Murder at the Foundling Hospital: An addictive historical Victorian mystery (A Tate and Bell Mystery Book 3) by Irina Shapiro

Author:Irina Shapiro [Shapiro, Irina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Storm Publishing
Published: 2024-10-21T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-SIX

Back when Sebastian had been a young bobby, spending his days patrolling the streets of London and walking from place to place because he couldn’t afford to spend money on cabs, he had thought that one day he might appreciate the knowledge he’d gleaned from traversing the city. He’d always been curious and liked to learn about the history of various landmarks and the stories behind the more colorful names. He supposed he’d got that from his father, who loved history and would tell Sebastian and Simian stories about epic battles, clever alliances, and disastrous royal marriages. Simian had been bored out of his mind and used to whine endlessly, but Sebastian had loved all that intrigue and adventure. He realized now that his father had left out the more gruesome parts, of which there were many, and played up the heroics to make the stories more appealing to two small boys who had the attention span of a gnat. Sebastian could trace his desire to become a policeman back to those stories, told by the fire on cold winter nights. And perhaps it was those stories that had kindled Simian’s need to live a life in which nothing changed but the seasons.

As he left the Yard, Mary Skelton’s drawing in hand, Sebastian knew precisely where he was headed. Had Mary drawn a treasure map and used an X to mark the spot she could not have been clearer. There was only one place in London that sprang to mind—Bleeding Heart Yard. The yard was just off Greville Street and was thought to have been named after an inn that had been located in nearby Charles Street in the days before the Reformation. There had been nothing notable about the inn, except the ancient wooden sign that hung above the entrance and depicted the bleeding heart of the Virgin Mary skewered by five swords.

The inn was long gone, and so was the sign, but the name had stuck because the cobbled yard that still bore the name had played a role in another colorful legend. While walking the beat in Holborn his second year in London, Sebastian had heard the story of Lady Elizabeth Hatton, whose body had been found in Bleeding Heart Yard some two hundred years before, her limbs torn asunder, her heart still pumping blood, and her skull bashed against the pump that stood near the entrance to the yard. The murder had never been solved—the culprit had melted into the night—and although Lady Elizabeth had got a fine burial, like all unexplained happenings, the tale had taken on a life of its own over the years and been embellished in the telling.

The story had evolved to accuse Lady Hatton of witchcraft, the storytellers talking of a bargain that had been struck with the Devil to expand her power. But Lady Elizabeth had grown too ambitious and hadn’t wanted to mind her master anymore. Never had a mortal been able to outwit the Devil, for such was

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