An Earl out of Time by Louise Allen

Author:Louise Allen
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Time travel
Published: 2017-05-01T05:00:00+00:00

I don’t really remember getting back to the carriage, or anything much until we were passing St Paul’s again. When it came into view I dropped the window glass down and took a deep breath of coal smoke, horse droppings and drains. It smelled wonderful.

‘No forensics, no post-mortem, no detection. And no-one cares about women like her,’ I muttered and then got a grip on my temper and on reality, or what was passing for it those days. Ranting at Lucian and James about the absence of modern policing methods was not going to help, nor was a tirade about the treatment of women, the poor, sex workers…

‘It is another negative that does not give us any positives,’ I said and both men relaxed infinitesimally. I suppose they thought they would have a fainting, hysterical woman on their hands. ‘If Arabella went in the river she hasn’t been found, but it doesn’t prove that she did not end up there.’

‘We have not spoken to de Forrest,’ Lucian said, apparently determined to change the subject. He was staring out of the window as though the bustle of Fleet Street was absolutely riveting.

‘Why should he know anything?’ James objected. ‘We have no evidence that he was actively courting her, although he needs to make a good match and those notes prove that he is on friendly terms with Cottingham.’

‘Even if he were courting her, there is no reason to think she would agree to go along with it,’ I pointed out.

‘True. But he would expect her to obey her brother in this.’

‘Then why isn’t he making anxious enquiries about her?’ I asked. ‘If de Forrest is so enamoured of Arabella, he will be frantic and even if he merely likes her, surely he will be deeply anxious. I mean, we are and you two don’t want to marry her and I don’t know her.’

‘That is a good point.’ Lucian took the pair of pistols out of the pockets of his greatcoat and began to unload them. ‘Either he knows where she is or what has happened to her or he has no interest in her, not even as the sister of a friend.’

‘Which would mean he was not courting her,’ James countered as he dealt with the other pair of Manton’s.

‘Or he is merely indifferent.’ Lucian put the pistols away and shook his head. ‘We are going in circles. This is all guesswork.’

‘Perhaps he was courting her but only because of the rumours about his impotence,’ I speculated. ‘It might be a logical reaction to all the gossip about him. Even if he does not believe that she would be attracted to a man his age, it could be a smokescreen to stop the talk about his potency.’

‘If he knows where she is or what has happened to her, then why has he not told Cottingham? He would have no motive to keep quiet, would he?’ Lucian asked. ‘The more I think about it, the more I am certain that the odd pieces of gossip I picked up about his interest in her are just that.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.