The Devil's Feast by M.J. Carter

Author:M.J. Carter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2017-03-27T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

The committee is ready for you, sir,” said the footman.

“I shall be a moment,” I told him. “They will be voting on whether to dismiss Soyer,” I said to Blake. “What shall I say?”

He turned me round and began to brush down my shoulders and my lapels. “Do you think he should be dismissed?”

“No.” Then, “I do not know. My instincts say that it would be an injustice. But there is a chance that it might all stop if he were gone. Then again, it might not.”

“Do you think finding the culprit will be easier if he is gone?”

“Of course not.”

“Then he needs defending.”

“And who am I to do that?”

“You’re a hero with real decorations. Most of these men have spent the last twenty years on their arses. Lay it on with a trowel. Remind them that if they cut the head off they haven’t cured the body, they’ve killed it.”

He was still fussing over my lapels. I pushed him away. “Blake, you are not my actual valet!”

He clicked his teeth. “Have you seen yourself?”

I said, “Your mustache is askew.”

• • •

THERE WERE APPROXIMATELY twenty men in the room, most in middle age, heads short of hair but faces with graying whiskers, each man vehemently arguing with another. It was like a convention of bad-tempered, frock-coated uncles. Lord Marcus was holding hard to the shreds of a smile but was unable to quieten his fellow committee members. Mr. Molesworth, as usual, looked amused. Captain Beare was smug, and the flabby-faced Mr. Ellice looked fretful and angry. To one side, listless and useless, stood Mr. Scott.

Lord Marcus raised his hands to plead for quiet.

“Gentlemen, as I said, we have already taken steps to resolve the predicament in which we find ourselves. Two days ago, we secured the services of Captain William Avery, of whom many of you will have heard. I have every confidence that he will swiftly discover the root of our troubles.”

“He has not done very well so far!” someone called out.

“Who is Captain Avery to address us thus?” said another.

Mr. Ellice levered himself from his chair and, almost proprietorially, propelled me forward with his haunch-like arm. “Perhaps you would introduce yourself?”

Wincing a little, I listed my accomplishments.

“Did you not have a colleague?” someone shouted. “A man with one eye?”

“No, with one finger?”

“Yes. Mr. Blake, I am afraid—”

“—Mr. Blake is unavailable,” Lord Marcus interceded.

“The other characteristic of Captain Avery, of course,” said Mr. Molesworth, “is that he is a Tory.”

There was a surge of grousing and griping. Lord Marcus Hill eyed Molesworth crossly.

“Captain Avery has an excellent reputation, for discretion as much as for the success of his inquiries,” he said. “Would you not have us secure the services of the best?”

“If he is a Tory, he should not be within the perimeters of this club at all!”

There were a number of “ayes.” Someone shouted, “When was the last time you discussed politics within the perimeters of this club? I should say never! You are always far too intent on your dinner!”

A guffaw of laughter.

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