Page 49 of Lord Trafford's Folly
“We need to finish this. I believe I know who murdered the baron!”
This proclamation had the desired effect. Brendan and Abbott inhaled in a surprised chorus.
“How? I thought you were resting yesterday?”
“I was. That is when Aud—Miss Gideon recalled a detail from the day of my attack.” Julius pulled the leather-bound books from his coat pockets. “She recalled that the hound who attacked me had a pattern lining his coat. Tartan. From the Campbell Clan.”
Brendan frowned, combing his fingers through his hair with a thoughtful expression as he appeared to search for a memory. “One of the men had a mother?—”
“Scott! His mother is a Campbell. A Scottish peeress, in fact!”
Abbott balked, ever the voice of dissent. “It could be a coincidence.”
Julius tutted. “I observed that the servants in the Scott household have uniforms lined with the same tartan. Aud—Miss Gideon identified them from a pattern book.”
Brendan whistled through his teeth. “This could be it!”
“I think it is.”
Abbott stalked over. “There must be a way to confirm it.”
Julius nodded. “I agree. I think we should question Stone and Montague as to their whereabouts on the night of the coronation. If they possess alibis, we can rule them out to focus our attentions on finding evidence against Scott. Unearth Peter Scott’s marriage to a woman from the Continent in whatever parish records are relevant to his family.”
Brendan rubbed his neck, staring at the ground beneath their boots. “You are that confident?”
Julius grinned, spreading his arms out in exuberant emphasis. “Gentlemen, I am coming home.”
Much later,after the sun had set and London was in darkness, Audrey and Julius sat in the large drawing room at the top of the stairs—the one that faced the street and overlooked the entrance to Lord Stirling’s townhouse.
Neither of them had spoken since entering the room ten minutes earlier. Audrey would have paid more attention to the fact that Julius was more subdued than she had ever seen him, but she was subdued herself. Outright melancholy, in fact.
Her valise sat at her feet, along with the empty birdcage that reminded her that her first patient was gone. Flying free through the skies of London while Audrey contemplated her lonely future. She crossed her fingers within the folds of her skirts.
Please allow me to return to Stirling unscathed.
It was her last chance to escape. She needed to leave London as soon as possible to avoid the agony of parting from Julius. When they walked across the street, their unusual friendship would be over. She would never be alone with him again after they left Lady Hays’s. It would be agonizing to brush past him in the hall from time to time, or perhaps sit across from him at thedinner table, but pretend they shared no relationship. That he did not hold her heart from this day. That he had not woken her from the slumber of mourning, the endless melancholy of grief, to reveal a new world of exciting adventure.
Audrey swallowed the lump in her throat, staring out at the shadowed street while they waited for the guards who would protect them.
She wanted to savor her last time alone with Julius, but her stomach coiled with dread. There was no knowing what crisis she would face come morning when news of their return got around. Audrey picked at her skirts in agitation.
“Audrey?”
Looking away from the window, she found Julius staring at her with a strange expression.
“I … wish to inform you?—”
The sound of carriage wheels interrupted what he wished to say, both of them spinning back to the window to see who had arrived. Two carriages stood out on the roadway, several servants disembarking from the dark interiors. As they approached Lord Stirling’s front door, passing under the street lamp, Audrey noted they were unusual choices for footmen. Their heights were disparate for one, several of them shorter than the rest when they were usually hired to be similar in appearance.
“The Johns are here.”
Her brow wrinkled as she threw Julius a questioning look.
“The guards from Markham House. They each call themselves John for some reason. I suppose they wish to hide their identities,” he explained.
Audrey drew a deep breath, rising from the settee. Leaning down, she picked up her valise and birdcage. “It would seem we are ready to leave.”
“We need to discuss the future. The plan I mentioned.”
