the table that held the brandy decanter. Then he sprawled on the cushions.

For a moment he gazed at the ceiling. Above all, Charlotte had to be kept safe.

Sleep claimed him.

The heavy dark wings of the cloak swirled around the monster in the hall. She was relieved that she could not see his face in the shadows. A part of her did not want to know anything more than she already did about the creature. It was as though some innate sense of decency deep within her resisted the necessity to look upon evil and see its face in human form.

But her intellect warned her that evil that could not be identified and named was all the more dangerous in its anonymity. She steadied the unloaded pistol in her hand.

“Leave this house at once,” she whispered.

The monster’s beautiful laugh sent ripples of dread throughthe darkness. The small waves moved out beyond the past, out into the future where he knew that the pistol was not loaded.

“Do you believe in destiny, my little avenging angel?” the monster asked pleasantly.

The door of the bedchamber flew open.

“Charlotte. Charlotte, wake up.”

Charlotte opened her eyes. She saw Ariel rushing toward the bed. The skirts of her nightgown and a hastily donned wrapper whipped about her bare feet.

“Ariel?”

“You cried out. You must have been dreaming. A nightmare, I collect. Are you all right?”

“Yes.” Charlotte struggled to a sitting position against the pillows. Her heart still pounded in her chest. Her skin was damp. “Yes, I’m all right. A bad dream. Nothing more.”

“Brought on by this business of investigating Drusilla Heskett’s death, no doubt.” Ariel paused to light the taper in the stand beside the bed. The flame illuminated her worried face. “Was it one of the old dreams? The sort you had after the night Winterbourne was murdered?”

“Yes.” Charlotte drew her knees up under the quilt and wrapped her arms around them. “It was one of those. I have not been troubled by them in a long while. I thought they had disappeared forever.”

Ariel sank down on the edge of the bed. “What precisely did you do with Mr. St. Ives this evening? You came home so late. I did not see you after you left the Hatrich soiree. Where did you go?”

“It is a long story. I will tell you the whole of it in the morning. Suffice it to say that Baxter attempted to locate Hamilton at his club but we were not able to speak to him.”

“I see.”

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