Page 71 of My Gentleman Spy
Chapter Thirty
The soundof something falling to the floor and smashing to pieces, followed by the loud mewling of a cat roused Will from his late evening doze by the fire. He stretched his arms above his head before languidly rising from the comfort of the overstuffedchair.
“God, I hope it's that bloody awful reproduction Ming vase which is in a thousand pieces,” hemuttered.
Hattie's father had truly terrible taste when it came to the so called finer things in life. The vase in question was the work of someone who had little idea how to wield a finepaintbrush.
While Aldred Wright lacked good taste, he had clearly passed on intelligence to his daughter. Will had to admit to being impressed at Hattie's ability to remain undetected. For four days she had lived like a ghost downstairs in the servants' quarters. The only evidence of her presence in the house was the disappearance of her possessions from her room. Even his greatcoat had gone, which Will found a source of annoyance. His missed thatcoat.
Hattie would have been able to keep up her secret existence for a little while longer if it had not been for her cat. Brutus was her one true weakness. Brutus. True to her name she was about to become the cause of another’sdownfall.
Slipping into the hallway, Will closed the sitting room door quietly behind him. After waiting momentarily for his eyes to adjust to the dark, he began to make his way toward the staircase. Stopping just short of the top of the stairs, he leaned back against the wall andlistened.
“Brutus, please come with me. I have to get this mess cleaned up,” Hattieimplored.
“Good luck with that,” mutteredWill.
His attempts to keep the feline menace from scratching up the cushions of his priceless chairs had proved fruitless. It was of some comfort to know that the actual owner of the cat fared little better when it came to controlling itsbehavior.
A loud cry from Hattie confirmed her lack ofsuccess.
“I can't believe you bit me!” sheexclaimed.
Hidden from view at the top of the landing, Will bit down on his lip to stifle a chuckle. More than once he had tried to put the dratted animal outside only to have her sink her teeth into the soft flesh of hishand.
The clock at the bottom of the stairs chimed the hour of ten. It waslate.
Deciding it was time to end the farce, Will pushed away from the wall and made his move. He began a silent, stealthy descent of thestaircase.
In the front entrance of the house, Hattie was on her knees, her back to him. In her hand she held out what he surmised was a juicy piece of the leftover chicken from hissupper.
“Come Brutus,” she whispered. The cat merely sniffed its disapproval at the tastyoffering.
The rising panic in her voice drew a fleeting moment of pity from Will. He did not envy her tenuous domesticsituation.
As he drew close, he stopped. While she had not noticed his presence, Brutus most certainly had. The cat hissed and leapt out of Hattie’sreach.
She whirled round. Upon seeing Will her eyes grew wide withshock.
He didn't have time to grab her, she made a surprisingly fast dash for a small door under the stairs. By the time Will reached it, she had it closed and locked behindher.
He shook the door handle roughly several times before finally kicking the door infrustration.
“Blast!”
For a moment he considered the door. It looked like the opening to a small broom cupboard, barely able to fit a bodywithin.
After making a thorough reconnaissance of the area under the stairs, Will satisfied himself that there was no other way out for Hattie to escape. Pulling up a nearby chair, he placed it in front of the door and took aseat.
Brutus took up a post under the chair. Duplicitous creature that she was, for the moment she had obviously decided to stay loyal to hermistress.
“I can wait here all night,” he said to the closeddoor.
Roused by the ruckus, Mr. and Mrs. Little appeared in their dressing gowns at the top of the servants' staircase.
“We have an intruder,” announcedWill.
They exchanged a look which Will made sure they thought he had not seen. A familiar game of cat and mouse was now underway.
