Art in the Blood by Bonnie MacBird

Author:Bonnie MacBird
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780008129682
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2015-07-15T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

First Look

s the Earl set off with Holmes towards his private museum in the Palladium Hall, I was invited to join Boden and Strothers for a cigar and cognac in the smoking room. But as our brief talk of guns and hunting moved into industrial matters, I grew restless. Genial as Strothers was, Boden made me uncomfortable and the discussion of productivity and shipping issues quite bored me. Making my apologies, I feigned fatigue, and took my leave.

Thankful to be alone, I decided to do some investigating. In retrospect this was a mistake, my first of the evening. I hoped to encounter Pomeroy, and perhaps continue the conversation Holmes had started. After serving our dinner, the servants were probably gathered in the kitchen eating their own late supper, I reasoned.

Heading in that direction, I took a back staircase and which led to a far less ornate section of the house with dark wainscoting and simple plaster walls, lit dimly by intermittent gaslight, turned down low. I reached a rear door to the pantry when I struck gold. Nellie and Pomeroy were two feet away from me, hidden in a walk-in cupboard. They were locked in a tearful embrace and I slipped behind a door to listen. Holmes had been right about them.

‘Freddie, Freddie,’ the girl sobbed. ‘Can’t we leave tonight?’

‘Steady, Nellie. Don’t let Dickie threaten you. I need another day is all.’

‘But he’s about to tell them about us! I feels it!’

Pomeroy sighed. ‘We’ll be fine. It’s Emil and the Lady I’m fearin’ for.’

‘Leave it, Freddie. You could go to gaol!’

‘But the Lady is as scared as we are! I have to help her.’

Lady Pellingham was afraid? But of whom, and why? Suddenly I felt the awful prickle of being watched. I turned slowly. Mason stood at the end of the hall, staring at me. He was not close enough to hear, but he had certainly seen me listening.

‘Hello there,’ I said. ‘I am looking for some warm milk. I am preparing Lord Prendergast’s evening medications,’ I said loudly, hoping to warn the two young people.

It went quiet behind the door. Mason approached me sternly. ‘You may always ring for what you need.’ A tiny pause. ‘Sir.’

‘Ah, you’ve found them!’ came Holmes’s shrill Prendergast voice.

Jeffrey appeared, wheeling Holmes along the corridor. It was excellent timing.

‘And Mason, what an astonishing collection your employer has acquired. I am in seventh heaven!’ continued my friend. ‘I look forward to studying it at length tomorrow.’

‘My lord,’ said Mason stiffly with a small bow. He turned to Jeffrey. ‘The Earl, Jeffrey?’

‘He has retired, sir. I notified his valet.’

‘I must attend one last time to the Earl,’ said Mason. ‘But before I do, may I escort you to your rooms?’

‘The Earl mentioned an exquisite Vigée Le Brun in your front hall that I would like to see before I retire,’ said Holmes. ‘Dr Laurel is used to this obsession of mine. We can find our way back.’

‘It is a difficult house to navigate in your condition, my lord.

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