Page 64 of A Fearless Heart
“Now I owe you a rose!”
He chuckled. “I am happy to leave it on account for now. The journey from town was awful after that rain, and I’m sure my gardens will be full of weeds. I’ll be busy for days!”
“I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve got a specimen ready,” she promised. “It may be a little while. I may be rather busy myself over the next week or two.” For some reason, she didn’t want to tell him about the London trip. It was too overwhelming to even think about, let alone explaining the reasons and her fears about it. Plus Gabe’s role…no, she couldn’t say anything about him! Lady Arcadia wasn’t even supposed to be near plain Mr Court.
“Whenever you like, Cady. I must say, you’re looking well. Got a little color in your cheeks. That’s spring for you. After a long, dreary winter, it’s as if we’re all set free again.”
Cady bid him goodbye and promised to nurture her new plants with all the care they deserved. She was grateful that some people stood by her no matter what. She’d have to find an especially rare rose to thank him properly.
Chapter 23
The next day, the carriagecontaining Lady Arcadia, her cat, Oscar, and a ridiculous number of trunks headed to London. Gabe had sent word to the Zodiac for a discreet person who could act as a driver for the journey, and stay in Arcadia’s employ for as long as she remained at her town house.
The Zodiac had a good supply of such useful souls, colloquially known as the Disreputables. These were a collection of people from the country’s vast working class, all of whom had a criminal past. But thanks to the efforts of the Zodiac, they had reformed themselves, retrained as servants of all types, and used their less-legal skills to assist agents in their work.
Gabe hadn’t used them much in his own assignments. He preferred to work solo, not liking to rely on anyone else for delicate tasks. But this was a perfect role for them: acting as servants for Cady in London, where they could keep an eye on her during all the times that Gabe couldn’t. He’d sent word that in addition to the driver, they would need a butler, housekeeper, cook, and assorted maids and footmen—the usual complement of help expected at the home of a titled lady in town.
The young man who arrived with the carriage said his name was Jem Harper. He was on the lanky side, but was very good with the horses, and had sharp eyes that missed very little. For example, he showed absolutely no surprise when Gabe instructed him that when he drove out the gate of Calderwood, he was to stop a quarter mile later, just where a huge oak tree stood to the right of the road, to allow Gabe to board the carriage where no one would see.
“Very good, sir,” Jem said. “If someone should be passing, I’ll pretend one of the horses needs attention.”
Gabe nodded, pleased with the man’s acumen, and his lack of questions. The departure from Calderwood went off without a hitch, and when the carriage stopped at the oak, Cady smiled when Gabe opened the door.
“Oh, hello,” she said. “Do you need a ride to London?”
Gabe grinned as he took a seat on the padded bench opposite her. He knocked on the roof and Jem resumed driving. “Very good of you to offer,” he said. “How are you feeling about this?”
She looked uncertain. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been in London, and it’s so different to the country.”
“Loud, dirty, smoky, lots of rats in the streets. It will require a lot of bravery from you to endure it.”
Cady winced and swallowed hard. “I know. I’m trying not to think of the rats. Or the mice. Or the people.”
“Well, Oscar here will surely defend you against the rodents. As for anything else, if you get upset or scared, just tell me.”
“What if you’re not there?”
“Then breathe slowly until you feel better. You’ll be perfectly safe in your town house, I promise.”
“And outside of it? While we’re looking for a murderer?”
“Less safe, but we’ll be careful.”
Cady nodded, taking out a notebook and pencil from her reticule. “It’s several hours to get to town. I thought we might go over everything you know about your friend’s murder, and the one that just happened. Then we’ll have a good idea of where to start as we investigate.”
“You’re very methodical.”
“One must be methodical in any branch of natural philosophy, or logic. This is no different. We assemble the facts we know, make our hypothesis, and test it. And repeat the process until we get a useful result.”
So Gabe gave her more details of the victims and the circumstances of their deaths, beyond the basics he’d told her before—while he was under the influence of her damn truth tea. But he refrained from telling her much about the earlier killings, the ones Parrish had been investigating in his role as Pisces. Cady didn’t need to know how many actually occurred, and it would only make her question Gabe’s cover.
“By the way,” he said before he forgot. “I want to know exactly what you put in that drink you gave me to make me tell you everything you asked.”
Cady glanced up from the cat curled on her lap, surprised at his question. “What?”
“The stuff you put in my tea. Don’t pretend you forgot.”
“Oh, you mean…the verocine. I didn’t forget. But that’s hardly the most important topic right now.” She brightened. “That reminds me! I’d been working on another chemical—”
