Page 32 of Snowy and the Seven Doves
The townhouse lookedquiet enough. It was still a few minutes before five o’clock, so Snowy felt it safe to send Tommy, the doorman from the House of Blossoms, around to the rear of the building with one of the other men Lily had insisted on him bringing. They would check for an ambush while Blue, the guard, and the two remaining men surveyed the street.
Snowy waited out the front with Blue until Tommy ran back to the corner and signaled the all’s clear.
“Wait here,” Snowy said to Blue. “I’m going in. I’ll yell if anything seems suspicious. I’ll wave from the window if it is safe, and you can all go home. If you don’t see my signal within fifteen minutes, come in after me.”
He was just in time, it seemed, for as the butler let him in the door, Dickon Deffew was descending the internal stairs, talking over his shoulder to Lady Charmain.
Her eyes lit up when she saw Snowy. “Mr. Deffew, Mr. White has come. Snowy, please come up.”
“Thank God,” said Mr. Deffew, his voice shaking with some sort of an emotion. “Mr. White, you have to help me.”
Her ladyship didn’t look as if she was under duress.
As for the young man, if he was not frightened and anxious, he was a brilliant actor.
Snowy mounted the stairs and followed the two of them into the drawing room, alert for a possible ambush. The only other person in the room was a woman he had seen with Lady Stancroft at the ball he’d attended. He bowed. “Miss Turner.”
Deffew didn’t wait on polite niceties. “Mr. White. Thank God. I thought I was going to have to leave without seeing you. If I’m not home by six, Uncle Richard—my guardian, Ned’s father—will want to know where I’ve been.” He shuddered. “You don’t know how bad that would be.”
“We will leave you to talk,” Lady Charmain said. “Mr. White, I still do not know what this is about, but I think Mr. Deffew is genuinely worried about his friend.”
Deffew gnawed at his lower lip as he waited for the two women to quit the room and shut the door behind them, then pounced forward and nearly got himself punched in the belly before Snowy realized the youth intended to grasp his hand, not to attack him.
Deffew was already talking before he possessed himself of the hand, and he clung to it as he rattled out a long, and not very enlightening, welcome. “Thank you for coming. I did not know who else to turn to. No one cares about him as I do. But I thought, since he is your brother, you might… I know you don’t know him. Not really, but he said you’re not at all like Uncle Richard said, and so I hoped… He is my best friend in the world. My only real friend, to tell the truth. I’m afraid he will die, and it is all my fault.”
“I will help if I can,” Snowy said, retrieving his hand and patting the lad on the shoulder. “Come and sit down. Tell me what the trouble is and what you want me to do.”
“It was my fault,” Deffew repeated, mournfully, but he took a seat. The sullenness was gone. Today, his distinctive dark eyebrows only signaled worry and grief.
Snowy crossed to the window and waved to Blue, who touched his cap in return. He then sat in a chair close to Deffew, but out of easy reach. “Tell me,” he said.
It took some doing. The boy had a rambling style of delivery, and a tendency to litter the narrative with self-blame, but eventually, Snowy was in possession of the meat of the story. Lady Charmain was right. Deffew was genuinely worried about his friend, and also about himself.
“Can you keep our meeting here a secret?” Snowy asked.
Deffew nodded. “As long as he doesn’t suspect. If he starts to beat me… I don’t know how brave I can be, sir. I will try, but…”
“Don’t try,” Snowy advised. Anyone would break with the right pressure, and this cub had no chance against the villain that faced them. “If you think he is going to hurt you, run if you can. If you can’t, tell him everything. Don’t defy him.”
“You will rescue Ned?” Deffew begged.
“I will. And you, too.” Snowy looked up at the mantel clock. “Now go. It is twenty minutes past the hour. Can you be home in time?”
Deffew nodded and repeated his thanks several times even as he hurried to the door.
Lady Charmain appeared from another room as Snowy followed the lad to the stairs. “I suppose you are going to tell me what that was about later, or even soon,” she said, her tone both resigned and disapproving.
“I will tell you as soon as I have spoken to one of my men.,” Snowy promised.
Deffew was disappearing down the alley to the mews when Snowy emerged from the front door. Good. If the boy was waiting for his horse, Snowy had time to set a follower on his heels.
As Snowy expected, Blue had ignored his orders and remained in place. Snowy waved him over. “I want you to follow that man. He says he is heading home. Let me know if that’s what he does. Take Tommy with you and watch the house in turns. Here’s some money for a pie or something, for you may be there a while. I’m breaking into that house tonight to bring out an injured man. Look for anything that indicates it might be a trap. Wait there till I come.”
Blue nodded, gestured to Tommy, and hurried into the alley after Deffew.
Snowy returned to the drawing room, where Lady Charmain waited. “I still think you are better keeping out of the whole mess, my lady,” he said. “But you are an adult. You are entitled to make your own choices. If you chose to deny all knowledge of what I’m about to do, I will not only accept that I will think you wise.”
“Tell me,” she said.
