Page 9 of Beyond the Grave
Seth nodded thoughtfully. "Could be."
"I wonder if it bothered him that he was never told anything about it."
"I wonder if he knew he and his brother were overlooked as heirs to the secret in favor of their step-mother?"
"The luscious Lady H," Gus said with a frown. "You sure she ain't mentioned more in there? Maybe in some code or other. Only, if I were meetin' on the sly with a girl who were beneath me, I'd have put her name in code."
"No one is beneath you," Seth rattled off rather automatically, as if his heart weren't in the jibe but he felt compelled to say it anyway.
He and I exchanged glances, then both fell on the journal. We flipped to the pages before the first mention of Lady Harcourt's name, and searched through the listing of dates and other bits and pieces. In the end, I gave up with a sigh.
"Nothing," I said, slumping back into the chair. It wasn't lost on me that I was spending far too much time searching for information about Lord Harcourt's relationship with Lady Harcourt and not on the missing Andrew Buchanan, but I dismissed it as a result of my still being upset over Lincoln's rejection. Although I no longer held much respect for Lady Harcourt, I felt we had an affinity with one another now, both having been set aside by him.
"He went to the theater a lot," Seth said, pointing out a series of entries on several pages that I'd dismissed. "But then he suddenly stopped, directly before the first appearance of "my dearest Julia.'"
I pulled the journal closer. "'The Al?'" I shrugged.
"The Alhambra Theater. It's a music hall in Leicester Square."
I smirked. "Ah, yes." I knew of The Alhambra and its allure. The theater held performances of spectacles and ballets, but was better known as a place to ogle the scantily clad dancers who would join the young bucks for a drink during the long interval. I'd even heard of whores slipping inside in the hopes of securing a customer. The gentlemen were easy pickings for us pickpockets when they left drunk as sailors and unable to walk straight, let alone catch us.
"Blimey," Gus said. "You think old Harcourt was entertainin' himself with the doxies at The Alhambra?"
Seth nodded. "I also think he met with the future Lady Harcourt there. Look at this." He tapped his finger on the initials J.T.
I shrugged. "It could mean anything."
"Templeton was her maiden name." He flipped back through the preceding pages, pointing out every entry of "The Al" with the initials J.T. beside it and a date. There were many, but the further back we went, the entries changed. J.T. was simply J, and prior to that, alongside "The Al" appeared the words "Miss D.D."
"Who is Miss D.D?" I asked.
"An actress or dancer?" Seth shrugged. "Perhaps he replaced her with Julia Templeton."
"The Alhambra is an odd place to meet the daughter of a school master. I couldn't imagine her father being too pleased to know she was there."
"P'haps she just liked the theater," Gus said.
"Then she'd more likely choose one with a better reputation."
Seth chuckled. "One doesn't go to The Alhambra to watch the stage. Except for the can can."
"Speaking from experience?"
He grinned. "Entirely."
"We ought to find out more about Miss D.D. and why Lord Harcourt listed her in his journal."
"Why?" Gus asked.
"Indeed?" Seth chimed in. "What has it to do with the investigation into Buchanan's disappearance?"
"I'm not sure," I said, "but we ought to look into it. If nothing else, it's something to do."
"Youneed to rest your foot."
"I will, but after it's healed we should investigate all loose ends from this journal. Buchanan most likely found something in here that intrigued him, something that he went on to investigate."
"This is interesting." Seth flattened out both sides of the journal. "A page is missing. It's been torn very close to the spine."
