Page 111 of The Paid Companion

Parker caressed the device. “Why, an electricity machine, of course.”

Arthur ignored the distraught butler who was attempting to announce him and walked swiftly into the study.

“Parker has kidnapped Elenora,” he said.

“No.”Lady Wilmington rose quickly from the chair behind the writing desk. “No, that cannot be possible.”

“He escaped from that private asylum where you sent him.”

“Dear heaven.” Lady Wilmington sank back down onto her chair, stricken. “No one sent word that he was gone. I swear it.”

“I believe you. No doubt they have not told you yet because they are hoping to find Parker before you learn that he escaped. After all, you are a very wealthy client. The proprietors of the asylum would not want you to take your business elsewhere.”

“This is a disaster.”

Arthur crossed the room in three strides and came to a halt on the other side of the little desk.

“Parker left a note instructing me to go alone to a certain address in the stews at midnight tonight. There I am to be met by two men who will convey me to some secret location. I can only assume that I will first be bound, blindfolded and disarmed before I am taken to see your grandson. I will not be of much assistance to Elenora in that condition.”

“I am so sorry. So very sorry.” Lady Wilmington seemed dazed with despair. “I do not know what to say or do. I never meant for this to happen. I thought I was doing what was for the best for everyone.”

Arthur leaned forward and flattened his palms on the dainty desk. “Where is Parker’s laboratory?”

Lady Wilmington was obviously confused by the question. “I beg your pardon?”

“I went to his house today and searched it thoroughly. The books and furnishings are nothing more than a stage set designed to imitate the lodgings of a fashionable gentleman.”

“What do you mean?”

“I spent a great deal of my youth in my great-uncle’s house,” Arthur said. “I know what to expect in the way of furnishings in the home of a man who is consumed with a passion for science. I found none of those things in Parker’s lodgings.”

“I don’t understand.”

“There should have been a laboratory cluttered with instruments, apparatus, glassware. There should have been books on optics and mathematics, not poetry and fashion. Treyford’s journals were not there either.”

“Yes, of course, I see. I was too overset yesterday to even think about such things.”

“Parker may be mad, but he is obsessed with his plans to build Jove’s Thunderbolt. He must have a secret laboratory somewhere in London. It will be a place where he feels secure. A place where he is free to labor all night without drawing attention. That is where he will have taken Elenora.”

“Treyford’s old laboratory.” Lady Wilmington rubbed her brow. “Parker no doubt discovered the location in the journals. He would have been fascinated with the notion of pursuing his research there where his grandfather had once conducted his experiments.”

“What do you know of it?”

“Treyford constructed it after he broke with your great-uncle and Glentworth. They were never aware of the place and likely wouldn’t have cared if they had known. But Treyford took me there on many occasions,” Lady Wilmington said wistfully. “He needed to share his research with someone who could appreciate his genius, you see, but by that time he was no longer speaking to Lancaster or Glentworth.”

“So he took you to his laboratory to witness the results of his experiments?”

“Yes. The location was our secret. It was the one place where he and I could be alone together without fear of discovery.”

The shorter of the two men waiting in the alley was the first to notice the flaring light of an approaching lantern.

“Well, now, what do you know? He came after all, just like Mr. Stone said he would.” The footpad pushed himself away from the wall and raised his pistol. “You’d think he’d be too smart to risk his neck for a female.”

A figure in a hat and greatcoat appeared at the entrance of the alley. He was starkly silhouetted against the light of the lantern.

“He’s a fool, all right.” The second man hefted the knife he held in one hand. With the other, he reached down to pick up the length of rope that he intended to use to bind their prisoner. “But that’s his problem, not ours. All we have to do is take him to the old abbey and leave him in the cage that Mr. Stone described.”

They went cautiously toward their prey, but the figure in the hat and greatcoat did not make any suspicious moves. He simply stood there, waiting.

---