In Walked a Lady by Anna Castle

Author:Anna Castle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: elizabethan mysteries, tudor mysteries, fun mysteries, mysteries set in london, amateur sleuth, cozy mysteries
Publisher: Anna Castle
Published: 2018-06-28T00:00:00+00:00

“NO HAT?” BACON ASKED.

“Blackwood didn’t find one and I didn’t see one.” Tom had just finished delivering a full report to his master, tutor, and constant gadfly. He’d left the Pettwood house after making vague promises to return as soon as possible and entered Bacon’s chambers to find him translating letters from his brother in France. They had a special code known only to themselves. Bacon never allowed anyone to see the originals and burned them as soon as he had finished reworking them for the Lord Treasurer or Sir Francis Walsingham. That business was too important for the likes of Thomas Clarady. It didn’t pay anything anyway — not even honors.

Bacon nodded and leaned back in his chair. “How old was Mr. Pettwood?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t think to ask.”

Bacon’s tongue clicked faintly. “Tom.”

Tom shrugged. “Old enough to have an elder brother old enough to have an eldest daughter not more than twenty-two.”

Bacon gave that a nod. He never quibbled with Tom’s assessments of women, especially if they were young or beautiful or both.

Tom waited for another question. When none came, he said, “It’s clear to me that one of those sisters murdered the poor man, but I can’t decide if they’re working together or against one another.”

Bacon gave Tom an unfathomable look, then shifted his gaze to stare past his shoulder in that irritating way he had. He did it to avoid eye contact, which made him uncomfortable, but he also did it when his mind started working and he forgot you were there. The habit was profoundly disconcerting. Even after three years under the man’s tutelage, Tom had to fight the urge to turn and look behind him.

“Together,” Bacon said, after enough time had elapsed for Tom to have forgotten what he meant. “Can you bring them here, within the hour?”

“I can bring them now. They’re waiting for me to come for them.”

Three pounds divided two ways made thirty shillings. That would keep Tom in spicy ale and bouncy women for a week or two at least.

“Good,” Bacon said. “But don’t count your earnings yet.”

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